Are planners your thing?
They are so fun and pretty.
I just love the way the paper feels in my hands.
And, I mean, a socially acceptable way to use stickers and glitter pens as an adult?
Sign. Me. Up.
But planners are about so much more, aren’t they, mama?
When you have a planner for your blog it’s like making a pact with yourself. A promise.
“This is the year I’m going to make my first $1k with my blog. The year I finally stop being such a slacker and do nothing for my blog. This year I’m going to be as organized as the adult I imagine I should be.”
And you trust that the planner you have chosen will be like some magic carpet. You simply have to hop on and enjoy the ride into the sunrise of your new incredible life.
But by the end of the year…
Your plan to grow your blog has fallen to the wayside and your planner is brimming with glittered and scented doodads and crossed off to do lists and met appointments…
Or, it lies forgotten in your nightstand drawer, and your blog hasn’t really changed one way or the other.
Sure, you may have remembered a few more freebies to create, and had a place to write your blog topic ideas, and courses you just remembered you need to buy.
But blog-changing? Nah. And do you know why? Well, this might come as a shock to you, but…
- It’s not the planner.
- It’s not the pens you chose (as bleed resistant as they may be).
- It’s not the stickers you lovingly placed each and every day of the year.
- And it’s certainly not that neat way you cross off your to-do lists.
It’s you.
I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you, but you are the reason your blog hasn’t grown. But here’s the good news: all that is about to change. Because, mama, when you know how to use a planner to change your blog strategy – you finally can.
What is Planning?
Your planner can be the greatest tool for helping you grow your blog. And as we all know, a tool is useless if the person wielding it doesn’t understand how to use it correctly.
So let’s start back at the basics. What is planning?
Let’s get one thing straight. Planning is not decorating your planner paper with doodles and stickers.
Planning is the process of making plans with the intent of realizing them.
When you use a planner, you are making plans for your blog’s growth. It’s where you craft an outline for your schedule, your daily routines, and your to-dos.
With a planner, you can organize your blog tasks in such a way that you are literally designing your blog plan one task at a time.
Unfortunately, here is where most people make their biggest mistake. You start to think about how grand your plans should be.
You begin to think “I want to change everything about my blog! I need to start today and quit wasting time. I need to quit Facebook. I need to have a million dollar company. I have to take that Pinterest webinar. I need to wake up earlier. And I need to set up times to blog every day. In fact, I really should have done all this already. I’m so behind! I’ll never catch up.”
You forgot, or never realized, that the way real change happens is by doing small things consistently.
Thinking big is great, but you have to remember that most people reach big amazing goals by giving consistent effort and gaining tiny bursts of growth that snowball into great things over time.
Earlier in the year I started using my bullet journal. I wrote down my tasks and tried to accomplish them.
What ended up happening, though, was that my tasks became bigger and bigger. Instead of jotting down – Create an outline for my blog post.
It suddenly became – Create outline for niche course and record first lesson. The bigger the tasks, the harder it was for me to attempt to do them. I just shut down and didn’t do anything! Raise your hand if this is you?
What really matters is that tiny actions create the big moments.
By working and focussing on the small things to grow your blog, you will be working towards the big picture.
Why You Need a Planner (and How to Really Use It)
Because a planner has a space for every month, week, and day of the year, it will help you to focus and achieve that consistency you need.
A planner is the perfect tool for meeting your goals. You can use it to plan, track, and review your goals and to track and stay consistent with the small habits you are doing each day that support those goals.
And a planner helps you to be more mindful and organized in general so you can meet the demands of life more easily.
Every goal you set should be S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
In other words, you need to know very specifically…
- what you want to accomplish,
- how you are going to do it,
- and when you will do it.
And you have to be realistic about the whole thing.
You also need to set overarching goals for your year and break it down into mini deadlines you will meet throughout the coming months. And that’s just the beginning.
It’s never too late to begin creating blogging goals to work on growing your blog and income!
Plan Your Quarters
For your blog, it’s best to look at your blog in quarters. Every quarter re-asses where your blog is at and if you’re on track to meeting your goals.
One of my goals for last quarter was to update my Pinterest Perfection Masterclass.
Accomplished!
Doing this also means you can start planning for your blog during any quarter. The point is to just start already!
Over to you –
Are your still planning away or have given up?
Share in the comments!
Remember to pin me!
6 Comments