Hey there! Welcome back to Let’s Talk Bookish. Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by me @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts.
Today’s topic is: Blog scheduling (suggested by Heran @ Be Frisky)
Thank you so much, Heran, for suggesting this topic! I’m not even sure what I’m going to talk about, because my schedule is not even really a schedule, but here we go!
So…what do I want my schedule to ideally be?
Well, I’d ideally post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Mondays would be a review and Wednesdays would be whatever creative post idea I have. Fridays are obviously LTB days.
Do I actually do this?
Nope. Not at all.
My problem is that I am a master procrastinator. I always always wait until the day of the post to write it. I mean, it’s currently 10:51 AM on Friday and here I am drafting this for the first time.
It’s just so hard for me to draft posts ahead of time because my wonderful brain is like: you still have time! It’s not going to post until Monday! Enjoy your weekend and do other stuff…Monday comes and I’m stressed and rushing to finish the post.
It’s TERRIBLE. I know. But I can’t help it. I procrastinate everything that I can possibly procrastinate. Writing posts, essays, assignments, everything! And the funny thing is that 99% of the time, it turns out okay. So I just continue to procrastinate.
But this post isn’t about procrastination, so back to schedules.
Do I think posting on a schedule is more or less stressful?
I think that posting on a schedule is a wonderful thing that reduces stress. If you know what you’re going to post today, and tomorrow, and that Monday 3 weeks from now, that’s amazing. It helps you have a routine and for me, that’s definitely a lot less stressful.
But sometimes it starts feeling stale. That was my issue with my previous schedule where I posted Monday through Friday.
Monday was book reviews. Tuesday was Top Ten Tuesday. Wednesday was WWW Wednesday. Thursday was book tags. Friday was LTB.
It was boring, it was too much, and it sucked the fun out of blogging for me.
After my May hiatus, I came back feeling refreshed and I’ve just been blogging randomly these past two months. Sometimes three times a week, sometimes just twice, sometimes just an LTB. Probably always never on the same day or time.
I started putting more time and effort into the posts that I write instead of just doing easy memes that I can finish drafting in about half an hour.
Now I spend 2 to 3 hours on my creative posts and I’m enjoying the feedback and discussions on those more than I ever did with memes. except LTB; it’s the only meme i still do and i love it!! duh rukky, you started this meme
I’ve stopped forcing myself to post by 8 AM everyday, and instead taking the time to really write my thoughts even if the posts are technically “late”. More often than not, I post at noon or 11 AM or 10. and now I can actually sleep in the morning lol. I’ve realized that there’s nothing wrong with that.
Is this aiding my procrastination habits? Definitely.
Do I regret it sometimes? Yeah, more often than not. Especially since I haven’t really done a reading update in like forever.
But do I think that this non-set-but-very-set schedule works for me? Yes. It really does and I much prefer it to what I used to do before.
Schedules only work if they are perfectly tailored to you. Only if they are tailored to your habits and to your likes and dislikes. You can’t force yourself to post on a schedule that you don’t like because that’s just you punishing yourself. You don’t have to post everyday or follow a schedule you don’t like to make your followers and readers stay engaged with your blog. I’m following some people who haven’t posted in a year! Or who haven’t posted in months.
But, I’m still here waiting because I know that I will probably love whatever they post whenever they come back and post it.
So, if your schedule isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to ditch it and try something new. There’s a very very very high chance that it’ll do wonders for you and your blog.
This Week’s Participants:
Dani @ Literary Lion | Rian @ Dogs and Books | Krisha @ Krisha’s Cozy Corner | Abby @ Beyond the Read | Evelyn @ Evelyn Reads | M.T. @ The Last Book on the Left | Jane @ Blogger Books | Aria @ Book Nook Bits
I find it incredibly hilarious how I start out a post with no idea what I want to talk about, and then I end up writing a pretty decent discussion.
Do you post on a schedule? Are you a master procrastinator? How do you deal with it? Do you like writing posts on a set schedule or just posting whenever you finish drafting? Chat with me in the comments below!
Eternity Books 
Sooooooooooo I’m a schedule queen. Well, a consistency queen? As of now I’ve been blogging thrice a week since the beginning of January (and I had blogged for 25+ days in December because of blogmas). My schedule has mostly been Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. It worked and also I apparently have a lot to say?? No one asked for it and I don’t know how I have so much to say but it is what it is.
