It's tempting, isn't it, to buy every ebook, read every blog or listen to every podcast about making your blog better?
Remember that your time is valuable (and limited!). Every minute you spend reading is another minute you don't spend blogging. And it doesn't matter how many great tips you glean if you never have the chance to apply them. Be deliberate and thoughtful about what you read. Don't let the internet kill your blog.
OK, pardon my shameless self-promotion here. In my ebook Tell Your Time, I talk about this idea of limited time and the importance of budgeting it. I don't talk about blogging specifically, but the concepts could just as easily be applied to the time allotted for blogging. If you haven't picked up a copy, you might check it out!
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
Wise advice, Amy! I'm getting better at balancing learning about blogging with actual blogging. You are so right that's it's easy to spend all of our time reading and learning because one trail leads to another and another and another. So…I'll stop reading now and get busy blogging!
I definitely have a time management problem and it got worse with blogging – which i enjoy! Getting all the things I need to get done in one day is challenging. To get everything done would mean no time for just me. Each morning I go through my to do list only to get side tracked by calls from family members of things I need to do for them as well. It's exhausting because focusing on MY work is priority but often gets pushed back to do for everyone else. That's what happens when your office is in your home.
Amy, this applies to so many areas. I'm not blogging – yet – but I'm in that paralyzing (sometimes dream killing stage) of learning before I get my feet wet. I do this with everything – learning to eat whole foods, organizing my home, Bible study – my RSS feed is filled with all kinds of good ideas, but by the time I finish reading them, I can't implement even one of them. Not only am I out of time, but I'm paralyzed by the choices. I have this nagging thought of "I really like this person's advice. What if her blog has better info than xyz blog? What if I miss out on the key thing I need?" I don't know how to fix that mindset yet, but your post is certainly confirmation that it has to change. Thank you!
Oh, been there, done that too! I'm the worst at getting paralyzed by all the possibilities.
Amy, I literally woke up today worrying about this exact issue! My time management skills have never been good to begin with, but they're even worse now that I'm a baby blogger. I desperately need to work out a schedule. Thank you so much for your timely post!
Lynn @ Scrapityanne.com
Glad it came at the right time!
Talk about a word in season! I was just dealing with the culmination of information overload last night! Thank you for your words of wisdom – they'll definitely help me stay focused and stay on track.
I am guilty of this! And I realize how much time it sucks up, time that could have easily been more productive. The other day, I was lecturing my son for downloading and collecting songs, telling him there is no point collecting if he does not listen to them or signs them. Two minutes later, I felt guilty because I am an info-junkie.
Lesson learned.
Great post. Short and sweet!
Hello from a fellow info-junkie.
Some one told me that our success is not so much dependent on how much information we get, but rather on learning to avoid getting as much useless information as possible! I think both of you are right
Such great advice Amy! Ever since reading your post about a clean inbox, I've been following it and it has made such a huge difference. Rather than spending mental energy reading an email twice, I just read it once and respond (unless it would take a long response.) Same with reading blogs. I used to read a blog post and then think "Oh. I don't have time to comment, but I'll come back to it." When I finally did have time, I would have lost the train of thought and either not comment or read the post all over again. No more of that.
Reading once and then acting (or simply *not* reading if I really don't have time) has made such a big difference! Thanks for all your encouragement to be more intentional. I LOVE your blog.
You're welcome! Thanks, Anna.
Such good advice. I am following over 50 blogs on Google Reader which is really time consuming. I need to pare it down a bit or just follow people once a week (but then I miss out on all the good stuff). You're going to laugh, but I bought your e-book about 4 months ago and have never read it. I've intended to many times, but have procrastinated. I'm assuming that if I read it, I would have some better tools for how not to procrastinate.
What a timely message. I'm feeling overwhelmed by the eBooks, sites, etc. for better blogging. I need to concentrate on my little bloggy world. How in the world do you balance it all? Obviously another eBook Tell Your Time would be helpful.
Blessings and thanks.
Oh, I don't balance very well. Believe me, that time management ebook was more for me than anyone else! It works great in my head, but when it comes to day-to-day implementation, it's a struggle to stick with it.
Wow, this is such a problem for me! I just started reading (a.k.a. listening to on audio while commuting and working out) the book "168 Hours" inspired by Money Saving Mom's recommendation. It suggests you track how you spend all your time for at least a week. I started the tracking thing yesterday, and I can already see (no real surprise) that I spend way too much time reading blogs. I have pared down my google reader and only read those that truly inspire or inform me, but, even so, I have so little time to implement the great ideas I read about. It's pretty tough to have the discipline to limit myself to a few minutes of blog reading (or pinterest-ing) per day, but I would really benefit from that.
Oh Pinterest. I have to stay far away from there or my day goes down the drain!
Thanks for the reminder, Amy! It's a cold, rainy day here where I live, and I've spent the entire morning chasing rabbit trails on the internet. I have a copy of your book, and I'm going to re-read it NOW!
LOL! I'm the queen of rabbit trails.
Thanks for a great motivational post! It was just what I needed to help me write my weekly post!
So true! Before Christmas I stumbled on a free online Beginner Blogging class. Even though I've blogged for 4+ years I still think of myself as a beginner. So I signed up for the class. Then spent listened to the first session. After about 10 minutes I realized I know everything she was teaching. While I didn't learn what she intended or anything like what I thought I would learn, I did learn that I'm not a beginner any more. And that I know a lot about blogging. Now I just have to put action to my knowledge.
Yes, putting action to knowledge is the tricky part, eh? (It is for me!)
Well, not tricky, I just gotta do it! (I'd rather just read.)
I am a newbie (don't know a thing about bloggin) & have been spending so much time reading other's blogs, how to create blogs & so fourth. I have spent so much time on reading that I am really not learning much at all. It all sounds the same after a while. A beginners blogging class does sound good though…
I still don't know much about plug in's, adding things, I can't even get the rss on my blog because I can't find one that is step by step for Hostgator. So I really need some learning I guess. When I say NEW I mean within the last 2 weeks… lol..
Just take it slow! You'll soon get the hang of it. Just try to research one thing at a time, otherwise you'll go crazy!
Practice Selective Ignorance – or Strategic Ignorance. You don't have to know everything, and if you get sucked into thinking that you do, you may know a lot, but you will hardly do anything.