Balancing Family and Blogging

by Caz Makepeace on March 18, 2012

15

Kat from The Organized Housewife has created a brilliant blogging series called Our Blog Journey to help those on their own blog journey to receive established advice and tips from other successful bloggers.

I am thrilled to be included alongside of Sarah from A Beach Cottage (listen to her podcast interview), Tina from tinagray{dot}me and Kat from The Organized Housewife.

All three ladies I have met in person and can attest to their loveliness and expertise when it comes to blogging.

Last week Kat hosted the first question: If you could do it again what would you change?

Today I am hosting the second question of the series, next Sunday please visit Tina’s blog, tinagray{dot}me for a new topic to help you on your blog journey.

Balancing Blogging and Family

Well this is a question I have been asked quite a few times now as a blogger and I think it’s one that if I had the golden answer to I would be one very happy woman…but I don’t and I don’t think there is a magic answer. I do know though, from bitter experience that getting it wrong is the not so nice side of blogging.

You see, blogging has huge benefits – you can do it from home, you can fit it into just about any lifestyle you have – mum, full time job or not…but with that comes the temptation and ability to be constantly online, to be always wired, to be just finishing off that crucial post for your blog…at midnight or when you should be feeding dinner to your kiddos.

So in my journey with blogging I have learnt that blogging and my blog has a place in my life and it needs to be part of my routine otherwise it can easily take over.

Balancing blogging and family means that the blogging part fits in with the mum part and I blog mostly on my own while my 3 kiddos are at school…sometimes I blog in the evenings too once the house has quietened down but to be honest, by then I am exhausted and about the only place I want to be is kicked back on the sofa, not at a computer…

In the daytime while I am blogging I try to keep to a pretty disciplined routine for the day-to-day stuff that always needs to be done in the house, the jobs that, because I am a mum and looking after the house I am in charge of …boring stuff like loading the washing machine the night before so it’s ready to go out in the morning before I start blogging, getting the dinner in the slow cooker or prepared early so that I can blog, doing the basics like giving the bathroom a quick clean / tidy before I fire up the computer…these are all little things but if I don’t do them and just sit on the computer playing with my blog, it doesn’t take long before it’s chaos around here and everything is very much pear-shaped….

I also think that as a blogger it’s very easy to lose a big whack of time without really realizing it…checking Twitter, finding a good link, catching up with favourite blogs...all those things can mean that actually you are not blogging…so I try to actually ‘save’ that sort of stuff for my downtime now …I didn’t do that in the early days and I would often get to the end of the day and feel like actually I hadn’t achieved much, oh but I did know what my favourite blogger had for lunch!

Nowadays I treat my ‘social’ online time as a treat and it works really well for me…I look forward to my time as a blog reader and a lover of social media when it’s relaxing and working for me.

And lastly, the most important thing about balancing blogging and life is getting out of the house and away from the computer and knowing when you’ve had enough – for me that means walking mostly, often I am with my camera, sometimes with a friend and usually it involves coffee….times when I am not blogging are, in fact, the times that feed my creativity and ideas and often what gives me my next blog post.

I’m forever trying to find that work/home balanceso my family don’t start feeling like I am neglecting them, my house doesn’t look like a bomb hit it and my blog doesn’t end up with cob webs on it.

Some things that I have put in place (and always working on) are:

*Set work hours – I get up extra early in the mornings so I have a little time to myself and can get a start on the housework. Then I can spend a few hours in the morning online and again, a couple of hours in the evening. It doesn’t always work and there are days when my butt doesn’t leave my computer chair, especially when those deadlines are looming.

* A day planner – I need to write EVERYTHING down from school stuff to work shifts for various members of the family to worming the dogs. This way I can work my blogging time around the family.

