9 blog things to do when you don't want to write

I’m having one of those days where I just don’t want to write the post. Well, at least not the post that Ive been paid to write and should be working on. But, Little Man is asleep and I have the short window to be productive so my mind is rolling through – what are some blog things I could be doing even when I don’t want to write?

Clean up files on your computer: sort folders and files – archive stuffIf you are anything like me, you are a digital hoarder, but I’m learning that much like my brain, that stuff takes up memory space. My computer is getting slower, I don’t have a standard rhythm to move things or duplicate things to my external harddrive, and I’m worried with a non-cloud space back up that if something happened to these two devices I would loose all my pictures. And only half way through my guys first year of life, that’s already a super scary thing.
I’ve already learned a method from Mix and Match Mama where I download from my phone and organize my photos by month and then events. I’m pretty good at the first of each to do that. I’ve done it for 2 years now and it really works as an organization tool for my personality type. But, some months I’m just lazy and move them off my phone and on to my computer and then move along. And, I’ve been taking pictures for more than 2 years, so I have a lot more organization too.

Also, this hoarding issue. How much do I really keep? How much do I keep on my computer? How much do I transfer to my external hard drive? How long to I keep them on my phone? How many of the same picture do I keep and for how long? And really, is this the best thing to do with my time?

I’ll take some advice here on what you guys do to solve this picture back up issue. And, do you have tools and methods that you use along the way to stay on top of this stuff? It seems like it would be way easier to just do once a month and move along. And again, this cloud storage issue. I currently use Flkr but not all my stuff is there and at what point do I run out of space?

Research – do your homework in a few key areas:
- writing topics – there are a lot of great methods to do this and a lot of people way smarter than me than can tell you how…just read and listen to their suggestions – Blog Millionaire, Neil Patel, Boss Girl Creative, others on my Pinterest board.
- changes to social algorithms – Businessese HQ are a new podcast for me, but they are on top of their stuff – always Boss Girl Creative, there may be others. Just know your stuff and if you need to adjust any of your rhythms, formulas, steps for posting, etc
- update plugins – Are there updates you’ve put off, integrations that you’ve been waiting to set in place, or new plugins that are available that could put in place to take away repetitive steps?
- maybe you’ve been looking to monetize – this could be a great day to chase that rabbit hole. I don’t have any advice here… its a rabbit hole I need to chase. But, I will say after listening to this podcast yesterday, I may instead need to chase building a course for greater impact for the long haul.
- are you all up to day on GDPR , email list securities, privacy policies? Just make today the day. Again Businessese HQ and Boss Girl Creative are 2 who break it down easy. There are lots of podcast and a bajillion more tools on the interwebs if you need to know more.
- tools you could be using to make things better for you in production or your customer in consumption- If you run a podcast do you need a new microphone, is there a better way to record your guest, do you need new editing software, are there parts of your process you could outsource or hire a virtual assistant for?
Run Analytics – now chances are if you don’t want to write, then you don’t want to use the hard parts of your brain so this may be off the list too, but it could be a day where crunching numbers and digging in to reports is what would make your heart soar (says the total, self-admitted, nerd at heart). Are all your things in place and working properly – Google Analytics, Search Console, Ad Words. Do you have extra tools in place and need to look at them?Get your latest numbers in your head so you know if your current strategies are working or if you need to do something else.

Brain Dump – yes, I know you have a visual picture in your head. Odds are, I just changed a dirty diaper which is why that’s probably the word that came to mind. But, seriously, do it. Just find a space to put all the things swirling around in your head. I find that usually when I don’t want to write, its because I’m distracted by 30 other things or I’m afraid to focus on one thing for fear that I’ll forget all the other things swirling in my head.I have 2 methods going at all times. I have a Word document that I keep open or save and reopen when an idea comes to my mind. I usually have an outline or an opening for a new post and I just need to get it out while the fire is hot and its coming to me. I always find my better posts are one I just get on to paper and come back and finesse. If I wait, I loose it and if I force it later, it just never comes off like I want it to. Sometimes I’ll do these outlines or brain dump in the dashboard of WordPress and just save it as a draft. But I find I forget to go back to those. So, unless it’s a reoccurring theme or something I know I”ll see in my dashboard, I usually just keep it in my ongoing word doc. (that’s actually how I wrote this post… I was having an “I don’t wanna” type afternoon and the idea for this came to me, so I just started writing – bad grammar, misspellings, VERY ROUGH outline and then I came back and put some muscle on the bones)
My other method is in the notes in my phone. When I’m out and about or in the car I will often start a new note and include links, random ideas to chase or thoughts to complete. Because I do so much of this, my notes are often like that drafts dashboard. So, I will often email those thoughts to myself and leave them unread to act on when I’m in front of my computer again. OR, I’ll move them to my “writing ideas” folder. If its something I want to develop, I’ll move it out of that email to the Word document and come back to it.

