I didn’t check my email all day… AND the world didn’t end!

I’m detouring from our get a job series today to gloat. If you want to review the current series check out…

• How to get blogging jobs and web writing jobs – getting started
• Finding blog gigs – starting out with no clips
• How to get a blogging job – advice from b5media’s hiring editor
• How to get a blogging job – advice from Deb Ng of FWJ

Now on with the gloat – I didn’t check my email and survived to tell you about it!

I’m super frustrated right now because I’m moving August 1st, which means I need to post ahead for a few days so I can take said days off to move. PLUS have I even packed (ha) – not even one box. I’m busy and tired and looking for ways to cut out distractions. I can’t cut out the typical distractions like Twitter or Facebook because it’s part of my job (for some clients) to visit those types of spots.

However, email is not technically a requirement. I tend to check mine a lot anyhow because I get so much email. It’s scary to think if I don’t check it, I’ll open it up ten hours later to pages of stuff to sort. I check my email during the day and while I do check it on a schedule, it always distracts me for longer than it should. I start answering emails, bookmarking PR stuff, get mean reader email and have to find a friend to rant to, and so on. It’s a time waster, but I didn’t know how much until today.

Yesterday I was sorting email and I just had it. I got one lame email too many and decided to NOT check my email for a whole day and see what happens.

I checked my email in the evening on Sunday and then didn’t even allow myself to open it all day Monday. It was nerve wracking. I kept thinking “Who is trying to get in touch, maybe I missed some key press release, maybe there’s some life-changing email in there…. ahhhhhhhh!” But I stood strong and left the email alone and low and behold I got a ton more work than usual done.

Cutting out scheduled email checks during my day saved me an estimated two hours. It was cool and sort of freeing plus with two extra hours I got more work done.

What about when I finally did check it – how crazy was it?

Honestly, not that bad. I found it was actually easier to wiz through all the email at once, deleting a ton of junk, category marking others, then I spent a little time answering people. All in all it took about an hour. Go me.

If you’re looking for a way to gain some time I highly suggest holding off on email time – in fact I may try only checking it every other day! Well, that would require more will-power so we’ll see…

What’s your email schedule look like? Is it distracting you too? For more advice read: Are you too distracted at work.

Are you too distracted at work?

If you work as a blogger / web writer, you may find yourself getting super distracted often when you come across fun stuff to see and read. It’s also easy to get distracted when networking; sure Twitter can help you score gigs, but if you’re on there all day chatting, you won’t get much real work done.

I’m not immune to distractions. In one sense I’m lucky because I get to write mostly topics I love, but since part of my gigs is finding news and cool new products related to said topics I love, it’s easy for me to waste time browsing cool gear and then I get off track and lose work time.

To stay on track try the following…

Schedule everything!: I schedule every single thing I do online during my workday, or I’d never get anything done. And by everything, I do mean everything. I blog and do social media networking for clients and I’ve got time slots on my work schedule for all my tasks related to both. My schedule has time slots for lead searches, actual posting, commenting at other blogs, stumbling, email management, answering blog comments, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other little tasks I do at my jobs. For example, I love reading and commenting at other blogs, but since most of my gigs only require a little of that, I have to plan it, or trust me, I might do it happily all day, and not get my posts done. I use a schedule that has little check-off boxes on it, because there’s something about little boxes that makes me work. If I see five little boxes that need to be filled in with tweets for a client, I’ll do it.

Time it all: I’m more a fan of check-off-boxes vs. timing, because I know in my head how long tasks take me, but some bloggers I know use a timing method vs. boxes. For example, set your timer, or watch the clock as you do tasks, which could look like the following….

• 9 am – Network for blog one.
• 10 am – Posts for blog two.
• 10:30 am – Answer emails.
• 11 am – Catch up on news feeds.
• 11:30 am – Posts for blog three.
• 1 am – fun / personal social networking stuff (your own tweets, forums, and stumbling).
• And so on.

Set a time limit: If I find a story I’m dying to blog about, I will sometimes research it to death. TIME waster. Once I find a lead, I give myself a set amount of research time. If, at the end of that time, I don’t have enough info, I set the story aside for later. Same with images. If I have an idea in my head about an image for a post, and can’t find it in a few minutes, I settle for something less perfect.

Know what you’re writing about today: I usually jot down what I’ll be posting about in the morning, and it helps to keep me more on track than deciding on the fly what I’ll be posting about.

Use a weekly schedule: Another way that some bloggers stay on track is to go by a weekly schedule vs. a daily. I.e they do all their posting at blog one on Monday, blog two on Tuesday, blog three on Wednesday, use Thursday for paper work and misc tasks, and break up networking a little each day. Weekly schedules are a total failure for me. I have to go by a daily schedule or I get distracted. Find what works for you.

Write offline: If you’re way too distracted, you can write your posts offline, then go online and in one swift swoop, post the pieces to your blogs, add links, and publish. In this case some discipline can be a virtue, because in my opinion it’s faster to simply write online and gather links as you go, but if you’re always getting distracted, you might save more time writing offline.

Plan for fun stuff last: One technique I use is planning the fun stuff that I know will distract me for last. My favorite part of my job is green product lead searches. I love finding breaking news about new items coming out, and I ALWAYS spend more time than I should doing it, so I make sure to plan this task last and usually on a slow day (for me a weekend day usually), so that my other tasks get done as well.

Turn Skype, IM, etc. on DO NOT DISTURB!: Self explanatory.

