College in itself can be a very stressful and busy time in itself. When you’re in college, it is hard enough to manage life in itself. With the social activities, extracurriculars, academics, and part time jobs, it is HARD. When you add a blog and becoming an influencer onto it all, who knows what else will get done?! Well, today, as an influencer and college student (soon-to-be-graduate!!!), I am here to tell you how I balance being a college student and a blogger.
Use a Planning System
Whether it be by paper and pen or digitally or a mix of the two, be sure to establish a planning system to aide in your blog planning. For me, I use spreadsheets to plan out my blog posts for the week, whether it be giveaways, collaborations, posts, stories, etc. and be sure to write down when to post them in my digital planning system. That way, I can successfully keep track of it all. Like college classes, your blog is a business that must be treated as such – it has deadlines, needs consistency in order to stay afloat, and a constant mode of flowing with the trends within our social media world today. What you put into your platform is what you will get out of it. The same goes for your college classes.
Plan, prepare, execute, and do it all over again, accordingly.
Have a Calendar
As an influencer, my calendar is my forever best friend. I can know where I have to be and when. I plan out my photoshoots for content, days that I am going to post them, and much more. Like you do for your college classes, plan out when you will focus on your blogging and execute.
Find Your Maximum Productivity Level for Academics & Influencing
To me, a maximum productivity level is the level at which you are most productive at something. For me, my maximum productivity level is different when I am focusing on academics than it is for influencing and blogging. In fact, I am more productive at my academic work in the afternoon. As for influencing and blogging, I am most productive after 10pm-early morning hours. Knowing that my maximum productivity levels are at different times for the different tasks that I have as a student and as a blogger, I can use that to my advantage and schedule when I work on what accordingly.
Make Sacrifices
When I chose to start my blog, I knew that I would have to make sacrifices. For me, that was spending more time on academics than I was on my blog. While I do have high ambitions for growing my platform here on The Pink Chickadee, in order to keep up with my classes, I have not been able to reach them yet. I plan to when I graduate, though. Yet, I have made the sacrifice to spend more time on academics that I have on my blog since starting it so that I can acquire my degree. At the same time, having a blog takes a lot of time, no matter how much time you choose to dedicate to it. You will most likely have to spend some late nights crafting posts and creating new content, especially with the robust social and academic world known as college. However, I have found it all to be so worth it in the end.
College Comes First
Above all else, your college career comes first. Although blogging is super fun and a great way to meet likeminded folks, it is not as important as your college career in retrospect. If you have a big test coming up, then your time should be dedicated towards that rather than curating a brand-new blog post or photo for your Instagram feed. The same goes for papers, assignments, etc. At the end of the day, your college career and GPA will get you your degree NOT your blog!
I most definitely do not regret starting my platform while in college. I have put many hours, blood, sweat, and tears into my blog all while being a college student. Although I have had many highs and lows since starting The Pink Chickadee, it has all been oh so worth it in the end. If you are ever considering starting a blog while in college, do it and do not look back. It will be the best decision that you ever made!
XOXO – Katie <3
