There are s a number of productivity tools for bloggers. But why only few bloggers are successful?
Have you ever thought about it?
The #1 reason is: most successful bloggers and marketers know how to effectively manage their time. They say NO to everything that distracts their way and they always focus on what matters to them. That’s how they achieve big goals.
If you feel like you are wasting a lot of time, don’t worry. I’ve some tried and proven smart productive hacks you can use as a blogger to get quicker and better results.
Are you curious to find out? Let’s get started.
Top 20 Productivity Tips for Bloggers and Marketers
#1. Work in 25 Minute Blocks
Start working in 25 minute blocks if you want to spend your time most productively. Then, take 5 minutes of break after working for 25 minutes. Continue doing it for 4 cycles (four continuous 25 minute tasks) and take a 30 minutes break after it. That way you will be most productive.
This productivity hack is also known as “Pomodoro technique”. It usually involves in 25 minutes uninterrupted work and a 5 minute break. It’s how you can get the most out of your time.
You can use pomodoro timers like Tomighty (you can get it for free), it’s a desktop timer. Once you start it, it will set the time for 25 minutes and gives you a 5 minute break after finishing the task. Try it out and see amazing results for yourself!
#2. Turn off Feeds from Facebook and YouTube
As I said earlier in the post, Internet is full of distractions especially sites like Facebook and YouTube kill 90% of your time.
So why not put a check on them?
How can you do that? Most people suggest you to deactivate your social media accounts but I won’t recommend it because it won’t work. After a week or two, you will again reactivate your Facebook account and waste your time like before.
My suggestion is to kill the news feed on both Facebook and YouTube.
You can use Kill News Feed and DF YouTube (both are free chrome extensions) to kill the news feed. It won’t show anything on your Facebook and YouTube feeds. That way you will reduce your time spent on those sites. Give them a try and thank me later.
#3. Get a Standing Desk
Every blogger writes. Each and every blogger has to create content. By sitting all the time in front of your laptop won’t give you any effective results.
To write your blog posts really faster, I’ve a great suggestion for you. Try a standing desk.
It looks something like this.
Credit: anubianlights.com
Did you see that?
By using a standing desk, you can create content more effectively. Not only that it helps you write faster (you don’t want to stand for longer times, right? So you’ll write faster) but it also reduces your body or tummy fat.
I’ve been using a standing desk myself for over 2 years now and it gives me incredible results whenever I want to write something really quickly. Try it by yourself and let me know what you think about it in the comments!
#4. Unplug Internet
The Internet is full of distractions whether you agree with it or not. The Internet is a two edged sword. If you don’t use it wisely, it will steal your hours, then weeks, months and years. That’s how majority of the people who are using the Internet do not achieving any great results. They are either wasting time on watching movies or chatting with someone across social media sites.
If you want to be a productive blogger, make sure to put limits on your Internet usage. Don’t use the sites that are killing your precious time.
Make sure to focus on what’s important for you and unplug your Internet connection while creating content for your blogs. You may ask, how would I research? You can use Docs and save all the reference links in Pocket to skim through them offline.
#5. Use Google Docs to Create Content
The #1 reason I won’t recommend you using WordPress while creating content is this: “by default, WordPress content editor is not as effective as Google Docs”.
Google Docs saves your content on the go. You can open and create content even when you are offline (if you have any Internet connectivity issues). You can’t create content offline using WordPress, can you?
So I highly recommend you to start using Google Docs to create content. Not only it gives you suggestions if you make any grammatical mistakes or typos but it will also save you a lot of time to create content really quickly.
#6. Create 3 MIT’s for the Day
Most bloggers think by creating a to-do list, they can get most of their things done. But is that true? No.
Most people fill their to-do lists with too many tasks and at the end of the day, they achieve nothing. So I recommend you NOT to use to-do lists.
Instead start using MIT’s.
MIT (Most Important Task) allows you to focus on finishing just one task at a time. By creating 3 MIT’s for the day, you are allowed to pick only the 3 most important things you should be doing for the day. And then finish off them by the end of the day.
You are more likely to achieve your goals by creating MIT’s instead of creating to-do lists.
#7. Your Working Environment Decides your Fate
Is your working desk too much cluttered? Do you eat food or snacks while sitting in front of your laptop? Then, how on earth would you possibly become a productive blogger?
Use laptop just for one purpose: for blogging! Don’t eat anything in front of it and declutter your environment especially your working desk.
