Monday, August 24, 2009

A Plan for Blogging

So, I've been a bit AWOL lately…as you can see from my menu plan I've been a bit busy! Somehow we're going out to dinner 5 of 7 days this week. You would think that would make life easier, but not for me. My challenge this week has been to get all the veggies (from the CSA from almost two weeks ago) processed and into meals. My second challenge is to get this blog up and running again.

When I started the blog I had a goal to post 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So far, I'm doing a terrible job of meeting that goal! In order to get back on track, I have created a new blogging plan and schedule. Taking inspiration from SimpleProductivityBlog, I've made a commitment, set up a calendar, and learned to use the future-posting feature of my blogging tool.

Commitment:

SPB suggested figuring out the minimal amount of posting I can do, and if I choose to tie that commitment to a calendar of days I will post. My commitment is to post three days a week, and I find that posting to a calendar helps with ideas and routine.

Calendar:

Menu Plan Monday: an article related to menu planning and my menu plan

Wednesday: Free Day, an article on any topic relating to food, cooking or organizing

Fight Back Fridays: a post related to real food


Blog schedule:

Because the blog has mainly been about my menu plan, my blogging schedule and menu planning schedule are closely tied together.

W: Meal plan draft. My goal is to at least get the paper one out and put our existing plans on it. I've printed a bunch of my menu
planning worksheets on colored paper so that they catch my eye in the folder that I carry every day. I've also added a weekly reminder to www.rememberthe milk.com. On Wednedays I will begin drafting an article to post on Friday.

R: Type meal plan. Even though I don't know exactly what will be in the CSA, I have a pretty good guess by now. On Thursday I will also draft an outline or put some ideas down for the blog post to accompany my menu plan.

F: On Fridays, I have received the CSA and can finalize the menu plan and make a shopping list. I can future-post the menu plan and finalize and post the Fight
Back Friday article that I drafted earlier in the week. Then, I'll do the shopping any time between Friday and Sunday with other errands or on the way back from a weekend trip.

Sat/Sun: The weekends tend to be very full, but not completely without down time. My plan is to spend some time either researching, writing or planning around at least one of the "archived topics", one of the topics I have outlined or made note of during the week. This will help me get ahead, so I'm not always writing from scratch!

M: Link to Menu Plan
Monday. Draft Wednesday's article

T: Finalize Wednesday's article and future-post it.


So, I'll see how this plan goes. I'm always posting the night before, so I shouldn't find myself posting in the morning before leaving for work, or distracted during the day to finish an article. This should fit in well with my regular routine. Though I am doing something almost every day, I am actually drafting/writing on the days I have set aside for blogging.

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