* Having a work space – I used to blog on the lounge with my laptop on my lap but I found I kept getting distracted and the family didn’t respect that I was working because I didn’t LOOK like I was working. So we have set up a corner in the living room as “my office” and the family know that if I’m sitting at my desk, I’m working. And if I have headphones on, I’m REALLY working and trying to drown out the noise.

* Delegate – I’m a great delegator and with six people living here, I’m all for everyone doing their fair share around Chez Gray so that I do get that time to blog.

I mentioned last week I started the blog just as a hobby, in the beginning it was easy to keep on top of everything and only spent a few short hours a week writing. But as it grew there were more comment and emails to reply to from readers, emails from advertisers and PR agencies, found facebook a great way to chat with readers, then I decided to completely change my blog design, which all of a sudden it started taking up a lot of my time.

As the title of my blog suggests, The Organised Housewife, I also like to keep my blog organised. I plan all my posts which helps me to concentrate on what I need to write about. I have a planner to keep track of all my posts, commitments, statistics, advertisers, invoices, giveaways and reviews. Having all of these items organised in one folder saves me so much time. Time I want to be spending with my kids.

I have dedicated specific blogging hours, mostly through the day while the kids are at school. I switch off between 3-7pm to spend time with them, running around to sporting commitments, helping with homework, listening to home readers and then to cook dinner and tuck them in bed. Once they have gone to bed I spend 30 minutes looking over facebook. Then switch off at 8pm to have some me time, watching TV or flicking through pinterest on my iPad.

I wasn’t so disciplined with my time last year. I really enjoy what I do, writing and working on blog, I was happy to spend most of my spare time playing around on it. But there came a point where I just burnt out. As much as I LOVE doing it, I needed to find ME time, not with the kids, not with hubby. I feel so much better for it and in a way it has helped me be more productive when I am working on the blog.

This is such a challenging part of blogging. Most of us want to do this so we can find a way to spend more time at home with our children. The problem is that blogging takes up so much time. You really have to work hard to find the balance.

Bloggers usually start off juggling a job as well, which can be a reality for a couple of years before opportunities arrive that allow you to blog full time. As someone who runs two busy blogs and travels a lot due to my travel blog, I have a few tips on how you can balance blogging and family.

1. Involve your family as much as you can.

I am fortunate that my husband, Craig, blogs alongside of me. He understands what I am doing, is supportive of it and it means we get to spend a lot of time together dreaming, planning, and building. Some of the time it feels like we don’t talk about much else, but it is amazing to have my partner sharing the journey with me.

I am also fortunate that I can share the journey with my children. I take them along to any event that I can, and whenever we receive some kind of experience or reward that they participate in, I let them know that it is because of Mummy’s work on the computer. Kalyra knows all about blogging. She now wants her own blog, does her own silly and cute vlogs, and has helped me out with a post idea on fries for our travel blog.

2. Get Away from the Office

I have set days I work at home and days when I am with my children. On those days, I have to get out of the house. I take the girls to the park, visiting with friends, on play dates, shopping, or to the movies. If I stay in the house then all I see around me is the piles of work I have to do and I tend to gravitate towards that then the time with the girls.

3. Get Up Early and Go to Bed Late

Probably not the advice you want to hear, but if you have a goal and a dream you have to do whatever it takes. You only need 6 hours sleep a night. Make them good hours so that you can get up early and go to bed late so you can use that time when the kids are asleep.

4. Become efficient at Time Management

Utilize every spare moment you can to work.

Waiting for your child to finish their afternoon sports? Start interacting on your social channels on your phone or catching up on your reading. Going for a run or a walk? Throw the headphones on and listen to an inspiring or informative podcast

Be very careful what you devote your time to- only those things that will help you achieve your goals. Cut out all other things that don’t move you forward, particularly negative environments and activities- these are real energy drainers.

5. Schedule family time.

Spend time each week as a family. Forget the blog and go have fun. The work will be there tomorrow and you will probably find yourself more inspired to create after the break. Schedule the time in so you don’t allow the blog to take over.