How I Plan My Life As A Part-time Blogger

I like to call myself a part-time blogger for two reasons. One, because I have a full-time job that takes up most of my time! And two, because I look at my blog and social media accounts as a job, and since I can’t do it full-time (at least, not yet), I call it my part-time job! 

Blogging and creating content can get pretty difficult when working full-time. There are only so many hours in the day and obviously, there are things I like to do outside of work that isn’t blogging! So, having an effective plan is crucial! 

If you are on this blogging journey with me or are thinking about starting, let’s chat about time management and how I plan my time as a full-time worker and part-time blogger! 

Disclaimer: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my blog!

Where all my time goes 

So, the most obvious answer to this is that all my time goes to my full-time job!

However, when I really started paying attention to my time I realized I had a lot more than I thought. 

A lot of my time WAS going to scrolling on social media, watching TV, and reading. Now, I still do all of those things but I do them a bit less!

This is a typical day in my life as a part-time blogger:

5am– wake up

5:30am– promote my blog in Facebook groups/ answer DMs on Instagram 

6am– get ready for work 

7am– leave for work

7:45am– work starts 

12pm– lunch time! Sometimes use this time to post to social media, update stories, etc. 

4pm– off work

5pm– home from work

5:15pm– workout (not every day)

6pm– make dinner, clean up the house, and hang out with my partner 

7pm– start wind down routine (bath, set clothes out for next day, skincare, etc.)

7:15pm– nightly bath where I work on blog posts, answer emails, get social media posts ready to go, etc. 

8pm– continue to work on the blog if mentally able/ read 

9pm– get into bed + relax

As you can see, every day I do find some time to work on my blog. However, most of the work happens on the weekends or days off! 

I try my best to set aside a few hours on Saturday or Sunday to schedule posts, take pictures, film TikToks, and do everything else I need to do!

Related reads:

• A Day In The Life Of A Part Time Blogger
• My Top 10 Tips For New Bloggers
• Why You Should Plan Your Content And How To Do It

How I plan everything: content 

Having a solid plan really helps with time management. If you don’t know what you need to do you will often waste time. Making sure you know what pictures you want to take, what blog posts you need to write, and having all your other ideas written down is super helpful. 

My content calendar 

I wrote a whole post on how to create your own DIY content calendar but here’s the gist…

I make my blog content calendar on Google Sheets. I typically plan month by month because that works best for me but you could plan a whole year if you wanted to! 

I include publish dates, blog titles, keywords, status, and then have a spot for notes. This system helps me stay organized with my blog posts as well as any guest posts I have coming or even guest posts/ freelance posts I’m working on for other people! 

I like to have everything in one spot so I don’t have to flip around to a physical planner, Google Sheets, and endless notebooks. 

My social media planner 

For my social media content, things are a bit more relaxed. 

I have a spot in Google Sheets for all my TikTok posts because I personally feel like I need more structure with that! 

As for Instagram, I kind of just wing it! I use the Plann app to lay out what photos I want to post. Then, I write out all my captions on the weekend so I don’t need to worry about them during the week while I’m working. 

If I have any sponsored posts that need to go up on a certain date, I typically just write that into my planner (we will get there next) so I remember to get the content ready to go. 

I also sometimes pre-record stories and save them if I know I will be too busy to record them that day! It helps with staying consistent. 

My physical planner 

When it comes to my regular life I like to have a physical planner. Right now I’m using the Clever Fox planner and I LOVE IT. 

I write anything that’s going on during the week (appointments, date nights, errands I need to run, etc.). There is also space for to-do’s, habit tracking, and notes. 

I really like keeping my content planning and my life planning separate because they can get really cluttered. It becomes easy to forget something important and I have gotten used to one being digital and one not! 

I will still keep important dates and deadlines in here for social media things (like sponsored posts, guest posts, etc.) just so I am keeping those things in my mind throughout the week!

Tips for new part-time bloggers 

Being a blogger/ content creator is not easy on a good day. When you have to balance it with a job or other responsibilities it becomes even harder! 

Remember that blogging is slow going. You won’t see results overnight which can be frustrating, especially if you are sacrificing extra time to work on it. 

It’s taken me a whole year to reach 2k page views but I’m finally seeing growth! So stick with it! If I would have given up 3 or 4 months in I never would be here now (still have a long ways to go but we all start at the beginning). 

Tip 1: Create a structured routine 

Having a set routine is super helpful when you work two jobs. You cannot just wing it when it comes to fitting in blog time. Saying you’ll get to it when you have time is the easiest way to make sure you never get to it at all. 

Whether you structure your whole day kind of like I do or you do it some other way doesn’t really matter. Just make sure you have blogging time scheduled into your routine and then stick with it!

Tip 2: Try using theme days 

It’s pretty much impossible to keep up with everything every day. You simply won’t have time to write, take pictures, make new Pinterest pins, and keep up with all your socials every single day. 

An easy way to stay consistent with everything you need to do is to designate theme days for those things! 

Make Mondays Pinterest day where you will create new pins and spend time scheduling them. Tuesdays could be writing and editing days where you spend time writing blog posts and getting them ready to be published. Wednesdays could be for photos. And so on!

Theme days are nice because you can stay on track a bit easier and gives you direction each day so you aren’t wasting time. 

Tip 3: Make use of downtime 

Do you take the train to work? Ever show up to appointments a bit too early? Waiting forever for your partner to get ready for dinner? 

All those small chunks of time add up! 

If you have 20 minutes before your dentist appointment jump into Google Docs and finish up the blog post you’ve been working on. Even if you have 10 minutes, take that time to answer a couple of emails! 

We live in a digital world. There really isn’t much excuse for not being able to work on your blog via your phone. 

This is a huge reason why I love Google Docs and Google Sheets! I can work from anywhere on my phone.

In conclusion 

It’s not easy being a part-time blogger! No one is expecting you to do it all. There is a learning curve with anything new and believe it or not, even with the internet full of bloggers, there isn’t a ton of support!

If your dream is to blog then you need to go after it. Having a full-time job IS NOT going to hold you back. It might just take a bit longer but thats okay. 

From a fellow part-time blogger, I believe in you, and remember to keep going because success doesn’t happen overnight!