So Much to Do, So Little Time!

A few months ago, I published a post about organization and the way I intended to work on this blog but of course, the very next day something came up and I forgot all about it!

Being a single mum with children who are only attending school in the morning, I often get sidetracked; whether it's a child getting sick, a day off school, the realization that my house needs cleaning, clothes need ironing, a family member visiting or simply the need to take a break, I recently realized that I would be lucky if I could get 4 hours online a day.

I have decided to list everything that needs to be done:
Writing blog posts;
Writing articles;
Updating Squidoo lenses;
Posting on Morachat, Squidoo and Associated Content forums;
Visiting blogs, Squidoo lenses, Associated Content articles;
Commenting on blogs, Squidoo lenses, Associated Content articles;
Participating on BlogCatalog, Facebook and other social bookmarking websites.

Since I can't do everything in only 4 hours a day, I will have to slow down on some of these activities, at least until school starts back next September; I have noticed that it doesn't make much difference whether I post here every day or twice a week so I will try to keep this last frequency (although I can't guarantee that this won't slow down to once a week especially during the summer holidays).

When I started with this blog, I never knew that keeping it afloat would be so time-consuming. At the beginning, I tried to do everything I read in the articles I read about blogging advice but now I realize that it is impossible to do everything, so before I start suffering from burn-out I need to slow down and enjoy the time I have with my children.

After spending a little over 6 months trying to earn money online, I realize that it is not difficult; the only difficulty in making money online resides in the fact that it is so damn time-consuming!

Trying to Get More Organized

Getting organized and doing all the things you wanted to do in one day can be pretty tough, especially if, like me, you love reading blogs (I didn't call this blog Internet Junkie for nothing!). Working on the Internet makes you vulnerable to many temptations and it is not easy to keep focused on what you have to do.

I am also a single mum, so although I don't have a real job, I must clean, cook, bring the kids to school and pick them up (at different times of day to make matters more complicated), shop, spend some time with my children and sleep.

The fact that I don't have so much time to myself is actually a blessing in disguise: I don't have much time for shopping so I don't window-shop and save a lot of money this way. I also use my own grocery shopping money saving tips, some of which save me time as well as money.

When I come home from bringing the kids to school, I do between half an hour and an hour of cleaning up in the house (I try to have the breakfast dishes done and beds made before we leave the house) and then I switch on my computer. One morning a week, I do my grocery shopping (so no work done that morning).

After picking up my youngest daughter from pre-school (I don't exercise other than walking to and from school, my closest shop, and the playground during holidays and week-ends), it is time for lunch (my other daughter has hers at school), and checking my emails if I have time before we need to do the second school pick-up: if not I do this after my older daughter's homework. After my mid-afternoon coffee and a snack for the children, it is usually around 3.30pm when I can get back and get more work done: I have about 2.5 hours (minus time needed to attend to the kids' needs and separating them from occasional fights!) to do what needs to be done: commenting on blogs, writing articles, social networking and bookmarking, coming up with new ideas for this blog...

I have decided to try the following routine from now on: on Mondays, I will try to write drafts for most of my blog posts for the week: of course I do have to read and fine-tune my posts before publishing them but it won't take me as long as writing and publishing a whole new post every day (for some reason, once I am started on one task, I find it quicker to keep it up).

Each afternoon, I will spend a maximum of an hour updating my Squidoo lens and joining Squidoo groups and commenting on lenses.

I also need to spend another 30 minutes on Yahoo Groups: copying and pasting the same message on different groups should save me a lot of time.

I need to put another day aside for writing and publishing articles (I have been very slow in that department), which leaves me 3 days less the above 2 hours a day spent on emails, Squidoo and Yahoo Groups, for Social networking, surfing the net to comment on blogs and finding new ideas for my posts and articles. If I can spare an hour between cleaning up after dinner and putting the kids to bed, I will try to earn a few cents on Morachat. I need the rest of the evenings to relax.

Looking at it this way, getting organized doesn't seem too difficult but I will need to be very disciplined once the children are on holidays. I haven't included the week-ends in my timetable but I do spend time online during the week-ends too, so I guess that anything I didn't have time to do during the week will be done on Saturdays and Sundays. Now all I need to keep up with my routine is another rotten summer!

Getting Organized In Order To Succeed

For the last few weeks, I have been trying to find ways to increase the traffic to this blog. I keep telling myself that I must find a daily routine from the time I switch on my computer until when the kids come into my room, hollow eyes, looking very hungry!

I decided that I must do the following each day:
- Find a great new blog and write a comment on it,
- Add it to my "Favourite Websites",
- Find a new Freebies website, add it to my "freebies" and if possible, add a comment on their blog,
- Submit my blog to one new blog directory,
- Try and write one blog post.

If I don't get side-tracked (that is my main problem, I waste a lot of time everyday just reading blogs and just following links), I might have time to write one article a day on Associated Content.

I started a diary and when I get an idea for an article, I just write it down (yes, with a pen, on real paper, like they used to do before computers started to rule the world!), I also write down everything I achieved during the day, it helps a lot and it gives me a starting point every day.

Today, I achieved about half of my goals, now I must go and feed my children!


P.S. Sorry if I offended some people with the reference to my kids, I would never favour my blog over them, that was just a JOKE! It was going around in my head since yesteday, I just had to write it!