How I find time to blog

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Recently I asked my readers if they had a personal question they'd like the answer to. Overwhelmingly, the most-asked question was this:

"How do y'all manage blogging while raising so many immature children?"

Hither'due south the long answer.

Starting time, a picayune history.

When I began this blog in January of 2013, I actually had no idea where it was going.  My thought was that I would exist a resource for stay-calm moms.  I'd share parenting tips, recipes, and learning activities.  As I tried to think of a blog proper name I considered what kind of mom I wanted to be.  Less hurried, more thoughtful… measured.  And The Measured Mom was born.

It wasn't long before I realized I had very few original recipes, and fifty-fifty fewer original parenting tips.  But when I started sharing my first costless printables, people loved them.  My focus switched to teaching tools, and it's stayed there ever since.

The first yr was really crazy.

I was easily working 40+ hours a week on the blog, with zippo to show for information technology except ascension pageviews and a new-establish sense of purpose.  My daily 70-infinitesimal exercise routine abruptly ended, the laundry piled up, and menu planning went out the window.  I read everything I could possibly find on how to be a successful blogger.  I didn't know how to terminate.  Some days I didn't remember looking my kids in the center.

It was far from platonic.

The next year was notwithstanding crazy.

By 2014, I was earning a pocket-sized part-time income, which was entirely dependent on pageviews.  Detect the ads in my sidebar?  They're managed by an ad agency.  Advertisers pay more or less depending on the fourth dimension of year.  How much they pay me is too dependent on how many people visit my site.

I establish myself chasing pageviews… publishing every day of the week so I had more content to share and promote. The more posts, the more there is to see. The more people come.  After a eye-to-eye talk with my concerned husband, I began to look at things differently.

No evening blogging until the kitchen was (mostly) clean.  Attempt to practice one load of laundry a  day.  Try to fit exercise back into my life.

My perspective shifted.

I took a blogging course that told me to stop chasing pageviews and focus on the future.  I learned to encounter my weblog as simply my platform, not my unabridged business organization.  With that, I began seeing myself as what I am: a minor business owner.  I even so offer many (many!) printables for costless, but I'thou also creating products that will support my family unit long-term.  Bundling my gratis printables for sale in my shop was a adept business motion.  Spending months creating a preschool curriculum was some other.

That's the history.  Here's how I manage my fourth dimension!

i. I see blogging every bit my JOB.  (good)

This is not a hobby.  This is a full time chore. I spend about 35 hours a calendar week on it, and I make time for it.   Currently my hours are 5 AM-half-dozen:thirty before the kids are up, 1:15-two:45 during "tranquillity time," and 7:xv-9 PM after the kids are in bed.  I clasp in moments during the day to respond to east-mails and (if the kids are doing well) do research and piece of work on printables.

I don't babysit other people's children during my afternoon work hours unless it's an emergency.  I rarely melt, make clean, or talk on the phone during the afternoon or evening.   I don't accept evening responsibilities unless I experience they are of import. I never accept a responsibleness that requires a weekly commitment.

I insist (though I don't ever get it) on quiet time in the afternoon while our toddler naps and our big kids play independently.

2. Blogging is besides my "me" time. (mostly good)

I don't remember I can overstate how much I love this.  It takes ane of the greatest passions of my life (teaching) and combines information technology with my other loves: writing, creating, and sharing.  Best of all, my work is connected to education my children.

I accept always been crazy about fonts, prune art, and didactics materials.  This is truly a dream job, and the only time I get sick of information technology is during that hard first trimester when I'm so tired that nothing sounds fun.

Information technology'southward like shooting fish in a barrel to brand fourth dimension for something that you're passionate nearly.  Blogging is not a chore for me.

3. Our days are structured. (adept)

I'1000 frequently asked about our routine.  Truthfully, I don't accept a daily schedule that we follow across the routines that are planned into our day.  Summertime varies, with my hubby's crazy-big garden, vacationing, and all the kids home.  Only we have a basic routine that ensures that things run somewhat smoothly, and I get in the piece of work time that I need.

Hither's how things will look in the fall:

5:00-half-dozen:thirty AM   I'm upwards and working or exercising.

6:thirty-6:45    I shower.

half dozen:45  AM The kids get up and start breakfast.  The big kids (ages five, 6, and eight) know they can't get up until their clock says vi:45, and we've taught our 3-yr-old not to become upward until Mom comes to get him.  Our toddler (1 1/2) may wake upwardly early and fuss, just I don't go her until afterwards my shower.  It'south just how we roll.  (Of course, when the new baby comes it won't be quite so polish.)

vii:30 AM Finish getting ready for school.