I don’t know that any one method works best over another, I’ve just learned that you have to be consistent in your method and stick to it. My ways are a little old school, but I know myself and I know email, minimized documents, and steno pad to do lists are my jam and keep me productive. You might be an Evernote queen or OneDrive guy or like the task list in Outlook or you phone. Anything works – again its just consistency and something you can maintain.

Editorial Calendar – this is the part I’m not great at. Other than having an actual printed out calendar where I write down once I have something scheduled, I’m not awesome at the Editorial Calendar. I’d like to get better at it and its actually something I should put as a middle of the month project to do where I’m looking 2 months down the road for inspiration and topics,but I’m not there yet.If I were, here are some of the things I”d include:

What’s sitting in drafts?
What have you emailed yourself about and moved to you “writing ideas” folder?
What’s on the Word doc or the notepad on your phone?
What holidays or bizarre holidays are coming up in the next 2 months?
What old content ( more than 12 months old) could I update or repurpose in to a new post?
What cooking things or trips did I take pictures of and never do anything with?
What topics are trending or are missing content on the web and could be easy opportunities for me to get in front of a niche market?

Work on the intangibles:
- Schedule some pins in tailwind fill up your que. Are all of your set up policies working for you and automatically doing what you originally established or intend to be done? If so, get some stuff in the que – look at link ups for the communities you are part of, make sure all the pictures in your posts are optimized.
- Learn something new about the design tool or platform you use. Take an e-course or go watch some recently uploaded training videos to YouTube about those tools.
- Listen to the webinar replay in your inbox that you never have time for.
- Do a quick brand once over. Is your logo and profile picture updated in all places, do you need to change out cover photos? Have you made any changes to your landing page in a while?
- If you do a podcast tied to your blog or personal brand, are there any non-seamless tasks that you need to clean up or have been putting off that would make things run better in the background. Maybe update your intro, pick the right piece of music, record an ad, or learn something new about editing that would make for a better experience for your listeners.
- Clean up descriptions on low performing pins that you were proud of and thought would do something but haven’t. Don’t spend a ton of time, but set them up for better search or maybe change out the picture
Blog Maintenance – a few basic tasks could push you forward. You are learning new things all the time and who has the time to go back to all your hold posts and apply that knowledge. I know I don’t. I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years. That’s a lot of posts (689 to be exact) to go back and apply all the things I learned. But, I know that some of that old content could resurface if I did a little bit to it. And, maybe prioritized what’s out there to be done.

Have you changed categories on your blog, but not updated old posts to those categories?
Do you have posts that are uncategorized? Do you need to set some defaults for these moving forward?
Did you change themes and an old theme didn’t have featured images or a different size featured image? This is a big one for me. I even used to have a signature and that is on so many old posts.
Are there old posts that don’t have a pinnable graphic included? Look at your analytics. What are your top 20 posts? Are all of them up to snuff and set up to optimize most in this new theme you are using? I just added this one to my upcoming week to do list. And frankly, it will probably be something I just chip away when I’m able. Or maybe Friday mornings, I could set a work date at a local coffee shop with designated time just for this.
Alt Text – just do it! If you are not putting all text on images, you need to start. This is a behind the scenes way that can help your site SEO. Its also what shows up when someone tries to pin your post using any pictures. It just helps and its 2018 , you should always be doing this! Again, go back to your popular posts or when you add new pictures and update those posts, make sure you add in the alt text then. (again, on my own to do list!)
Do you have defaults settings turned on for each post? Things like permalink or automatic pinning or posting to your social feeds? Do you know which image it pulls and are those set and optimized? Please don’t hear me say go tackle all 689 posts. But, look at your analytics and make sure your posts that are popular and posts you have linked out on other platforms are in their best shape. I’m part of an online community and each week we are able to add posts to a link up. Sometimes they are for a topic or even a couple weeks ago they had us go back to this same month last year. I made sure before I put a link out from a few years ago that it reflected all the things I know it needs to for 2018. That often means adding a pinnable graphic, using my Yoast SEO plug in for optimization, deleting a signature that was part of my previous theme. Just all the little things I know its needs before it resurfaces.
Update your If This Then That (IFTTT) formulas to help you do repetitive tasks you could eliminate. I was intr4oduced to this great tool several years ago. I know I could probably be using it more. But, for now I have several formulas in place that do social media sharing for me when a post automatically drops and then I can go back and do the optimization steps later.