How do you keep from getting distracted from all the cool stuff going on in the virtual world?

[image via stock.xchng]

Five reasons to hit the more function

For most of my blogging life, I’ve been a non-supporter of more. I never personally liked it because I don’t like extra work. That may sound lazy, but I read scads of blogs. When you click as much as I do, clicking one more time is too much work.

I also agree with something Lorelle said once. Something to the effect of, if you have something important enough to say, why not put it all above the fold? That’s not exact – I looked all over for her post, but can’t find it. If you want to hunt, it could be at Lorelle on WordPress or The Blog Herald. In any case, the point I got from what she wrote is that if your words matter, put them on the front page. I really like the idea of assuming you’re front page worthy – it can help you create more meaningful posts.

Times change though. Over the last year, I’ve been using that old more function a lot. It happened gradually and yesterday I was pondering my switch from a more hater to a more user. So today I decided to offer some reasons why you might want to hit more.
Read more

16 Post Ideas for Your Blog – Different Types of Posts for Network Blogs

Sometimes the plain old blog post, seems well, plain and old. Spice up your blog with a variety of posts.

1. The List Post

Nine times out of ten, if my post has gotten a ton of hits, it’s a list post. 10 favorite buildings, 15 ways to eat organic, 100 places to find a deal on sustainable home supplies, ABCs of mental health, and more.

2. The Long Post

Everyone writes a short post. Today, write about something in great detail. Post a long task or idea that will really inform and help your readers like how to install LED lights to gain the most benefit. Just be sure to hit enter. Long is fine. Long with no breaks is torture.

3. The Link Love Post

Create an entire post around other great blogs. Link to people who have linked to you. Link to the people who have linked to you AND brought you lots of traffic. Combine a link love post, with a list post – like “10 top cooking blogs you should read.”

4. The Classic Post

Re-post a popular post from your own blog. If it got many hits call it a, “Classic Post.” Re-visit the topic with some new insight or just let it stand on its own. This is the perfect post for when you’re short on time. A twist on the classic post is the classic list. For example, at my pregnancy blog, I’ll do a list post that highlights the best nutrition posts in the last few months.

5. The Review Post

You can review anything at your blog from products to people. Just be honest because people will take what you say and possible purchase said product. Review books, movies, other blogs, hair care supplies, or any other item you enjoy.

6. The Interview Post

Interview someone cool, significant, or helpful. Interview your 80 year old neighbor who goes sky diving or the 17 year old kid who lived in a treehouse. You can interview just about anyone.

7. The Careful Rant Post

Got issues? Blog it. Tell the world why you’re angry, why they should be angry, and what everyone should do about it. The “careful” is there to remind you to rant on topic. For example, bad dates are rant-worthy, but not if your network blog is about soccer.

8. The Guest Post

Put out an email to blog pals saying you want guest bloggers. I love guest posts because I get a day off and my readers get to hear from someone new and cool.

9. The Series of Posts

Write a series for a week – or each week. Example, for a while I did a weekly green audit series at one of my green blogs; each week a new room. It gave me something solid to write about each week and was useful. Plus people come back for the next post. You could also do a series on a project like organizing your kitchen; start to finish, each day a new task. Or count down to back to school.

10. The Quick Question Post

This is the ultimate post for lazy bloggers. It works best if you already get good blog traffic. Ask a question, just one. Say, “What in the heck do you make of global warming?” Ask more eloquently than this of course, but, you get the picture. Give a very quick answer yourself, and then tell everyone to leave their thoughts in the comments.

11. The Poll Post

If you have a poll on your blog, make it a poll you can use. For example, in your poll ask, “What room do you need help organizing?” As people vote, you’ll have something useful to blog about; something that you’re sure people will want to read.

12. The Unfinished Post

For some reason people love it when I have no idea what to do about something. I always get more comments on posts where I say, “I have this issue – I’m lost. What would you do?” People like to help. Just make sure it relates to your topic.

13. The Reader Question Post

If you’ve got comments, instead of answering them all in the comments, you can pull one and answer it in more detail in a post.

14. The Video Post

A video that pertains to your topic can almost stand alone; just add some thoughts, and post the video. In my experience video posts don’t get great page views too often, but if you’re dealing with quotas, one here and there is useful.

15. The Weekly Review

Once a week round up all your posts from the week previous and post them as a, “In case you missed it” deal. Personally, I like reading weekly round-ups (I do miss stuff) so I’ve been trying it out at one of my blogs. However, the jury is still out on how successful these posts are at directing traffic to other posts.

16. The Fun & Creative Post

Once in a while do something totally different. One of my most favorite network posts ever was written in free hand. It was such a nice break from typed text. I never forgot this post, and to me that’s a sign of a great one. Today, why not try something that will make people remember your post for a long time to come.

What other kinds of posts work well at network blogs?  

Troublesome Client Alert!

Here’s a quick tip. If you’d like to hold onto your blogging sanity, don’t attempt to work for someone who says…

“$10 a blog, I need 5-10 Blogs. Please respond with samples. Serious only Thanks.”

It’s a serious pet peeve of mine when clients call blog posts, “Blogs” – right away you know they’re going to be trouble. Why? Because obviously if they don’t know the difference between a blog and a blog post, you’re going to have to walk them through just what a blog is; every tiny aspect. As the client they should already know this stuff. This job will be a lot o’ extra work.

Apply for jobs like this at your own risk.

Thanks to Deb for the send – it was a nice morning laugh.