If it’s messy, you won’t feel much productive. You will start procrastinating on the things and by simply changing your work environment by letting more light coming into your room, you can get amazing results.
Just remember that, no one gets better results while working in a messy and cluttered environment. Make your working environment neat, clean and as much silent as possible.
#8. Read Books on Psychology and Marketing
Pat Flynn, Derek Halpern, Brian Clark from Copyblogger, Seth Godin – what’s the ONE thing that is common in all these successful bloggers?
They all read books excessively. They are addicted to reading books. They won’t call it a day if they don’t read a book.
If you are looking for proven ways to become a productive and successful blogger, start reading books. Read books related to psychology and marketing.
Not only will they give you better ideas on turning your blog into a successful business but you will get plenty of inspiration to think big and achieve bigger results. That’s the magic of reading books.
If you are a beginner, I highly recommend you to read books like Influence, Think and grow rich, The $100 startup, The 4-hour workweek, How to win friends and influence people, Purple cow and Permission marketing.
#9. Write Every Single Day
Starting a blog is easy but making it a success is REALLY not. You need to create captivating content to make your blog profitable.
Great bloggers are great writers. Jon Morrow, Brian Clark, Seth Godin – all are great writers.
How did they become great writers?
They write every single day no matter what.
That’s how they became great writers. They create content that sells. They use persuasive words in their writings. They capture their audience’s attention with their headlines. And they ultimately sell what they want with their powerful writing.
If you want to become a great blog writer, make sure to write at least 1000 words a day. Or spend 1 hour a day writing something you are passionate about.
Great writers write every single day. The only difference between a prolific writer and an amateur is the practice. So if you want to create content that sells by itself, spend time every single day for writing.
#10. Play Soothing Music While Working
Music can do wonders. Don’t play hip hop or rock music. Play soothing music while working. Put your headphones for more effectiveness.
I also recommend that you give Calm.com a try where you can find plenty of soundtracks that makes you feel stress-free while writing or working online. I’ve been doing this practice for over 3 years now and it’s an amazing experience for me. It always allows me to be distraction-free while working online.
#11. Use the 2-Minute Rule
Most bloggers procrastinate. The reason is they don’t focus on breaking their big tasks into small chunks.
For instance, if they want to write a 2000+ word massive post, they procrastinate at it instead of finishing the first 200 words. When you break a big task into a small chunk, it will persuade you to act on it really fast.
You can get more effective results by using the 2-minute rule.
If a task takes less than 2 minutes to complete, you should finish it immediately. For instance, answering an email won’t take more than 2 minutes. Likewise, writing subheadings of a post, creating an outline for your content strategy won’t take much time.
Once you start doing things, you will tend to finish off the tasks in hand instead of procrastinating. It really works like a charm so make sure to give 2-minute rule a try!
#12. Try Cold Showers
Have you heard about cold showers? They work amazingly well especially when you are afraid of starting a new project or a big launch.
Cold showers not only increase your alertness but they act like productivity boosters and help you to start working on ANY project you are procrastinating for a long time.
If you are trying it for the first time, you can use hot water at first, then immediately you can start pouring cold water. That sudden chilled feeling can make your heart stop functioning for a second but you will get the willpower to act on anything you are afraid of after trying cold showers.
You should read more about cold shower therapy from here.
#13. Learn to Say No
Saying NO is one of the biggest productivity hacks.
99% of the people have problem saying no to others. They feel guilty when they say no and that’s why most people say yes even if they are reluctant.
There are too many distractions that come across your way as you grow as a blogger or a marketer.
Most people seek your advice or even ask you to donate money once you start growing a profitable blog that makes money. This is where you need to be cautious. You need to learn to say no to anyone even if they are close friends.
If saying no is not your cup of tea, try the following simple yet quick tips.
- If someone asks you for a favour, instead of saying yes, say “later”. You are just postponing.
- If a friend asks you to lend money, either say “later” or “I don’t lend money to anyone”. Either they will thank you for your honesty or never seek your finance help.
- Just say NO.
#14. Start Using the Productivity Tools
You can use your time wisely by having access to the RIGHT tools. By using the right set of productive tools, you can get a lot of things done faster, better and safer.
Here are few productivity tools every blogger should give a try.
- Pocket: Saves online articles, bookmarks or links for future reference. It also has the ability to save things for offline reading. Great tool for writers and bloggers.
