Four Realities of Blogging Alongside a Full Time Job

People are always surprised to find that I blog whilst working full-time in what can only be described as demanding. I’ve managed to improve my blog quite a bit since starting a full time job, and I set out steps to take to balancing both in this post – but it definitely isn’t as easy as it seems. What you see is the finished product – but behind this, the process comes equipped with a whole load of late nights, constant tiredness and pressure to be extremely organised to stay on your game… So, coming from someone who is living it, what are the realities of being a blogger, when you spend the large majority of your life in a corporate job?

 

1. Missing out on good opportunities

Last year, I was invited down to an all-expense paid day trip to Paris with a well-known company (that I actually use a lot to browse), which offers out designer goods. Of course – I was extremely excited to see this e-mail pop up in my inbox. But, checking the dates, I saw that they wanted to take me and other bloggers out during my first week on the desk of my new job – and there was no way I was going to take holiday during my first week on the desk. So (painfully), I turned the opportunity down. Recently, I was contacted by a big UK hair brand who wanted me to participate in an Instagram campaign they were filming, but unfortunately I only heard about the campaign so last minute that it wouldn’t have been enough notice to take a day off work to go and do the filming. So (reluctantly), I had to turn that down also. It definitely can be quite disheartening to have to turn down such great opportunities due to conflicting schedules, and at times I do worry if – going forward – I was to continue to be offered these amazing opportunities – I’ll continue having to turn them down. However, what stops me from ever getting too bothered is that, in the grand scheme of things, there will always be new opportunities. So just because you couldn’t utilise one now, doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do so in the future.

 

2. Being too tired to blog (and occasionally falling asleep whilst doing so)

I try and write my two blog posts for the week during the weekend – which sounds easy, right? Two days, one blog post a day, shouldn’t be too tough. And sometimes, it isn’t. But sometimes, life gets in the way. For example, this weekend, my boyfriend’s family threw him a BBQ on Saturday – so Saturday, gone. On Sunday, I started my day in the gym, had a blog shoot, had some lunch, then headed back to my family home for the bank holiday weekend. This came with a lot of catching up with my family, then my older brother just so happened to sprain his leg badly on holiday, meaning that I spend the rest of my night in a hospital with my dad and brother waiting for an x-ray (literally waited over 3 hours). I got home, tired as can be, and slept. And that’s the end of the weekend – gone. This happens quite a lot – before you know it, it’s 10:00pm after a day of work and I’m struggling to even keep my eyes open to write up, edit and publish a post. Sometimes, I get so tired that I skip posting all together. Of course, consistency is pretty key when it comes to growing your blog, so I always hate doing this – but have to put quality over quantity.

3. Occasional disappearance from the internet

There are times when work is so busy that I have no time to do anything but work, blog (on Mondays/Thursdays) and sleep. I have HootSuite set up on my phone such that I can promote different blogs I publish without me having to even be by my phone – so sometimes I take a look at my social media accounts after a few days of disappearance and find it’s spammed completely with nothing else but me promoting my blog posts on Twitter; and on Instagram, there may as well be a tumbleweed going over my account. So if you follow me on social media, you can find that I am sometimes sporadic in terms of when I pop up and am active. Life gets in the way: if we’re really busy at work, closing a deal or producing some presentations for upcoming meetings, I really just don’t have the time to VSCO cam all my photos for Instagram and be active on Twitter until things quieten down again. And these days, social media pretty much goes hand in hand with blogging.

 

4. Making time for the admin

Aside from shooting, editing and posting – there is a whole lot more that comes with blogging. Be it pitching, keeping up with e-mails and general admin, being active in the community, and more. I sometimes find it incredibly hard to keep up with these things, as essentially I only have time to do these two days a week, which really isn’t much time in the grand scheme of things. This is where more late nights come in, and sometimes frustration if I feel like I haven’t been productive enough in terms of taking the right steps to grow my blog.
Although there are a number of downsides when it comes to having to maintain a blog alongside working full time, I can say that (at least for the most part), since I’ve started working, blogging outside of this hasn’t been too much of a hassle. Having so much of your time taken up elsewhere forces you to be organised and look ahead when it comes to your blog – otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind. For the moment, I’m comfy; and if that changes, you guys will be the first to know…

Photo: Marianne Paul