How to Find Time to Blog when You’re a SAHM

I’m fairly new to this mom thing. Ever since bringing my beauty queen into the world 7 months ago, I have grown to have an entirely new appreciation for mommas. I have always had a deep respect for moms, but after becoming one, that respect skyrocketed to a completely other level.

Can we all just quickly give a shout out to all the mommas out there? You rock.

Related:

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–Starting a Blog? Do These 5 Things First

I absolutely love being a stay-at-home-mom. And as much as I love spending every second with my baby girl and watching her grow, finding time to do anything other than take care of her is quite difficult.

Running a blog is a lot of work, especially when you’re taking your first steps doing so. Before starting my blog, I thought “I barely have time to take care of myself outside of caring for my child. How can I possibly find time to run a blog?”

It’s a valid question. I have found that the trick to running a blog while being a stay-at-home-mom is…dun, dun, dun… creativity.

Fortunately, you’re probably a pretty creative person if you’re planning on starting a blog or are already running one. If you haven’t yet started a blog, you can learn exactly how to start a blog in this step-by-step tutorial.

HERE ARE TIPS & TRICKS TO RUNNING A BLOG WHILE BEING A FULL-TIME STAY-AT-HOME-MOM: 

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks depend on your little one’s age and their level of independence. My baby girl is 7 months old and can sit on her own. If you’re a brand new momma or have an older child, some of these ideas could be altered to fit your particular situation.

 

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LATE NIGHTS.

Ah, the sound of complete silence. Sometimes I forget what it’s like. I treasure my late nights of productivity. I am such a night owl. If you prefer to wake up early, before your little one wakes, this strategy could be useful for you during the early mornings.

While your little one sleeps, and you have a couple hours of time dedicated completely to yourself, take full advantage. Now, I know that dedicating every late night or early morning to your blog isn’t feasible because… you have a life. And you’re tired. And sometimes all you want to do is take a bath. I get it.

But, for the nights or mornings that you do have the energy, do not waste those precious hours watching a rerun on television.

This time is generally spent well doing time-consuming and high-effort blog-related tasks. I personally like to crank out my blog posts during this time, because it takes me 3-4 hours to write a post, if not longer. Typically, my posts hover around 2,000+ words, so it takes some time to write and time to edit them.

Late night post writing has worked out beautifully for me because not only do I have complete silence, I have zero interruptions, too. My husband goes into work very early, so naturally, he goes to sleep early.

While my dears sleep, I work.

The best part of utilizing late nights is you feel wonderful in the morning because you were so productive the night prior. After I do my morning routine with my little one and have an available stint of time, all I need to do is make my graphics associated with the post, format my post in my post dashboard, and click publish.

It’s a wonderful feeling having a new post done and published all by 9AM.

 

MAXIMIZE NAP TIME.

My little one doesn’t sleep for very long periods of times. Her naps are usually 20-30 minutes, if that. But when she does drift off, I know that it’s my golden time to complete my smaller blog-related tasks.

Usually during this time, I will work on creating graphics for my blog. If I don’t have any graphics to catch up on, it’s the perfect time to schedule social media posts, read and learn about companies and platforms for bloggers, research what other bloggers are doing, catch up on reading my favorite blogger’s posts, organize my blogging files, etc.

Now that’s not to say that I never take this time to write a post. Actually, my daughter is napping right now and it’s 1:30PM, and I’m writing this post. So, obviously my schedule varies from time to time depending on the status of my blogging projects.

The point is to use nap time wisely. Whether you’re working on a post, doing your blogging research or pinning away on Pinterest, use this time smartly.

 

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON TELEVISION.

As noted in the two prior tips, I like to take full advantage of my quiet time. If you watch TV during the limited hours you have to available, that will take away from the time you have to work on your blog.

To be clear, I am not saying to never watch TV. I love to binge watch shows, too. But do it in moderation, especially if you’re trying to find more time to work on your blog. Obviously if you’re not working on something for your blog that requires a lot of brainpower, you could easily multitask and turn on the cooking channel or HGTV, or whatever you like to watch, for some background entertainment.

I will say, I do like to multitask on Tuesdays when the Fixer Upper marathon is on TV. I will usually schedule social media or do research, especially during the commercials.

Just be smart about limiting your television-watching time, and you’ll be golden.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BABYSITTERS.

Please, please do this. It’s not only beneficial for getting in some extra time to work on your blog, but it’s also nice to have a little bit of time for yourself. Time for yourself doesn’t come around often when you’re a momma, so take full advantage of those babysitters, especially if they’re your family members who offer to babysit for free.