- AdBlock: Blocks all the unnecessary ads from the websites you browse including YouTube. This can alone save you hours of time every month by simply blocking the ads from other sites so you can browse faster.
- Evernote: It’s a must have productive tool for every blogger and marketer. You can take notes or ideas on it and you can access it from anywhere (be it from your smartphone or laptop).
- LastPass: We use a lot of passwords from Gmail to Facebook to Twitter to manage our bank accounts. It’s really hard to remember the various passwords we use for online purposes, right? It is also annoying whenever you click on “Forgot my password” option from other sites. How about securing all your passwords at one place? That’s what LastPass does. It’s a powerful and widely used password manager which stores your passwords and fills your passwords automatically.
- Buffer: Buffer is an incredible way to share your posts or links on social media. It makes it super easy to share your stuff across Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc. You can also keep all your links or pages on Buffer and it will automatically share your stuff throughout the day.
#15. Outsource Your Stuff
If you are making money from your blogs, why not consider outsourcing some of your major work (that usually consumes a lot of time) such as content writing or SEO to others? That way you can save a couple of hours every day that you can use to do better things and make more money online.
You can either hire a virtual assistant or ask any one of your social media friends to start working for you. If they fit for your business, you can pay what they are worth. You can also try sites like UpWork, Fiverr, Elance etc to find people who can do stuff like design, content writing or SEO related stuff at a minimal rate.
#16. Try (10+2)*5
No, it’s not a mathematical equation, it’s an incredible productive tool for all kinds of people coined by people from 43folders.
It means, 10 minutes of work, then taking a 2 minute break multiplied by 5 (which completes exactly 1 hour).
That means you work for 50 minutes with a 10-minute break in an hour. By working for just 10 minutes, you can really focus on finishing off your tasks because it’s really a shorter period.
Then, taking a quick 2-minute break can allow you to get up from your desk, walk around it and again start working on the next 10 minute. Do it 5 times in a row, you will get unbelievable results. Why not give (10+2)*5 a try once?
#17. Reward Yourself
Most people don’t reward themselves when they finish off their tasks. You can give yourself a small treat whenever you write an exceptional post or get an incoming link from the other blogs.
By rewarding yourself when you achieve something, you are training your brain to crave more for such things. You will work like a super computer when you reward yourself often. So don’t forget to give yourself a treat after finishing your tasks.
It can be as simple as having a donut to as big as going for a long motorcycle ride. Make your treats bigger with the tasks you finish.
#18. Get up at 5 am
I know it’s really hard especially when you sleep at 2 am at night.
Getting up early has its own benefits. You can watch the sunrise, meditate for a few minutes, go for a long walk, finish off your morning rituals really quickly to start working on your projects before the world wakes up.
Mornings are mostly less distractive so you can have crystal clear focus on your most important tasks. You can also take some quick power naps ranging from 20 minutes to an hour throughout the day (at least twice) if you ever feel drowsy.
#19. Stop Thinking and Start Acting
When was the last time you quickly started implementing on your ideas? See, ideas a dime a dozen. Unless you start taking action, your ideas are worthless.
One of the top indicators of successful people is how fast they turn their ideas into execution. So make sure to start taking baby steps towards your goals or ideas instead of laying out detailed plans. Don’t try to be a perfectionist while working on something new.
Just put your step forward, make mistakes and learn things in the process. That’s how you progress, not by procrastinating.
#20. Don’t Process Your Inbox Much
Stop opening your email inbox too often. It’s one of the biggest distractions that kills your precious time. Instead of opening your inbox whenever you get a new email, process it for later.
Try checking your inbox only twice a day. After the mid noon and before going to bed. That’s how you can respond to all the important messages on the same day without having to check your inbox every minute.
Final thoughts about the smart productivity hacks YOU should know
I’ve been following the productivity tips mentioned above for a long time and I got exceptional results from them. So I would highly recommend you give some, if not all, of them a try and see the result yourself.
So what are your favourite productivity hacks? Which productivity tips for bloggers did you like from the list above? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Additional Resource Related to the Post:
4 Simple Productivity Hacks to Always Wake Up Productive
Hi, I’m Anil Agarwal, a professional blogger from New Delhi, India. I was doing blogging part time but recently started taking blogging as my full-time hobby, passion, career and a way to earn money from my blogging skills. I’m having a master degree in computers and I got the motivation to start BloggersPasion blog after seeing the success of some of the leading blogs in blogging and make money online niches like Problogger, ShoeMoney, and JohnChow.