The never ending task list

Blogging is such a multi faceted business, particularly if you’re earning a living from it. The hard part is finding a balance, and doing enough of each aspect to keep them all ticking along.

Image: Felixco, Inc. / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In the last hour, I’ve:

Sent and received email

Made a few comments

Sent some Tweets

Read a few posts

Listened to a Third Tribe broadcast

Taken a phone call

and I’ve written this post

That’s in one hour! I’ve never worked in a job before where you need to switch from one thing to another so fast. And one of the biggest problems with blogging is that you never get to the end. I can honestly say in more than a year as a full time blogger I have never sat at my desk and thought “What shall I do next?” without having at least half a dozen things burst into my brain.

The problem is, you’ll find over time that you become good at some of those tasks, and not so good at others. I’m quite good at, and therefore enjoy, commenting on other blogs. I could do it all day long! I’m not so good at writing guest posts, so in the past, I tended to avoid doing them. I’m convinced my blog traffic hasn’t grown as it could have because of that.

I wish I had a magic answer, a clever little app I could install for you. But I don’t. The only solution is to write a plan each day and then stick to it. It takes self discipline, but over time it will become a habit.

It will mean you at least have half a chance of achieving all the things you want to, and occasionally you’ll even get to cross off the last item, and go and chill out with a beer!

How do you solve this problem?

Some other posts for you:

1/ Glossary of blogging terms

2/ How does Clickbank work?

3/ Using Drupal as a blogging platform