My typical day looks very different during fashion week versus, basically, all other days of the year. I’m pretty sure almost everyone I meet is convinced I just sit around on the couch all day, write a few articles here and there and just eat ice cream from a tub while watching Real Housewives. That’s totally 100% accurate a few days out of the year. The rest of the time I work my butt off.
Related: Check out what I do when fashion week rolls around.
Working full time as a blogger looks slightly different from having an office job, though. For one, I don’t have a “turn off” time where I draw the line and say “K, that’s it, work is done, and I’m going out now!” or “Hey, it’s the weekend, no work until Monday!” That doesn’t exist for me, but maybe it should now that I think about it.
Anyway, I digress.
A day in the life of a full-time blogger from start to finish:
7:30-8:30 am: I wake up! No alarm clock! Yay. I haven’t heard the blare of an alarm clock in years, and I totally love this part of working for myself. No matter what, though, I don’t wake up past 9 am. Like, there’s no sleeping in, even on weekends.
8:30-10:00 am: I sip on my first cup of coffee while checking all my stats from the day before (Google Analytics/Tweets/Pins/Instagram/FB). I also look at my e-mail and respond to anything quick during this time. I also start setting up all my windows for the day: blog post window where I have the topics I’ll be writing about that day, my editorial calendar (I use CoSchedule, which is amazing), and my website admin area. I also pull up Photoshop and Lightroom with the photos I’ll be working on that day.
10:00am-10:30 am: Typically, I’m on cup 3 of coffee. Yes, boys and girls, coffee is pulsing through my veins by now, and I’ve practically transformed into a coffee bean. That’s my cue to walk Walty, otherwise known as Walter, otherwise known as Peanut Butter Boy. My husband is usually up by now (ah, the beauty of having two entrepreneurs in the house) and he’s showered and ready to head into the office. I have the option of heading into “the office”, but I can honestly do just as much, if not more, work at home. The commute is SUCH a time disruptor. That’s, like, 2 extra hours of work I can do instead of commuting!
11:00am-1:00 pm: Don’t ask me where the 30 minutes went between the 10:30 and 11:00. I never know. Anyway, I’m back home with PBB (Peanut Butter Boy), and my husband is away in the big bad office. This is when I start to get into the meaty parts of socialization. I reply to the longer e-mails that require a thoughtful response and I respond to the comments on my blog. I also set a timer for 50 minutes and start busting out an article on the topic at the top of my topic brainstorm list. Yes, I have a list of topics I work from! I brainstorm a list once a month (I have a worksheet for blog post topics if you want to do the same thing) and write a blog post or two every day. Those posts are usually rough drafts that I’ll format, correct and perfect before my publish date. Toward the end of this time block, I start getting pretty damn hungry so I either scourge through the fridge quickly to see what I can come up with (nothing), or I order (yes, I usually order delivery).
1:00 pm- 6:00 pm: Honestly, I don’t even know why I separated the blocks of time from 11-1 and 1-5:30. Everything just kind of fuses together for me. I don’t have a designated lunch time, so whenever the delivery order comes, I usually eat it while still working. I try to do two post drafts a day, so I’m usually still writing around 1-2pm. Then I schedule the posts out in my editorial calendar (once again, I use coSchedule) and open up each blog post draft in WordPress. This is when I do my keyword research. I format everything and make the images for each post.
Once all the posts are ready, I go back to CoSchedule and schedule out the social media blasts for the month ahead.
Right about now is when I start feeling sluggish so I vacuum the house or do some general cleaning. Basically, anything that gets me away from a computer and gets me moving a bit. I’ve been sitting on the couch for close to 5 hours now, and I’ve become painfully aware of the groove that’s forming in the cushion.
When my small cleaning break is over (it’s almost always cleaning), I busy myself with small elements that have to do with optimizing the website. Somehow, that list never goes down. I also take this time to view any professional courses I’m signed up for or do some general reading and research on my industry to make sure I’m up to date with all the things that help me grow my blog.
6:00pm-8:00 pm: This is where I cook dinner, drink and be merry! My husband is home, PBB goes for another walk, and we watch some sort of a TV episode together to unwind. I finally take a shower in this time slot too! I’m an evening showerer…
8:00pm-10:00 pm: I usually do some more post planning and all the miscellaneous, beautiful things related to blog content here. I start on either another blog post OR working on my newsletter email (which I will then pick up and continue the next day if I don’t finish on the day of). This is also where I get sucked into the rabbit hole of “useful blogging tools,” which I have an utter addiction to. 🙂
10:00pm-11:30 pm: The ritual of reading before bedtime is now sacred for me. I read something COMPLETELY unrelated to work, blogging, entrepreneurship, self-improvement, whatever. I reach for pure fiction or classic literature which will sweep me away into some dystopian universe and make me forget I blog for a living. This has become a major way I unwind at the end of the day, and I REFUSE to take my phone to bed now. It’s only me, my cat, my dog, my husband and my Kindle. (FYI, my current read is “Shift” in the “Wool Omnibus” series by Hugh Howey, and before that it was “A Girl With All The Gifts” and “Ready Player One” —> told you I had a thing for post-apocalyptic/dystopian books.)
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This is an entirely general, top level, look of my day. Some of the things that can/do happen within this structure:
- I work on Blogger Resource Library materials and spend quite a lot of time making the worksheets.
- I’m running a sponsorship campaign with my NYCSC team, so I monitor the campaign materials and communicate with the brand regarding the outcomes. I also communicate with all the influencers participating, do the accounting and maintain the NYCSC website.
- I attend or document a fashion/beauty related event. Or I attend a press preview.
- I’m working on optimizing the old Style Tomes content to get rid of useless plug-ins.
- I run through the tech side of Style Tomes and purge unnecessary files via FTP.
- I do a manual backup of the site.
- I do an OOTD photoshoot for the outfit series and busy myself with a full day of photo editing.
- I’m working on an eBook.
- I’m working on a course.
- I’m planning out my Instagram schedule.
- I’m commenting on other people’s blogs, reading their posts, interacting on their social media pages, etc.
- I’m meeting up with new NYCSC bloggers or with blogger friends! (Love this part!)
You get the idea. Not every single day is a work day either, even though I don’t formally observe the weekends. I may go to our country home randomly in the middle of the week and just garden (I still bring my laptop and work on and off). Or I’ll need a creative spree randomly so I’ll do a bunch of painting in the middle of the day. It ebbs and flows, but for the most part, I’m pretty excited about the work I do, so I’m perfectly content having a busy work day.
Enough about me. What does your blogging schedule look like?? Is there anything you’d like to change?