 

UTILIZE YOUR PHONE TO ITS FULL ADVANTAGE.

I’m unsure why this is, but many times my daughter will get cranky when I’m on the computer, but she could care less when I’m on my phone. When she is having playtime on her mat, I can sit in the chair next to her and do work on my phone without her getting grumpy.

I have come to find that I can actually do a ton of work on my phone during those times. I usually opt to spend that time on Pinterest pinning pins. But, I also will do some blog research, too. I’ll check out other blogger’s pins and what I tend to click in. Then, I usually do some brainstorming and analysis. What is it about that pin that I like so much? Do I like the creative look of it? How can I use this design to inspire my future pins?

I also like to come up with blog post ideas on my phone. I simply navigate to the ‘notes’ section on my phone and write down a list of post ideas. I also like to jot down brief outlines about the direction I see that post going. That way, when I go to write my post at nighttime I have at least an initial concept that I can build on.

 

HOLD YOUR BABY AND WORK ON YOUR BLOG.

When she’s in the right mood, my daughter actually loves sitting on my lap as I work. She stares at the computer screen and tries to reach for the keyboard and mouse. While a bit distracting, this is a good time to work on simple blog tasks like catching up on reading other blogs and doing any type of blog related research and reading.

 

UTILIZE SOLO PLAY TIME.

Depending on the age of your baby, they can have solo playtime. My girl loves to sit upright on her mat and play with her toys. She also likes to have time in her jumperoo, which means work time for mommy.

This is one of those times that is usually short-lived so I have to do the more simpler blog tasks. If I’m lucky and she’s happily playing for a while, I can do some tasks that take a bit more time and brainpower, like writing and editing my posts.

The key is to be able to quickly adapt to the situation and work accordingly.

 

 

DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF.

Being a mom really impacts your ‘you’ time.

And, at least for me, I have to have some ‘me’ time to stay sane.

My ‘me’ time has become going to the gym. It’s perfect because I get to run off some stress all while my daughter is one room away in the gym’s playroom, which has a playroom attendant. I LOVE having my daughter there because she gets to interact with the other children. I’m finding at her age (7 months), there are limited things I can do with her.

We have a library nearby where I took her a few times for story time. The problem was there she isn’t crawling or walking yet and all the other kids at story time can typically already walk. When she’s a bit older, I’ll probably reintroduce library visits, but for now, her socialization time occurs during momma’s gym time.

After we come back from the gym, I always feel so much better. Sometimes I even come back with new blog ideas I thought of during my workout. Not only is my head clear, I also typically feel more energetic and productive. This fuels me to work on my blog instead of watching TV or napping.

The gym may not be your solace, but find what is and figure out a way to make it happen!

 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW MY TIPS & TRICKS, HERE’S HOW I ACTUALLY PUT THEM INTO ACTION: 

 

MY TYPICAL SCHEDULE AS A BLOGGER AND A STAY-AT-HOME-MOM: 

6:30 – 8:30AM: Morning routine with little one. Breakfast and play time.

8:30 – 9:00AM: Naptime for my daughter. Blog time for me. If I had written a post the night before, I will spend this time creating the post’s accompanying graphics. If not, I’ll schedule social media or read other blogger’s posts as well as catch up my life by checking my email etc.

9:00 – 11:00AM: Gym time. While my daughter plays and socializes in the gym playroom, I have my own time to work out and clear my head. It’s glorious.

11:00 AM – 1:30PM:  Lunch, playtime, and outdoor activities if there’s nice weather.

1:30 – 2:00PM: Naptime for my daughter. Blog time for me. At this point in the day, I have usually published my blog post, if I had had one in the queue. I’ll spend this time scheduling social media or doing whatever blogging tasks that need completing.

2:00 – 5:00PM: Play time, dinnertime for my girl, blog tasks if possible, household duties.

5:00 – 5:30PM: Naptime for my daughter. Blog time for me.

5:30 – 7:00PM Wind-down routine. Bath time, bottle, story time, and then bedtime for my little one.

7:00 – 10:00PM: Blog work.

 

Obviously this schedule fluctuates day-to-day, but I usually can get anywhere from 2-5 hours of blog work in on any given day. If I have help that day with a baby sitter, I can get quite a bit more done.

Some days, especially weekends, I spend renovating our house, because it really is my true passion. Just one more reason I love blogging – I get to write about what I really love doing!