Top 10 Time Management Blogging Mistakes

Most seasoned bloggers would agreed that they have committed some time management mistakes during their blogging heyday. Those mistakes may not be fatal but potentially could lengthen their blogging objectives.

Time management is not as simple as maintaining a calendar and to-do list. Even with optimal effort your time management attempts can fail. If you delayed in your blogging target, it either cost you more money or more time. Thus, to avoid similar pitfalls, check the common time management blogging mistakes below:

Top mistakes that blogging make (including myself) are:

Time Management Mistake #1 - Being a slave to your BlackBerry or Mobile Phone

Multitasking when it's not effective. You know you have become a slave to your blackberry or cell phone when, almost every time it rings or buzzes, you jump and answer it. Cell phones and mobile email systems can be wonderful tools, but only as long as your control them (i.e. you decide when and how you will pick up and answer). Otherwise, they become a phenomenal time waster eating up to several hours a day. And when it comes to blogging, you don't have all day to blog, unless you are professional blogger.

Time Management Mistake #2 - Working by emergency

Most blogger with day job feel overwhelmed with their desk job and hardly find time to update their blog. More often than not, it turns out that those bloggers work by emergencies. In other words, they take care of the things that scream at them the most and forget about the less urgent tasks until they, in turn, become emergencies. The problem is that most emergencies don’t start out as emergencies, they start out as projects or tasks on a to-do list, that got pushed back until something happens to transform them into emergencies. Furthermore, when taken care of before they become emergencies, they often require less time, energy and resources that they do as full-fledged emergencies. Stopping work by emergencies to take care of your projects in a timely manner makes a dramatic difference in your available time – not to mention your stress. Bottom line is that, less time spend on emerging, more time you can spend on your blog.



Time Management Mistake #2 - Not sleeping enough

This might sound surprising in a list of time management mistakes list, but the fact is that sleep is critical to making the most of your time. When tired, we all think and do things more slowly, and are much more likely to make mistakes. Studies have actually shown that sleep deprivation has effects very similar to alcohol. It would never occur to us to get drunk on the evening before an important client presentation, yet we don’t think twice about staying up until two or three in the morning to finish the presentation handouts. The result the next morning is not much different, except for the hangover and zero time even to visit your own blog.

Time Management Mistake #4 - Not using a task list, or using an inappropriate one

Not getting your priorities straight. Leaving it to your memory. No check list or check list which is too long. Most task lists don’t work because they are too long or too short; not prioritized; too complicated; or simply in the wrong format or medium for their user. On the other hand, a well thought-out task list, adapted to your needs and style, is an extraordinarily effective tool to plan, prioritize, save time and increase your effectiveness. Quick example: A blogger was spending about an hour each day updating their overlong task list, never finishing their priorities. Solution? Reorganize and reprioritize your task list and the update time should be shorten, thus improving your effectiveness in your work and blogging.

Time Management Mistake #5 - Not taking time to sit back and look at the big picture

Being disorganized. No matter your day job, it is very easy to get caught up in the “doing” of things, and consider thinking time a waste, “because there are so many things to do.” Yet taking a step back on a regular basis to assess the big picture of your life, career, or current project, and taking some time to plan your next steps, before diving back in the daily grind, makes all the difference between being busy (i.e. doing a lot of things) and being effective (i.e doing the things that matter), even on a day-to-day basis.

Time Management Mistake #6 - Not taking time to relax

Taking on too much. Working non-stop. Sufficient sleep is necessary, but not enough to ensure that you function at your best, and make the most of your time. Providing your mind with rest is just as important to effective time management. By not giving your brain breaks from work on a regular basis to do completely different things – engaging in fun activities that have nothing to do with work or obligations – you slowly lower our performance level, always resulting in much lower performance (hence more hours at work to achieve the same results) and sometimes ending in mental burn-out.

Time Management Mistake #7 - Ignoring your own time management style

There is no such thing as one-size-fits all in time management, but the different styles and the corresponding techniques are not widely taught. So you most likely learned your time management skills from our parents, a teacher, a mentor. If this person had the same time management style as you, you learned and improved your skills. But if this person had a different style, no matter how much you tried, you never were able to replicate their habits successfully, and probably blamed yourself for it. Don’t… All you did was try to use for yourself a solution that is not adapted to who you are. Learning your personal style will allow you to develop tools and strategies that actually work for you.

Time Management Mistake #8 - Reinventing the wheel

There are also too many blogging trying to re-invent the wheel on a regular basis. Too many don’t take the time to sit down, think through a procedure for activities and tasks that they perform on a regular basis. As a result, every time they need to re-create the whole process, again and again. Taking a few extra minutes to think it through and create a written procedure or checklist can save you untold amounts of time. It could prepare you better for the next tasks.

Time Management Mistake #9 - Not delegating enough

This is one of the most common, and most time-consuming time management mistakes I see. You have built your business on your own; or you have built a career based on your ability to get things done. You now have resources to delegate, but you still perform many tasks that would be more profitably and/or effectively done by others. As a result, you waste time on tasks such as filing, or packing, or drafting letters. You’re also wasting money in the process: if your hourly rate is $100/hour, it is the same whether you are in front of a client or filing your papers. By delegating tasks that can easily be done by others, you are freeing time for you to do more of the things that only you can do, and using your resources much more effectively.

Time Management Mistake #10 - No emergency planning

According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2006 a building caught fire every 60 seconds or every day in America. In other words, most people will be directly affected by a fire in their lifetime. Unfortunately most people don’t have a plan to deal with such an event, and will waste enormous amounts of time, money, stress and effort in trying to recover from it. When life’s smaller emergencies strike, it’s often the same: there is no set plan B, or even plan C, if their child falls sick the evening before an important meeting, or if they themselves fall sick right before a critical deadline at work. Having a backup plan in your real life or blogging life, on the other hand, allows you to immediately spring into action and deal with the emergency effectively and quickly, then be able to move on without stress.

How many of those time management mistakes do you make?

Related posts:
* 10 Time Management Mistakes to Avoid
* Top 10 Time Management Mistakes


Photo: elearners.com