Keep Your Blogging Business Together When Your Life Falls Apart

Things have been a little nuts around here. But I've managed to keep my blogging business mostly on track.

There are times when everything in my life runs like clockwork. The last two months have not been this time.

It's been a little crazy, around here, thanks to a family situation that changed the entire landscape of my month. In fact, it changed up my plans to keep on with my most recent freelance work experiment. Maintaining my blogging business under the circumstances has been a bit challenging, but I've managed.

If you find your life slowing coming to pieces, and you know you need to keep your blogging business going, here are a few things that help me get by at times like these:

Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize

I cannot stress enough the importance of prioritizing your workload. This is a skill that needs to be practiced no matter what your business entails. When I'm in a position where I don't know what the next 12 hours will bring, I tackle the most important items first. I take care of the blog post that is due next, and I take care of the higher-paying client work.

Make sure that the “must do” items are squared away first. In some cases, I have to take the work a little bit at a time. I look at my client list, and the work that needs to be done urgently, and do that as soon as I can.

You work when you can so that you can accomplish the important tasks. This doesn't leave a lot of room for relaxation, unfortunately, but it is the reality of the situation. When you have some free time, a little break in the madness, check your prioritized list of work, and complete the first task.

Schedule Ahead When Possible

One of the greatest tools for the professional blogger is a social media scheduling app. I use HootSuite, but I know others like TweetDeck, and there are plenty of other apps out there that you can use to schedule social media actions. When your life is spiraling out of control, it can help to take a few minutes and schedule your social media posts for the next day or so. This way, you are still appear engaged, and you do the promotional work that you provide for clients.

Scheduling can also work well for blogging. When you can, schedule blog posts ahead of time so that everything is still on the appropriate schedule, even if you aren't there to push the “publish” button in the moment.

It's even better if you can work ahead when you have the chance. One of the reasons that I did so well at the beginning of the most recent issue was that I had worked ahead. It was nice to be able to help where and when my family needed me, without worrying too much about whether or not I would be able to get my work done.

Unfortunately, the problem with unexpected emergencies and obligations is that you don't always know when you'll get the chance to get something done. This means that you have to work extra hard when you have a break in the action, and schedule as much as you can ahead of time.

Of course, sometimes you just end up treading water. That's happened to me in the past; I've just barely managed to get the essential things taken care of in between all the other obligations. It's never fun to be in that mode, but there are times when it's necessary.

Notify Your Clients

If things look to become enough of a problem that your schedule will be affected, you need to let your clients know what is happening. Your blogging business won't survive if you don't communicate and let your clients know what is happening with you. It's important to make sure they understand that you haven't flaked out on them.

For the most part, I've been able to manage most of my workload throughout. I'm going to have do extra work this week as the month comes to an end, but, for the most part, I've managed. There were a few clients who were more affected than others, but I did let them know what was happening and we made other arrangements for deadlines.

I have the best clients.

It's never easy to deal with unexpected personal and family issues. And sometimes you just can't keep control of your life from slipping out of your grasp. But, if you approach matters correctly, you should be able to keep your blogging business from collapsing altogether.