After eight months of that, I’ve decided to cut back to 2 posts now. Starting this week. And… I’m already having trouble? I somehow found the perfect schedule and routine that it just worked for me. It’s Tuesday and even though I don’t WANT to have a post ready for tomorrow, my brain is coming up with blog post ideas and content. Like. Can my brain chill for a day? *facepalm*
My point was, it may take a while to find out what suits you best and honestly it all depends on how much you have to share every week and how much time you spend on every post. I genuinely felt (still feel for now) that I have SO MUCH to say that I need to blog thrice a week to get it all out. And I spend about an hour or two on every post. But lately, I’ve been enjoying longer posts that take more time and I want to explore that which is why I’m cutting back.
(apparently I’m writing my own blog post in your comments)
Anyway, I loved reading your thoughts on this! And your discussion ideas sound fun. I might join sometime 🙂
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I’m very bad with schedule! Every time I do one I always end up ditching it after following it for a short amount of time. I can relate to you about procrastinating. That’s me with my assignment, studying and everything really 😅
I’m trying to do and follow a schedule for my book blog. But like you said, schedules only work when they are tailored for you. So I’m still in the phase of finding out what kind of schedule works with me and my blogging/reading habit.
This is a nice discussion post! Also, I’m in awe with how you can write a post like this last minute!
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Yeah I don’t keep to a schedule either- and even if I post on similar days, I don’t want to tie myself down to it. I also feel like it would grow stale. And I prefer discussions to memes tbh
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It defintiely grows stale very fast. I just was doing it because “it was what I was supposed to do” and I wasn’t really having that much fun with it. Yup, discussions are awesome because they are always always creative ❤🙃
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Schedules and I have a strange relationship. In the past I used to create really regimented schedules for myself, each day would either have a theme or I’d know the post that was going up. I struggled swapping posts about and the schedule ended up burning me into the ground so to speak. I’ve posted on set days, I’ve once posted every day and that was just not worth the burn out I experienced later >.>
Now I plan out my content in advance and I prewrite posts, so I can schedule ahead but I give myself the flexibility to swap posts about. To remove posts and to not have a meltdown over missing a post. I think when I properly come back from hiatus I’m going to aim to post at least once a week, maybe more we’ll see but before I was posting 4 times a week on average and it was a lot.
I enjoy planning my content out in advance though so I have an idea of the posts I can put out, plan a schedule around that. However it’s totally normal for me to swap posts, forget about posts and just, totally ignore the schedule depending on my mental health and what’s happening in my personal life.
Schedules are useful but it’s all about finding that balance for what works for you and that’s a trial and error process. Of trying schedules which will run you ragged so you can find that balance where you feel like everything’s ticking over perfectly! Loved this post Rukky ❤
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Really loved this post, Rukky!! To be honest, I don’t really have a blog schedule, hehe. I just try to post as frequently as possible (which works sometimes). I also try to post different kind of blog posts so it doesn’t get boring. What I do is planning a bit ahead i.e. thinking about what I could post in the near future but it can’t be compared to a strict schedule.
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Glad you did, Linda! Lol, I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t follow a set schedule 🙂 Yeah, I also usually have an idea of what I want to post, but I just have no idea when I’ll ever sit down to write them 😂
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Nice to hear that I am not the only one, haha! 😂
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I talked about this in a post a few weeks ago (before I discovered your meme). My schedule is now getting revamped now that I’m retired. I’ll still do #6Degrees on the first Saturday of the month, and precede that with my own #ThrowbackThursday post. But mostly, I’ll try to stick to Fridays for book reviews and let whatever comes for the rest of the week, come from inspiration.
