Discussion: Easy Organization!

I post across three blogs, so organization is KEY for me. I have o know when things are being post, on which blog, and in what time zone (those GMT-ers kill me). Being organized is the reason I have been so successful with everything I have done in my life, including blogging. And while I may have been using agendas at a young age, I'm going to give you guys some tips to staying organized even if you have never ever been organized before. There are two sections here: organizing your BLOG and organizing your READING SCHEDULE.

Organizing Your Blog

Try Out Lots of Different Systems

One thing I have found is that different systems work for different tasks. Don't be afraid to try out colour coding, bullet journaling, Google calendar, EVERYTHING!

If you are co-blogging, a good service to use is Team Up, which allows you to put up to 10 different calendars in one spot for free. This way you can see what you are posting across your blog and never double up! (Or at least not intentionally.) Team Up is also great for group projects in school so you can see when people are free and available for team meetings! I used it a lot in both university and my college courses and will for sure be using it again in my graduate studies.

It takes 28 days to break a habit, but only 30 seconds to make one. Set an alarm for a time every day you KNOW you can work on your scheduling/organizing and do it then. It will help keep you organized -- even if you only do it for 5 minutes before bed.

The ideal organization system is one that

• Makes sense to you
• You WANT to use
• Isn't too complicated

Try this easy starter system for your blog:

• Monday: Book Review
• Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday
• Wednesday: Waiting on Wednesday
• Thursday: Discussion Post
• Friday: Blog Tour/Freebie
• Saturday: Fun Feature or Empty Day
• Sunday: Stacking The Shelves

It doesn't matter what you do on those days, but make sure you make a system and stick to it! You can still be flexible, but to get organized, this is a quick and easy system that will get you started on your way to high organization!

Keep Everything in One Spot

You want to make sure that your schedule and ideas are in one location. You don't want to be searching all over to see if you wrote something in one place but saved it in another! My best advice is to save everything in Google Drive or another cloud-based system that you can access across multiple devices in multiple locations. That way, if you have inspiration or an idea, you can jot it down AND save it in the right spot.

If you are like me and always carry around a journal or a notebook, have a specific spot for blog post ideas or your scheduling ideas for the future. This is what I love (and dislike) about bullet journaling!

But try to choose ONE method. Of course, try out different ones to see what you stick to and what works best for you, but don't have too many places for your ideas or you will eventually lose them or double post (both have happened to me and I don't want you to make the same mistake!)

Don't Feel Guilty About Those Last Minute Posts

We all have them. We realize 30 minutes before they are supposed to go up that we actually haven't writen anything yet and scramble to do them. It has happened to all of us and will continue to happen even with the most perfect of organization systems.

The point of being organized is so that EVERY post doesn't feel like a last minute post. Even if 4 out of 5 posts for the week are last minute, at least you have that ONE you had finished a while ago!

Organizing Your Reading Schedule

This is where it gets to be a bit more ricky because reading is a hard thing to keep up on and is a very personal thing to me. Everyone reads differently and has different reading paces. So here are some things I recommend doing so that your ARCs don't pile up and you aren't scrambling to read everything in a short amount of time.

Prioritize Your TBR

If you are like me, you don't like making lists because then you NEVER READ THOSE BOOKS, but sometimes you have to finish a book by a certain date whether it is for the releases date or a blog tour. Those come first; however, don't FORCE yourself to read anything. Take breaks to read other books you may want to read first! This really helps me get into the groove for reading, espeically if I receive a highly anticipated release early or want to binge and entire series.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't be responsible, however. If you are committed to a blog tour spot, make sure you follow through. Remember that most of these are promotional tours, so it's a good idea to read these ASAP in case you don't like the book and need to arrange something different with the host. It is ideal to give them at least a week's notice, but do not do less than 48 hours.

Try Participating In Some Reading Challenges!

Have some books you want to finish but aren't sure how to squeeze them in? Participate in reading challenges for the year! This will help you feel as though you are accomplishing something by reading! There are some great ones that allow you some flexibility to read pretty much whatever you want and knock off challenge prompts.

Reorganize Your Shelves

I know we don't all necessarily have time to do so, but I find that when I reorganize my shelves, I find book I may have forgotten about that I then read sooner than I would have if I hadn't touched my shelves.

TBR Jars

I personally don't use tese, but I know lots of people who do and are successful with them! Put your immediate TBR pile into the jar and pull them at random to spice up your reading! Alternatively, use this to have a bit of a break from the books you feel pressured to read but don't necessarily want to read right now. 

Reading Goals!

Jacquelyn (@jacquelynreads) has a method of creating Reading Goals that she wants to achieve (typically in a day but you could modify it to fit your reading schedule. She reads like a champ!) where you state how many pages in a book you want to get to in what you are currently reading. I find this super helpful and have included a couple of her photos below so you can see the types of goals she sets.

Change Reading Locations

Sometimes we get into a bit of a slump because our scenery doesn't change, so scope out a new place to read and go read there! New coffee shop, cafe, the library, antyhing! Just change your environment to help you continue to read.

But Life Can Get In The Way

Your life and your mental health are way more important than anything else, so if you are having a hard time reading or getting things done, take a break! Binge watch a series on Netflix, catch up with friends, etc... Just make sure you do what is best for you!

And that's it! These are just some tips to create a foundation for your organization, but they will getyou started so you can make your organization your own. Try different things, google organization methods, and make it work for YOU. Don't use someone else's system if you are having a hard time understanding what it means or having trouble keeping up with it. Take all these with a grain of salt and don't forget that it is YOUR blog and you should do what you like the best with it! I just hope that some of these help!

Which of these tips are you going to adapt? 

Is there anything different you do that might help others?