A Daily Schedule that Works for the SAHM Blogger

I truly believe there is nothing harder than trying to work at home with children. You are constantly pulled in many different directions and it is easy to pick and choose work tasks based on convenience than on necessity. For bloggers, the endless scroll on social media or constantly checking of your inbox most times becomes the top two "work things" completed each day, leaving a slew of other extremely important tasks you now get to accomplish once the kids are in bed and you are, well, exhausted.

I've been there, I've done that, and it doesn't work. Chances are if you are reading this, you know it doesn't work. You will easily burnout and will rarely see the fruits of your labor. You will also feel like you spend all day on your phone and I don't think this is anyone's ultimate goal especially when staying home with your children. I personally think this is why many SAHMs think it is impossible to actually succeed as a blogger - and by succeed I mean just not hate your life at the end of the day.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO BLOGGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA AS A BUSINESS, KNOW IT IS A LOT OF WORK. I don't say that to discourage you, I just want to be up front with everyone. You may even look at the schedule below and think "What in the world?!! I have to do all of that??" I don't want to discourage anyone, but I believe many people have preconceived notions about bloggers and get into social media as a business because you can just do it in your spare time. I've been actively blogging for almost 2 years now and I feel like I am just now hitting my stride. Why?? Because it is easy to get lost in the shuffle, it's easy to look at what someone else is doing and think you should do that too, it's easy to get distracted and put things off for another day because well...you are your own boss and you can. I saw all of that because I personally believe YOU CAN SUCCEED if you are honest with what you want to do and if you are willing to put in the daily work. Just know it is work.

BEFORE WE GET STARTED...

The scheduled I'm giving you is based off of my own. I currently run a blog and only focus on one social media outlet, Instagram. I also use Pinterest regularly for marketing purposes. If you have multiple social media outlets, I would first make separate posting schedules for each of them and then work those into your daily schedule. You'll see how I do it with Instagram.

I average about 4 hours of working hours daily -- and just a quick side note, these are 4 consecutive hours. Somedays are less depending on what is planned and how cooperative the kids are being, and then other days I end up working after everyone is asleep.

LET'S DIVE IN...

I do some tasks every single day and I've listed those under daily blogging tasks. Regarding what time of day I complete these: Instagram stories get done throughout the day as I have time. Some days I have scheduled activities (i.e.:recipes), but most days I just do my best to give a little look into my day. I post on social media between 6 and 6:30pm which means I engage on social media about 30 minutes before and after I post. I use my morning hours to answer DM's and emails.

DAILY BLOGGING TASKS

Story on Instagram

Post to Social Media

Engage on Social Media

Answer Emails & DM's

For everything else, I break it up into specific tasks each day.

You'll see below I start with Friday on my schedule. This is basically just to show you how I plan for the upcoming week.

FRIDAY - PLANNING DAY

Take a look at the week ahead and map your week out. This is your day to do research and plan for blogs, make notes and lists and do a rough sketch of what you plan on writing. If your blog will have links I go ahead and pull the link and any photos. Plan your Instagram content, what type of photo you want to take and the content you want to go with it. Make a list of the companies you want to work with, locate their email address, and their contact info, and plan your pitch.

The purpose for doing this is to limit the amount of time you have to spend on tasks during the week. You will be surprised how much time research alone takes!

SATURDAY - PHOTO DAY

I take my Instagram list I made on Friday and plan photos. I like to take 4 new photos each week. Usually I try and get all the pictures taken in one day, so I load up the car with multiple outfit changes and we will hit several different locations. My husband takes all of my photos and if he is in a photo we either get one of our kids to take the picture or we use a tripod.

SUNDAY - DAY OFF

I don't do any actual work on this day, other than regular social media stuff. Some days I don't do anything at all. I think we all need a refresher!

MONDAY - WRITING DAY

Mondays are my busiest day of the week. Writing requires much more focus to stay on track and the interruption of a toddler is very easily distracting and I'm constantly having to refocus myself. My biggest piece of advice is to know its gonna be a busy day. Commit to completing your tasks, know you won't get it all done in one sitting, and know that is okay. Take your list you created Friday and start writing. I usually can get about 30 minutes of uninterrupted time before I'm needed for something else. Taking a break after 30 minutes not only helps me keep Hollis from wanting me every 5 seconds, but also lets me step away and clear my own head.

Once my blogs are finished, I publish them all. I honestly can't tell you how this works with SEO so I could be shooting myself in the foot here, but for me and my schedule publishing them all at once works best.

TUESDAY - GRAPHIC CREATION AND PINTEREST DAY

Pinterest is the number one source of traffic to my blog. This is a very important day.

I start by creating graphics for the blogs I wrote on Monday. I create three different graphics for each blog, using different templates, color patterns, and engaging titles. I then pin one of each of the templates for each blog to my blog's Pinterest page and I share it among my group boards and Tailwind tribes.

I take the graphics created for the blogs of the week and share them on my Instagram stories with a swipe up.

I spend a little time live pinning. Ideally I should be live pinning everyday, but I have yet to add that to my daily schedule.

I schedule 100 pins for the week using Tailwind. I schedule all of the 9 graphics for the blogs I created to be pinned different days. I also pull a few of the past blog posts to be repinned,. When it comes to pinning someone else's content you always want to make sure their link is active and working. There is a lot of spam accounts out there that will use a popular graphic as click bait and the link will lead somewhere else completely.

I take a little time to check out my Pinterest Analytics. This helps me determine what blogs are most popular, which graphics perform better than others, and also helps me see if what I'm pinning from others is actually of any interest to my followers.

WEDNESDAY - EMAIL DAY

I first go through all the emails I sent out the previous Wednesday and will send followups to anyone I didn't receive a response from.

I then pull all the list of companies I collected on Friday and begin writing pitch emails based on their product and how I feel I can best support them. I send an average of 15 each week.

I keep all of my contacts on a spreadsheet and then make notes as I send emails, receive responses, don't receive response, land the collabs, etc.

I also do my best to plan all phone calls with companies on Wednesdays.

THURSDAY - CATCH UP DAY

It never fails, something doesn't get done during the week, so on Thursdays I play catch up. Usually its a hodge podge of stuff, nothing specific. Some weeks I may have a deadline and have to work my schedule around so for example Tuesday's work schedule will end up falling on Thursday. If I ever know I have an upcoming DIY, I plan in on Thursdays so it doesn't interfere with anything else. I think its good to have a day where anything and everything left over can fall. Its kinda of like the junk drawer of days! Just do your best to clean it out each week.

Let me know if this was helpful at all and if you think It will help you keep your blogging life on track! Good luck!