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That’s a great plan and I hope it works for you! 🙂 💖
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I do struggle with procrastination, a lot. I have a kind of rough schedule (but it’s constantly changing so is it really a schedule? But it’s usually a review, a tag and a weekly wrap up every Sunday. I like just having a base schedule with room for movement because if I don’t have at least some idea of what I’m doing when, I won’t get it done. I’ve realized that for me, I’m more productive when I have a set schedule in mind (guess that’s the virgo in me)
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I do struggle with procrastination, but I’ve gotten better at this throughout uni. I had to realize that waiting to study or write an assignment until the last moment meant that I was just more stressed overall. Also, if I did badly because of procrastinating I’d be so angry at myself, which is not a good feeling. 😦 To be honest, the blog also helped – we have a very consistent schedule (we post every Wednesday and Saturday, with an occasional extra post on Mondays) and I tend to have around 5-10 posts scheduled ahead of time. It makes blogging fun and organized, and allows me to relax. Sometimes I’ll write multiple posts in a few days, other times I won’t feel like blogging for weeks. The latter happened a few weeks ago, and the only reason I didn’t have to stop posting was that I had posts scheduled months ahead of time. That said, I know schedules don’t work for everyone, which is fair! 😀 (On a side note, I agree about popular memes – used to do them for a long time, but they were so formulaic and boring after a while. TTT posts could be made to be detailed and interesting, but after a while the topics were super-repetitive, so it was hard to produce strong content from them.) Great discussion!
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Great post!! I get what you’re saying about things feeling stale, it’s hard to feel creative if you’re sticking to a super rigid schedule!! But they do make things SO much easier.
I personally am just winging it, though I do want to start putting down ideas in a planner so that I’m not struggling to find content to post!! I feel like every other day works best for me, though who knows where I’ll end up taking things!! 😊 This was such a fun post!! 🥰
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love this post and discussion so much!! I don’t think I’ve ever had a schedule, maybe way back when but I’ve always just tried to post at least once a week. But I’m so terrible sometimes and need to become better at actually scheduling the posts or sometimes I forget and don’t post for like 2 weeks.
I also definitely think its more stressful, because my blog is a passion and I feel like if I did have a fit schedule it would make me not want to do it, like you said. So I try to stay just as consistent as I can and post whatever and whenever I want to. But also we’re the same and I master procrastinate and cannot be forced to write a blog post if I don’t want to lmao so terrible
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love this post, rukky!! omg i was like you before 😂 when my blog was only few months old, i had a posting schedule that i religiously followed. i don’t remember the exact days anymore, but one day was reserved for a review, another for TTT/a book tag, and another for a creative post/anything else. i’m so surprised that i was actually able to follow it & post three times a week 👁👄👁 but that schedule gradually fell apart as i got busier. plus, i came to realize that reviews and TTT are not for me.
now, i don’t have a blog schedule & i’m way more flexible. i just have to post something every three to four days & it doesn’t matter whether it’s a wrap-up, book tag, discussion, etc., though i try not to repeat the same post in a row. and i created the three to four days rule because i only posted four times a month in march, april, and may, even though i knew i had the time and ideas to post more!
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I definitely agree about memes! I still do TTT and Can’t-Wait Wednesday but they definitely aren’t as fun as something like LTB where you have a lot of freedom to make your post however you want. I was getting stale before joining in this meme. I can see how a schedule can definitely get tiring, especially because some days I just don’t want to write anything and if I have too many of those days I might fall behind.
I definitely think people need to be kinder to themselves when it comes to schedules. Your schedule needs to work for you and it’s okay to change and alter it whenever you see fit.
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I read somewhere that the resaon I continue procrastinating is because I always end up getting it done at some point. Unfortunately that’s so true…😂💀
I’ve really been enjoying your recent discussion posts so jeep them up 💖
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Lovely post ❤️ I actually love making spreadsheets I have spreadsheets for blogging and reading both so mostly like to stick to a schedule…..I am mood reader and kind of a mood blogger but it does happen when I don’t stick to the schedule…..and to be truthful I take days to write discussion posts but I think it is always I have very high standards for myself and am not sure others will like or not like so I keep on modifying it ? Also being quite indescive myself ! And I kind of feel relieved and satified that the post is ready to be published ! But again like u told there is a little.problem called procastination that districts me sometimes .And that is great if you can write such good discussions so quickly
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I tend to stick to a schedule for my blog posts, though I do run into that tiny problem you mentioned called procrastination once in a while. Well, more like once a week. Or… once a day? 😂
I completely agree with you on what you said about how schedules can get way too stressful. It’s definitely a matter of what works best for you as a person. Thanks for the amazing discussion Rukky!
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I do have a rough schedule, which is a mix of 3 reviews, Top Ten Tuesday and a Sunday post each week. I try and make sure that the next two weeks ahead of me are all scheduled, so if I ever need a mental health day or two it’s not difficult to catch up again.
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