People frequently ask me how I have the time to run NHM. I spent three months on my maternity leave setting up NHM on WordPress, and although I’ve learnt a lot since then, I only really dedicate about 2-3 hours a week to blogging.
I am organised To the hilt!
We don’t have a TV. Yup, that’s right, no TV. We do watch DVD’s as we have a computer in the living room which functions as our TV and we have Lovefilm membership, so watch a lot of series or borrow box sets from friends. So, when you would sit down to watch TV in an evening, I’m normally on my computer, catching up with people on Skype, working, organising things or doing NHM work. I am very strict and try not to let NHM impact my family life.
I’ve mentioned before that I work four days a week, so whilst my daughter is awake and not at nursery, I’m spending as much time with her as I possibly can. I do most of my NHM work on Sunday nights. However, my husband works shifts, so when he is working a night shift, I often spend the evening working on my PC.
I’ve mentioned on NHM before that there are two apps that are fundamental to my organisational skills. Evernote and Remember the Milk.
Evernote
I use Evernote to draft out each post. I have two specific folders for NHM. One which has post ideas organised by theme and one which has posts organised by month. In each month, I draft out one note which shows the schedule of which posts I plan to feature each day.
Evernote syncs to my iPad, my PC and my phone. So I can literally update a post when I get an idea and it syncs to all of my technology.
Remember the Milk
I also use Remember the Milk to organise my life. I use this for all of my “to do’s” as well as NHM. It’s a great reminder tool.
Google Calendar
I also use Google Calendar. I have several different calendars set up, including one for NHM, one for my husband and another one for my daughter. Each month I spend about 10 to 15 mins thinking about which posts I want to add into NHM for that month and add in a calendar notice for each day, showing this. Then, if I don’t get around to updating Evernote, it doesn’t matter as it’s in my calendar. This also syncs to my iPad, PC and phone.
Flipboard and Goggle Reader
I read a lot of blogs via Flipboard, an app you can download for the iPad and iPhone. It sets up blog posts in a newspaper format, which means I can flick through posts very quickly. I get a lot of inspiration from all of the blogs that I read and for those posts which I think might be useful at a later stage, I copy them across to Evernote.
I use Pro feeder to do this. I have an inspiration folder on Evernote which is where these posts go. Every so often I sort through them and move them to the relevant folder.
I’m absolutely gutted that Google Reader is being closed, so I’m trying to find a suitable replacement. I’ve just created a Bloglovin account, but from what I can see, it doesn’t work with Flipboard. I will be so upset if I can’t find a replacement for Google Reader on Flipboard. If you know of any other alternatives, please do let me know!!!
I’ve “liked” a lot of Facebook pages. I’ve set things up so that I get notifications (not emails!) every time specific pages post something to Facebook. This helps me stay on top of what is happening in the area, and ensures that I can keep you informed.
I delegate and outsource everything that I can!
If there is something that someone else can do to save me time, then I’m all for it! We have had a cleaner for the past four years, but have recently decided to share the cleaning between us. This is because we are both home a lot, with my husband working shifts and me working from home most of the time. We’ve worked out that we can split the cleaning, he does downstairs and I do upstairs, and then split the money we would have spent on a cleaner. I think it’s working… so far!
I work at odd hours
I find that I’m better at writing posts first thing in the morning or last thing at night. I do all of my blog work in advance, and schedule them in on wordpress. So, I don’t actually get up at 8am every day to publish posts! 😉 I also use other tools, like Siri on my iPhone to take verbal notes when it’s not convenient to write something down. I also get my best inspiration when I’m distracted, away from my desk and thinking of something else.
I created a Twitter account on Wednesday. I finally succumbed. You can find me here. I have no idea what I’m doing with it, but it seems to be pretty intuitive so hopefully I’ll have it sussed very soon! 😉
Anyway, not sure if you find any of that interesting, but I hope you do! I think it’s always nice to see how someone does something behind the scenes. Let me know your thoughts…