Watch Out For These Productivity Pitfalls If You Want To Make It As A Blogger

In the 21st century, what can be more noble than eschewing the daily drudgery of the rat race by taking your future in your own hands and attempting to make a living as a blogger? It sounds like an unattainable dream, right? But that hasn’t stopped ordinary people from all sorts of backgrounds from doing it all over the world. However, monetizing your blog is relatively easy but making a living from it can be hard. If you’re to make a decent living making money from home as a blogger, it’s important to avoid the common pitfalls that can seriously compromise your productivity.

Distractions

The digital age provides creatives with more outlets than ever to share their talents with the world and make a living doing what they love. However, it also provides them with more distractions than you can shake a cursor at. Even if you manage to avoid the allure of your social media feed or funny cat videos on YouTube, there are still myriad distractions in the home that can derail your productivity.  

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Inappropriate space

Nascent bloggers make the mistake of believing that they can blog anywhere from their sofa to their favorite coffee shop. Sure, they can… But they absolutely should not. Your first task as a professional blogger should be to create a space that’s entirely dedicated to working. This is especially important when working from home where you’ll have to contend with the distractions of the household. Your work space should be comfortable, and if possible have access to a view of nature even if it’s just your garden. At the very least you should have some access to natural light. 

Whatever space you choose you should have, as a bare minimum:

• A desk
• A comfortable office chair.
• Appropriate decor (houseplants and wall art are fine, but avoid anything that may prove a distraction).
• Access to a power outlet. You don’t want to find yourself creatively on a roll, only to have to change rooms because your laptop ran out of juice.
• Post-it notes to aid memory.
• Quiet. 

Not having set working hours

In the name of productivity, and for the sake of your sanity, you can’t be at work 24 hours a day. Even those who’ve shrugged off the nine-to-five still keep set working hours. Establish 8-10 hours a day, every day which are dedicated solely to work and outside of those hours stop working. Unless a looming deadline or unexpected rush of work necessitates ‘overtime’, it’s important to stick to your prescribed hours.

Not taking a break

It can be tempting to plough through your work sans intermission when you have a lot to get through, but it’s important to recognize your brain’s limitations. Your brain needs rest to function at its best so make sure you allow yourself a 15-20 minute break every few hours. During these rest breaks it’s important to get away from your laptop (and any other electronic device if you can help it). Find a room that’s comfortable and visually soothing with rocking chair cushion sets and neutrally painted walls. Listen to some music, close your eyes and dedicate a few moments to just enjoying the rest. You’re much more likely to return to your laptop rested and productive than if you were to slave on regardless of your fatigue.

With just a little self-discipline and awareness, you too can turn the dream of professional blogging into a lucrative reality.