7:50/8:00 AM    Nosotros pile into the van and take the three big kids to school (I teach my kids to read before they start school, only I don't homeschool past preschool. It's on my About page.)

eight:xx AM My 3 year-one-time and ane-year-old and I are abode.  I finish clean upward, we read and do learning activities together, they play, and I clasp in some blog piece of work if they're playing well.

11:10  AM We become to school to pick upwardly my kindergartner.  Half day is an option at his school. This year I'm the only parent taking them upon it.  It's his first twelvemonth of school, and they don't do academic learning in the afternoon. I desire him home to play and unwind.  Full day schoolhouse will last for years!

11:30 AM I bank check blog emails and get lunch started.

12:00/12:15 PM We eat lunch.

12:45/1:00   My toddler naps, and quiet time begins.  During this fourth dimension my 5 year former and 3 year old play outside or in the playroom or basement.  I'yard available for things they need, but non to play with them.  This is my work fourth dimension.

ii:45 PM I get an later schoolhouse snack set up, wake up my toddler, and we pile back into the van to become my offset and 3rd grader.

3:xx PM Snack, subsequently school chores, piano practice, and homework

4:00 PM I play games and read with the kids.

5:00 PM My husband comes out of his part and has "kid time" while I grab upwardly on east-mails and make supper.

5:30/5:45 PM Supper

6:15 PM I make clean the kitchen while my husband supervises evening baths and make clean upwards.

6:45 PM Kids head upstairs for Bible stories and teeth brushing.

7:15 PM Kids are in bed.

7:15-nine PM I work.

9 PM-10 PM My husband and I spend fourth dimension together.

10 PM Bed.

4. There are a lot of things I don't do anymore. (good and bad)

Truthfully, I don't miss most of the things that used to take upwards my time. I don't surf the Internet for news articles or hunt for interesting You Tube shows.  I don't read for fun anymore, and while I miss that, I enjoy blogging more than.

I used to exist a very organized meal planner. I'm more than of a wing-by-the-seat-of-my-pants meal planner at present.  I don't retrieve that's a good thing. I'thou trying to get amend at it.

Most regretfully, I do very little exercise now.  It is so, so difficult to give up that 1 fourth dimension all day when no one else is awake and devote information technology to exercising in the basement. While I used to LOVE exercising and considered information technology the essential get-go to every day, now all I can remember about is the blog piece of work I could be doing.  While I'thousand content with the other things I've given up, this is non okay. I don't desire this to be the status quo.

(Update: I am working at making it a daily routine to do 30 minutes on the practice bike before starting my morning weblog work. So far, so proficient!)

4. I don't "do it all." (not great)

Yeah, I practice a lot of things. I bake half dozen loaves of breadstuff once or twice a calendar week. I make homemade yogurt (really, information technology'due south easy) twice a week.  I try to limit processed foods, and our kids have very little screen time.

But I don't homeschool past preschool.  (I'yard at peace with this determination, but I just want to be clear that I am not blogging on top of teaching my kids all mean solar day long.)

As I've already stated, my exercise routine needs a kick in the pants.

We have Chinese take out and frozen pizza more oft than I'd similar.

The firm is never clean enough.

I'm too impatient with my kids.

I don't have time for play groups, church choir, or creating homemade gifts.

5. I make sacrifices. (okay)

Here's the thing.  We hadn't planned that I would piece of work this soon.  The programme was that when our youngest was in showtime grade, I'd get back to work part time to pay for our children'due south parochial pedagogy.

Then here I am, a work at home mom, with v kids ages 8 and nether, and another ane coming in December.  Am I crazy to retrieve this is even possible?!

Well, probably.

But planned or not, I'one thousand a business organisation owner now.  People count on me.  And I want to live upwardly to that responsibility.  I don't relax with a proficient book, take frequent "nights out" with the girls, or spend an evening relaxed on the couch, telephone in hand.

I am jealous of my work time, and I don't give it up hands.

half-dozen. I have many things to ameliorate. (coming together these goals would exist fantastic!)

I want to enjoy life more, instead of always focusing on the next large blogging projection in the back of my caput.  (And at that place are so many!)

I want to exist a amend meal planner.

I want to exercise – every day – and dearest it once again.

I want to (one solar day) take a day off each calendar week. Right now I tin can't even fathom that, but I go on reading that it's of import. (And my sister, just in town, told me the aforementioned affair.)

I want to make regular private time for my children, treasure my (amazing) hubby more than, and meliorate my Bible written report and prayer life.

And there y'all have it.

The long version of how I (don't) practice information technology all.

Want to know more about me?

• Comforting Bible verses for weary moms
• What not to say to a pregnant woman
• 11-pound babe natural birth
• Getting to know The Measured Mom
• Confessions of a mom blogger

thompsonwaguastind1993.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-i-find-time-to-blog/

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