How do you Concentrate on Blog Work?

Summer seems to be dreadful for me when it comes to blogging. I have been blogging for over four years now and the Summer is always the quietest. I supposed everyone is enjoying the outdoors, so I don’t blame them looking at a screen reading blogs.

On top of quiet months, I also suffer from blogger’s block at the moment. It’s really dreadful. Not too long ago I was always on top of everything and managed to blog multiple times a week. However, if you look at my blog now, I get lucky to publish something once a week. Don’t get me wrong, to some of you that might be more than you post but I would like to have a consistency on my blog so people come back. There is nothing worse than blogging on different days and your readers have no idea what’s going on. Even worse, I could lose readers.

My blog is my only hobby and lately I feel like I need to pick up on it again. I need to dedicate more time to it. Life is a bit hectic at the moment but for no apparent reason. Every evening I could sit down in our office and draft up a few blog posts but I get easily distracted. Or else I am too tired from the day at work. Once I am home from work, I am off to collect the kids from creche, feed them, put them to bed, make the school lunch. It’s a long day really. Considering I work in IT, I sit in front of the PC eight hours a day already.

When there are evenings or even days I get time to blog, I get really distracted. We do have an office which is beside the kitchen and far away from the living room. So you would think concentrating should be fairly easy. It’s not though somehow. These days I much prefer sitting down watching crappy TV and have a cup of tea. I think half the problem may have been the kitten we got three months ago. She would jump on the table all the time. But since she is an outdoor/indoor cat, sitting in the office has become more of a possibility. She is so much more relaxed after spending a whole day outside.

I used to be a lot more organised. Just a few days ago I picked up on Aby’s blog again. I used to get a lot of tips from her blog posts. I’d like to have everything scheduled in my head but I do think I need to go back to scheduling ahead because I had a few occasions over the past few months where I missed a post. Particularly when it comes to deadlines I need to be on top of my work. And so I installed the calendar plug in on my WordPress. It’s going to be amazing to be able to start filling it with many posts to come.

I will also decide on days during the week I sit down in front of the PC to catch up on blog posts and other things blog related and just the office door. Weekends are the only days really I don’t feel like I need to blog. This is family time for us.

I asked a few of my fellow bloggers how they are trying to concentrate on their blog work…

Lyndsey from Me Him The Dog and The Baby: “Turn the TV off! I get so distracted and sucked in and I never end up getting anything done.”

Jemma from Have Kids Will Travel UK: “Write a list of things I want to achieve that day and a reward at the end (however small that may be). Then stick my headphones in and pop a motivational playlist on and I’m good to go!”

Becky from Mommy and Rory: “I have to give myself dedicated time slot for different activities. For example I use my lunch break at work for social media and my evenings are split between writing blog posts, replying to emails and other general admin. I know that if I stick to my rota come Saturday I can take the night off and catch up on TV without feeling guilty.”

Victoria from Lylia Rose: “I have a dedicated work space where I can sit at a desk and chair which makes me concentrate so much more on my blog. I give myself a lunch break where I’m allowed to watch something if I like. That way I look forward to my break, but work really hard both before and after it.”

Katie from Mummy’s Diary: “I’ll go in the garden with my radio on in the background, a notebook and pen and jot all my ideas down or a cafe with Wifi is a good idea too.”

How do YOU concentrate on blog work?