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How often do you have the good intentions of sitting down and doing some serious batching of your content, or pinning or even writing email sequences? If you’re like me, then it’s probably pretty often, except it never quite goes the way you want it to do it? You end up scrolling through Instagram or checking your google analytics, or even something completely unrelated to your blog after a little while. I was always looking at how to improve productivity when I found I wasn’t getting enough done.
I get it, like totally! Luckily for you, I’ve got 7 amazing programs that improve your productivity and helps to free up precious time. Most of these programs are free as well (there are a couple of paid options). I would only ever recommend something that I have used myself and found helpful.
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Reasons for being unproductive when blogging
- Our phones
- Children
- Family
- everyday life
I get it, I do! Sometimes other things just seem more important, or you think you’re not wasting time. I have been there, done that and still do it!
Sometimes, you just need to say no. If your kids are old enough to get themselves a drink or dinner, then make them do that occasionally. If your family is hounding you nearly every weekend to do something, politely decline every once in a while. And you know what? Instagram, emails, facebook etc, it will all still be there after you have got your task done.
There are some things that we cannot predict or help that’s ok. Just remember that when you have the power to control when you can be ultra-productive, do it.
How can we fix this?
Certain blogging tasks take up more time than we would like. I hate manual pinning, I get bored and my concentration ends up wandering…usually to Instagram.
That’s where automation tools and programs that can schedule things for you are a bloody lifesaver. They save you time, and you can do it once a week (or month) and then leave it till next time. This leaves more time for some serious content creation or whatever it is you need to do.
How to Improve Productivity with Automation and Scheduling Programs.
Tailwind
This is honestly something that I couldn’t live without. With 2 kids, online business and generally busy life, I don’t have time to sit down and manually pin every day.
So, with Tailwind I dedicate half a day for scheduling as many pins as I possibly can. If you haven’t tried this amazing scheduler out yet, then you can get started for FREE right here. I have also written an in-depth review of how Tailwind saved me some serious time as well as boost my traffic a massive amount. Click below to read it.
How Tailwind Boosted my Productivity and my Traffic.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp gets some negative reviews because it is a little clunky (although better now) and you only get the free option up until 2000 subscribers. For someone who is just starting up, Mailchimp is the best place to start building your email list. There are a lot of ways you can make Mailchimp work for you, and one of those is its automation feature which you never used to get on the free plan. This means you can write your emails, schedule them and then forget about them.
Buffer
A smart social media tool that you can use for Instagram, it will also auto-post so that you don’t have to rely on seeing a notification prompting you to manually post. Use the free plan to schedule up to 10 Instagram posts at one time. This is great if you know you’re not going to get a chance to post or if you have a lot of other things to do. My number 1 tip? Use the desktop version to schedule just your images, then download the app to go back and add your captions and hashtags. It means it’s a task you can complete when you don’t have your computer, boosting productivity and streamlining your time.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is another social media scheduler. As with all of the products I have recommended, Hootsuite also has a free version. You can have up to 3 social profiles linked and 30 messages scheduled at one time. Hootsuite links with Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and LinkdIn. If you are looking for a product that you can easily manage more than one social media account, then Hootsuite is probably for you. With its auto-post features that are now active, it makes it even easier to keep on top of tasks and improve productivity.
How does this improve productivity?
These programs are excellent ways when you are looking at how to improve productivity in your business. They save you heaps of time that you can then spend on other tasks that have been stressing you out. Or they free-up time that you can spend with your family instead of glued to your laptop 9 days a week. Yup, that’s right, 9 days a week!
Still, think you need a little more help with your self-control? Don’t you worry, I have found some great (and FREE) desktop extensions that will help your self control and make sure you stay focused.
Desktop extensions that can improve productivity
Chrome- Stay focused
This free plugin is exclusively for Chrome users. It allows you to increase your productivity by limiting the amount of time you can spend on different websites that you waste your time on. You set an allotted amount of time that you can look at those websites and after that runs out. You are blocked for the rest of the day. Not a bad technique of how to improve productivity!
mac- self-control
Now, if you’re a Mac user, you can use a similar app called ‘Self Control’. Appropriately named I think! Helps you with just that, self-control. With this, you set an amount of time you want to be blocked from those websites for. Once that time if up, you get access to them again. Perfect for if you want to time block to get a certain task done.
Need a bit more help with how to improve productivity?
Get Chaos Organized
This is a little gem that I came across in 2019’s Genius Bloggers Toolkit from Ultimate Bundles. The title in itself appealed to me. I am CHAOS! and I damn well need to get organised! Plus, I’m a mum blogger. Kristene (the wonderful lady that created this course) seemed to answer all the questions I was asking myself daily. How can I balance my work and my kids, and get that balance right? How to work WITH my children as well as some super helpful lessons on how to improve productivity with planning, scheduling and batching tasks.
This isn’t just another blogging course, Get Chaos Organized aimed at mums like us. It helps us learn and understand how to blog while raising our family and being present as a mum while we rock our online businesses.
I can’t recommend this course enough if you’re struggling with finding the time to do everything that we mums need to do in a day. Kristene will truly give you tools that you can use in every aspect of your life.
So how are you going to improve your productivity? Are you going to invest in a Pinterest scheduler like Tailwind? Or maybe have a look at some desktop extensions you can use to block those time-sucking websites we all love so much.
Whatever it is, I would LOVE to know. Tell me in the comments below.