10 10-Minute Blogging Activities You Can Do When You Don't Have Time To Blog

If I were to hazard a guess, you, like so many of us, don't have all the time in the world. You have work to go to, or school, or college, or some other life draining building to walk into, or you have children, lovely, beautiful, time consuming, attention seeking children that require more hours in the day than you have to start with. You wake up, you do the days activities, and you sleep. There just aren't enough hours in the day to brush your teeth, let alone actually blog.

Wrong you are my friend, for I have 10 simple, easy (and quick!) activities you can do, that will not only benefit your blog when you're away doing other, less exciting, important life tasks, but will take you less time than it does to cook my microwave mac 'n' cheese. I promise you, there's no lies here.

1. Schedule some social media

Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite are life savers for people with no time, and it takes but a matter of seconds to type a tweet, include a link (and a photo if you have one, because photos make tweets x2 as likely to be shared!) and boom, easy as pie. Of course, that is assuming you've already set yourself up with one of these tools, (because if you haven't, you best check out this post and get started) as with the automatic feature of figuring out your best times to post on social media, you can be sorted on a free account for up to 10 posts. Hey, that's an entire day where I'm consider. 10 updates, 10 minutes, a whole 24 hours accounted for.

2. Share other people's content

Believe it or not, social media is not all about you, and while Facebook makes it easy for you to think it is, it really, really isn't. You should always be sharing other peoples content in between sharing your own, not only because you're an awesome member of the community, but because you want to be helping out the cool guys that follow you, and they would appreciate some helpful content that wasn't all you you you. Don't just self-promote, but promote your friends blogs and content, your favourite bloggers you visit. Go back to the sixties and share the loooove.

3. Reply to social media

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get notifications and I'm just too busy stroking my cat to reply to them. (I kid I kid, I'm almost always in work, it sucks because I hardly spend any time with my beautiful cat..) I read them, sure, but then I get sucked into a vortex of life and forget to ever thank people for sharing posts, or just start up a conversation with someone awesome that I love that's done something awesome for me. Bad form Amanda, baaaaad form. Take 10 to just thank to the people that share your work, or even like what you do, and actually be social on social media. The clues in the name..

4. Reply to comments

Oh man, if there's anything I'm worse than social media replying, it's comment replying. I get bombarded with emails from people I should really unsubscribe to, and although I always, always make a point of reading somebodys comment through the email, I rarely remember to reply on the day. It's possibly my worst habit. I'm learning to take time out the day (if I can spare it) to seriously reply to one or two comments, because one or two is much better than none, and even if it takes you a week to get through them, you've made sure that person who gave you some of their time, knows their worth some of yours. Relationships matter people, so be attentive and help them grow.

5. Reply to emails

Okay okay, I know that nobody really likes replying to emails, but in todays society, it's sort of a must. Whether you're responding as to why that promoted posts is running late, or you're planning an awesome co-post with another great blogger, you need to actually speak to them to iron out details. Prioritise between the important emails and the emails that can wait (or even just plain delete them, obviously only if you don't need them, be careful on that front) and get those tasks sorted before it's past the point of explanations. Life gets in the way, and as long as you're not replying a month later, people will understand.

6. Brainstorm content ideas

If I had a pound for every amazing blog post idea I've had but forgotten to write down, I could quit work, buy a house in the country, start up a farm and spend glorious days with my cat. Alas, I cannot. Ideas are like whistles in the wind, you have to take note of them before their gone, because like the sales ads say, when they're gone, they're gone. I'm getting into the practice of keeping pen and paper with me everywhere I go, and I've also always got my phone to hand to take notes on should pen and paper be difficult to find in my bag. Then, when you've got the actual time to blog, you have the ideas right when you need them.

7. Outline upcoming posts

One of my most newly acquired habits is outlining my posts before I come to write them. I was always a bit of a 'swing while we're winning' blogger and wrote as and when the inspiration took, but 2am late nights were ruining my effortless look and going into work looking like a zombie really suit retail unless it's halloween. A little bit of effort and information from the present you can really make a difference when future you comes to sit in front of that screen. What's better, switching on to a screen saying 'this bit here, talk about that there, add link here' or a the white screen of death? Mr Grim Reeper, you won't take me today.

8. Create or update blog graphics

No matter what program you use to create your blog graphics, you can almost always create a blog graphics within ten minutes with the help of templates. If you use Canva, you have templates and easy to reuse templates you've used previously. If you use Photoshop, you can create your own, and the same goes for Picmonkey. As long as you have a template, creating a new blog graphic takes no time at all. I'm currently in the process of updating my own so that my old content looks like my new editions, and if I make them in bulk, each graphic takes me 5 minutes, 8 tops. Create it, save it, upload it, add metadata for social sites and SEO and bam, you're rocking a new look in just 10 minutes.

9. Snap or snatch up some blog photography

Most graphics now are using photography to make them more attractive and appealing, and shoutout, it works. I'm no professional when it comes to my photography, but you can see for yourself on Instagram that I'm not a rookie either. Grab yourself a nice, naturally lit spot, grab a few bits and bobs, a few books, a candle, a box of matches and a cuddly toy, arrange and snap with your phone. Even if you just get one good photo in the 10 minute time period, it's one more than you had before. If you really suck at photography, spend those minutes searching for stock images to use at a later date. There's nothing better than searching your files and seeing the perfect image all ready and waiting for you to use it, saving you time, and stress.

10. Write a proactive to-do list for when you do have time

Stressing about the things you don't have time to do is not only unproductive, but it's also a mood killer, and when you've got a house to juggle and a circus to clean, those are two things you don't want getting in the way of your day. If you really don't have to time to do any of the above, make a list of things that need your attention as soon as you have it to spare. Prioritise the list and stick it somewhere you'll see it, and when the time comes and you have nothing filling it, grab your list and get to work. Knowing what you have to do is motivating and keeps you organised, plus you're likely to find the time if you know it needs doing.

As Benji said, never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.

Are you ever short on time to blog? How do you find time?