My Blogging Habits: Pines & Palmettos

I feel like I've been blogging pretty consistently lately, and thought I would share some of the tools and habits that have contributed to that consistency.

I shared this in one of my Bullet Journal posts, but I have a calendar with my blogging schedule on it.

In case you haven't noticed, I post on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Twice a week is consistent but not overwhelming, and works better for me.  I once tried to keep up with this through the Google calendar, but I'm an analog girl. I gotta see it all together on paper. This allows me to see if any given Tu/Th has a post scheduled, what that post is about, and with the notation I use also if it has been started, finished, or a topic chosen but the post not started.

It's also helpful because I can keep up with the link-ups and reoccurring topics. This way I can space those between random topics so it's not a bunch of repetitive things bunched together (ie I don't do a Current Thoughts post the last week of one month and the first week of the following month, two weeks consecutively).

Speaking of reoccurring topics, they have been great for keeping me going. 

• Obviously I love the Show Us Your Books link-up, so that's one Tuesday every month that's an easy post I love to do. 
• Current Thoughts was created as a way to talk about what's going on in my life without having to make full-length posts about anything specific.
• I was considering doing something that listed random things I loved, which I basically do with the Add It To My List link-up at the end of the month.
• Words of the Month actually started when I wanted to talk about a specific Bible verse but didn't want to do a random Christianity post (I want to eventually get back into doing my Salvation Sunday series again, where I discuss my faith and Christianity in general, but not quite up to it yet); WotM was a way to ease into that. 
• Three Things...I'm still not sold on it, but I had some random lists and things I wanted to share so I'm giving it a try. 

Together all these things add up to about half my blog posts per month, which takes a lot of pressure off. Blogging is something I enjoy doing, but I can get overwhelmed and these reoccurring topics provide a starting point.

The other thing I keep in my BuJo, besides the blogging calendar, is a list of blogging ideas. 

This comes in super handy when I am having writer's block, because I get ideas at the most random times. I just write down the basic idea and then when I need a topic, I pick one from the list and expand on it.

I do like having images in my posts...but I hate feeling like I have to take pictures out in my real life to perfectly match a post. I've done that and I didn't enjoy it. So I looooove Unsplash because I can guilt-free grab a photo to use and edit without worrying that I will get a lawsuit later.



Once I find an image, I use Canva to edit it. Used to be all about PicMonkey, but they started charging more and one of the updates kept crashing on me and now it's all about Canva. It's super easy to add text and images so I can do it quickly.