Organize your work space – I promise you, it will improve your productivity. I could tell you at this very moment what is in what pile on my desk. In college I worked for the Athletic Director and he would call me sometimes and say, “go to my desk to the pile with the golf postcard on top, about ¾ the way down is a pink paper and it has a phone number on it, what’s that number?” It would blow my mind that he knew exactly where it was and more times than not, it was exactly where he would ask me to look. I kind a feel the same way about my desk. But, I know if its chaotic, then my brain will be chaotic processing the things I’m trying to work on when my area is not clean or organized. I try on Fridays to do a little housekeeping, but if I don’t work on a Friday or I’ve put it off for too long, its time to pull out the file folders, combine all the to do notes, and put everything back where it goes (or, in its home as I like to call it).

Develop your to do list strategy – I live by a to do list. I kinda always have. But, after chemo and then mom brain, I know if its not written down, then it doesn’t happen. But, that means lots of different papers from different phone conversations or personal brain dumps begin to find their way all over my work space. Some have mark throughs. Some have the same thing written down multiple times because I was afraid I would forget it. Some are bullet points, some are checkboxes. Some are written on lines and some are sideways or upside down in a tiny little spot I found to write. I was getting tired of this, so I again made a Word document that I can just keep and update. When I worked in fundraising and had multiple events I was working with at any given time, I found for me these sections helped me stay organized with all the big umbrella projects in bold and the specific tasks for each area in bullet points beneath each heading. At other times, I’ve used a “must, maybe, if” concept to keep myself organized. Whatever method you choose, again consistency and something you can maintain for the long haul is your best method. And, you can always adjust when something isn’t working. And, some weeks, I do a one pager where I take specific tasks and put them on individual days so I don’t get so overwhelmed. KNOW THYSELF and just put something in place to keep yourself consistently organized. And, if that doesn’t work, do a reset and try something new.
Clean out a drawer and move items to recycle bin. I find sometimes that the most fulfilling step in organization is deletion. Pick a drawer (not the whole desk) and just clean it out, throw away trash, recycle what you can, and just get it all out of your way and make it functional. I’m a pack rat and a hoarder, but if you are just holding on to something because, scan it and keep an electronic copy and get rid of the rest. I have boxes of files in my garage from old jobs where I saved something in case I ever did that job again and needed to see my ideas. Odd are the needs of my customers will change, the time will change and our methods will be different, or please dear Lord, I’m better at something and don’t need my first lousy idea any way.
- I will say one of the things that always takes up drawer space is notes from old conferences. Maybe look through them and add some things that stood out to your to do list or dream space. Scan the notes if you still think you will reference them. But, again in this kind of digital age what you took away from a conference 5 years ago is probably not applicable any more. And, if it is then start employing the idea or move along.
Get out some pledge and dust the cobwebs off the place. That may be exactly what you need for your mental dusting too. Get your place in order for mental productivity as well. And the scent of lemon or fresh linen always makes a place seem brighter and viewed with a clean slate.

NOTHING. It may just be that your brain needs to rest.

Change locations – go read, go for a sonic run, get outside,
Get inspired – read a book, look at a magazine, scroll through Pinterest or go on a field trip to investigate a place that brings you inspiration
Encourage your community – call someone, write a note, go give some comment love. I find most often that changing the focus off of me and on to others often recharges me more than I know.

These are just 9 things I can think of in the moment that you could do when you don’t feel like writing. Some are helpful to your blog, some offer dream space and tackling the things you always put off, and others offer a chance to connect with others and get out of the digital space and look at the rest of your life that is so important.

What we do is fun; it invigorates us and gives us a new challenge every day. But, it is isolating and it causes us to easily become narcissistic and internally reflective. I find myself thinking it’s the end of the world when I don’t have time to write or work on a blog post and let’s not even talk about the lack of time to take care of all the other things that are so vital to making my written word land any where. STOP, take a breath and remember a principle that I’ve learned from my husband who works for a poultry company – at the end of the day, it’s just a box of chicken. I heard Taylor Bradford reflect on this in a recent podcast. There are just times we have to take a breath and realize we do really great work. But, at the end of the day it does not define us and we can hit pause for a while or even walk away if that’s what we need to do.