Time management tips for TEFL bloggers

If you think that this many tips on time management just to find time to write an unpaid TEFL blog is a bit anal, my answers are:

1) And?

2) They also work for finding time for lesson planning and studying for a DELTA, MA etc.

3) I don’t know if too much love will kill you, too much time management probably will, so use with care and see the last point

Finding time to find ideas

 Print out longer blog posts, online articles etc you think you might want to read on the bus etc. If you are worried about the trees and will have a laptop but no WiFi access, paste it into a Word document and stick it on your USB stick. If you want to read it on a different computer with internet access, e.g. at school, save it as a link on your blog (in the links section or as a comment to yourself in any post), then click on it when you get there

 If you are getting stuck trying to read a book or article, try starting at the end and reading backwards, reading all the summaries first, switching to the chapter that seems most interesting, alternating interesting bits and heavy bits, reading just the quotes or practical teaching ideas, or writing a reaction to it before you read any more and then reading the rest. If you get stuck a second or third time, give up on it (at least until much later)

 Have a range of stuff to read, including one shorter and/ or lighter thing that you can switch to when you get stuck and/ or one thing that is only vaguely related to TEFL such as the Times Educational Supplement or an amusing book on the English language or travel

 Read in a café or on a bus or train, or a distraction free part of the house like the balcony

 Take breaks that are limited and spaced out and planned, e.g. hanging up the washing that you put on just as you started writing

 Have a newspaper rather than a book or the internet as the thing to read while you are taking a break so that that reading can’t get too extended, or watch a very short bit of TV on DVD like a sitcom episode rather than choosing a channel and so risking channel hopping

Collecting ideas

 As you are reading, jot things down. If you can put quotes, your initial ideas (even if it just titles for blog posts) etc straight into electronic form, that will help with writing it up quicker when the time comes. If you can send SMS texts to an email account from your mobile phone, make all short notes (or at least a reminder that your notes are elsewhere and waiting to be written up) on your mobile and send them to your computer email account.

 Keep a notepad and pen, scrap paper and pen, or mobile phone handy at all times. Scatter cheap pens and pads around the house, and keep all bags and jacket pockets stocked too.

 If you find one thing in a newspaper or magazine you want to write about, rip the relevant page out of photocopy it and stick it on your computer desk.

 Keep an electronic copy of every nice quote you find on anything vaguely relevant, to be used when a blog post on a connected topic pops into your head. I just keep them all in one Random Quotes Word document. Ditto for games, random teaching ideas, links, things you want to read when you get the time etc.

Getting it written

 Set yourself a vague plan for how often you want to write, e.g. once a week or once at the weekend and once during the week

 Write where there is no internet to distract you, e.g. a café with no WiFi. If you need to put links in, just put LINK in capital letters at that point in the blog post to remind you to sort it out when you finally post it (actually I usually use a long line of question marks- ?????????????????????????- as it stands out more and gets picked out by spellcheck if I’ve forgotten about it)

 If you get stuck on a word, idea, turn of phrase, name, one more thing to make a nice round number etc, just put a line of question marks like above to remind you to come back to it later and continue writing

Prioritising

 Arrange the Word documents of your unfinished blog posts in order of size and try to finish the biggest one off first

 Read and write things that are long and/ or heavy first, and leave game ideas, lists, opinion pieces etc for when you start to lose concentration

 Start by writing up and posting stuff that could soon get out of date, e.g. things based on the latest editions of teaching magazines, today’s news, or your opinion or link to a hot topic on another blog or TEFL forum

 If there’s no rush (99% of the time with a TEFL blog, obviously), sleep on it and always leave a substantial pause before editing

 Keep a Word document with the name of the next blog post you want to write on your computer desktop to remind you to finish it off or at least to prompt more subconscious thought

Make time by not

 Don’t bother giving links to things that will soon disappear (e.g. BBC radio downloads)

 Don’t make to do lists- they just use up valuable time to be doing whatever else and kill all pleasure of living, and after all who’s going to suffer if you forget to finish off the blog post for a couple of days (or even weeks or months)

 Don’t put links for things people can easily Google, unless it is something you particularly want people to see

The very quickest blog posts to write

 Use your comments on another blog or forum

 The best results from a Google search you did for teaching ideas or materials

 A single quote

 A “I am reading/ teaching/ thinking about/ going to… conference, are you?” post

 Lists

 More easy blog post ideas here

Two blogs with one stone

 Reading other people’s blogs- you can get ideas to write about, make a whole post out of links to their blogs, and leave comments that will hopefully make them visit you (even if they have before, it can be a nice reminder to them, e.g. me)

 Writing stuff that amuses you- relax as you produce!

 If you want to write amusing stuff, read amusing books and (non TEFL) blogs for inspiration- what could be better!

Misc tips

 If you are thinking of doing a Part Two of something but think you might forget, keep a Word document called … Part Two somewhere to remind you

 Back up all the time

 Know your best time of day (for me it is first thing in the morning and last thing at night) for things like creative (?) writing and reading SLA books, and do tedious, mindless stuff like final editing, putting in links etc. in the time when you are usually braindead (for me, for three to five hours after lunch!) and the medium level stuff (reading other people’s blogs, marking student written work) at other times

 If you are buying a mobile abroad, make sure it has English predictive texting.

 Ditto for having an email address on your mobile so that you can easily send things to your laptop. If not, it might be possible to pull text off your mobile by connecting to your computer by Bluetooth or a cable, or by transferring things on an SD card.

And the most important part

Switch off!

 Read some stuff without a pen in your hand

 Have some sessions on the computer without touching on TEFL or checking your blog

 Have different email accounts for TEFL stuff and your friends and family

 Switch off that damned computer. Now!

Tags: blogging

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under TEFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.