Blogmas is a time of year that can be both stressful and exciting. On one hand, putting up content on a daily basis gets you in a festive spirit. But on the other hand, setting strict deadlines for yourself during an already busy month can be…well, a lot.

This is my second year participating in Blogmas, and I feel like I’ve had an easier experience this time around. What’s really helped me get through this challenge successfully (so far) is that I’ve taken a lot of my past mistakes and found ways to solve them. Today I thought I would explain some of the things I’ve learned about blogging from Blogmas that have helped me stay on schedule!

Planning really counts. 

The biggest thing I’ve learned from my Blogmas experiences is that having a planner is so incredibly important. Being mindful of when you’re going to post what can make a huge difference in your ability to follow through with this (or any) daily blogging challenge. I’ve participated in Blogmas twice now. The first year, I wasn’t too organized or, quite honestly, prepared. I wrote content on a whim and just barely managed to get things posted in time for their daily deadlines. This wasn’t too bad on most days. But on other days (days when I was feeling totally drained and uninspired), it was a major struggle.

To avoid having this happen again this year, I decided to brainstorm all my post ideas at the beginning of the month. I ended up scrapping and changing a few ton of them, but having those ideas already thought out alleviated a lot of the stress I had dealt with the previous year. It’s a lot easier to motivate yourself to do something when you’ve got an idea to go off of rather than completely starting from scratch. And while I still had some days where I wasn’t feeling up to blogging, I wasn’t as unmotivated as I could have been.

I highly recommend plotting out all 24 of your Blogmas posts in a planner or calendar and checking them off as you go along. It looks a lot less overwhelming when you have it written down in front of you.

Have a backup post. Or two. 

Even if you aren’t the planner type of person, it’s a good idea to have some backup content written ahead of schedule. Something I’ve learned from blogging is that life doesn’t according to plan. One moment, you may think you have the time to write a post or take photos, and the next, things will be totally different. It can never hurt to have a few safety posts ready to go if you can’t make a deadline. And if you don’t end up needing it, there’s always next Blogmas!

Things will get in the way. 

Another thing I’ve learned from Blogmas is that problems are almost guaranteed to arise, especially problems involving technology. I’ve had my fair share of blog posts randomly deleted by WordPress, and it has been really frustrating. However, it’s important not to get too down on yourself if something happens that is completely out of your control. If you have to miss a day or two because things get out of hand, it’s more than okay to do so. Don’t get so preoccupied with getting a new post up that you stop enjoying it.

Despite how hectic it is, Blogmas has been a blast so far! I’m having a lot of fun writing these posts, as well as reading everyone else’s!

What have you learned from Blogmas? Do you think you’ll do it again next year?

Sincerely,

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