I read an article by Ashish Mohta, a professional blogger, on 11 ways to manage your blog, located at http://www.technospot.net/blogs/time-management-tip-how-i-manage-work-and-blog/. It is by a blogger who has a full time day job and was having difficulties managing his time. Some of the suggestions were to block off a specific amount of time for blogging and don't go beyond that limit. Make a schedule for when to do things like checking your emails, updating your blogs and researching other sites. He also suggests that you post your blog first before reading other blogs so that your creativity remains intact, which I feel is a very valuable suggestion.
Ashish suggests keeping a diary to write down ideas so that you don't have to think about what you want to post when it is time to post. He says not to spend time on useless chatting because people don't have time for it. He also says to not respond to posts immediately but wait a day or so and see if you can respond to multiple posts with one post, instead of trying to answer every post with its own response.
These are excellent suggestions. The scary thing is that he says that these suggestions are how he keeps his blogging time down to 3 hours a night, except for Saturdays and Sundays. Hmm - I am afraid to ask how much time he spends on the weekends...
I don't have three hours a night to spend on blogging, so I feel that the way to make sure I don't do this is to do the things Ashish suggests and then limit my audience as best as I can to meet my classroom needs and my time allotment for blogging.
In the beginning, as I a open up my blog to others, I will have to limit what I have on my blog and what I require or offer my students. Initially, it will be a place for students to go with questions and to get information for assignments. As time progresses and I get a handle on my blog I can add blogging assignments to my curriculum. Again, I will have to monitor to see if I have overwhelmed myself with the beast I have created to know how I must modify.
As for peers and other persons, including professionals, my blogging will have to be kept within those time limits Ashish suggests so I don't lose myself in my computer. It is easy to get in over your head and then not know how to get out. So until I get a handle on blogging for my classroom I will have to keep my "outside interests" down to a minimum. Go Priorities!!! :o}
From what I have read, the hardest part of managing blogs is time. For blogs to be effective and maintain its readers, time has to be invested in blogs. Finding a system that works for bloggers is the first step. I will admit that I have not been very effective in managing my blog, but I am back on track and plan to stay that way.
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