Surviving Blogmas #DitsyDecember

With us now being well into the second week of Blogmas (a.k.a. #DitsyDecember) - already? How time flies! - and with many people, including myself, turning their hand to this whole daily blogging lark, I figured this post was pretty apt. I know some people can really struggle when it comes to Blogmas, for a whole host of different reasons and I remember last year myself (my first ever year of doing Blogmas and first time of doing any daily blogging in general) finding it pretty hard to both keep up with the quantity of posts I was aiming to put up, but also maintain the same level of quality I had tried to set throughout the whole time of being the writer of 'Dainty Ditsy'. So for today's post, I decided to put together a little list of just a few of the things I find can help relieve some of the pressure. Are you a fellow Blogger too? You might just want to read on...

PLAN, PLAN AND PLAN SOME MORE - I know I started my last 'How-To'-type post on about Christmas Shopping (which you can see here) with a similar sentiment, but it really continues to ring true in this department aswell. I cannot stress how much planning, for me, helps me accomplish a whole month of daily blogging - particularly during December which can be a very busy month as it is already. Last year, I started planning posts around the end of the October, and this time round was about the same and so far, that's worked for me pretty well. It gave me time to plan out ideas for some posts, write some others up, possibly take photos and sort out links and scheduling and so on and just generally get some stuff down. Then, at the start of December I feel I have some content to give me a head start and also possibly act as backup throughout the month if for some reason I can't get that day's post together. This year, by the start of the month I had a post at least decided for pretty much every day of December and while of course there are bound to be some changes along the way with new post ideas or just a general shifting around of the ones I've already got - it feels good to already have a good idea of what I want to put up on Dainty Ditsy over the coming weeks.

HAVE SOME 'STOCK' PHOTOS - Obviously I don't mean the traditional type of 'stock' photo which you may naughtily nab off a website, I mean making your own. Try and put together some photos which can effectively be used for a whole multitude of posts. For example, I like to take photos of Christmassy wrapping paper to be used as a background for writing of whatever blog title to go over the top of. Any kind of 'plain' background which you could use for this kind of thing is a great photo to have during Blogmas when (if you carry on reading below), fresh photos can prove difficult to take on a daily basis. Another great kind of 'stock' photo perhaps do have a feature, but it's on the more general side of things (such as your Christmas tree or some flowers) so can in theory be linked to a whole spectrum of blog post ideas. Of course for some posts this isn't so applicable, such as any which feature specific items or products as ideally those need to be featured  somehow, but in certain cases - it works a real treat.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR FREE TIME - This is also a massively important one to me, as with working part-time at the moment (looking to hopefully move into more full-time work soon) general lifer admin and also maintaining my social life with family and friends - I know how essential it is to make the most of the free time I have aside from those things. Of course, I do not mean all of your free time as that is simply unrealistic and unnecessary, but I do like to make sure I have a some 'Blog Time' at least once every day, especially before and during Blogmas, to work on posts/photos etc. and make sure I'm where I need to be so I can post everyday in December.

...ALSO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE NATURAL LIGHT - Or should I say 'Lack' of natural light as let's face it - December will never be renowned for its fabulous sunny daytime hours, eh? That just makes it even more essential that when you do get a day that's nice and bright for a change, if you can, you try and make the most of it and literally snap away till your heart's content and get as many blog photos sorted as possible. Like I said, obviously this depends on your personal situation as if you are in full-time work during the day this could prove difficult, but if you are in that boat - just try and take good advantage of whenever you are out of work during the day (e.g. the weekends) and if the Weather Gods are working in your favour - you know what to do.

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - And perhaps the most important things out of all these suggestions in my opinion, is to just try and stay relaxed about it. It is December and the month of Christmas after all and the last thing you wanna be doing is stressing about blogging at a time when ideally everyone should be happy and enjoying themselves. Yes, you want to aim to post every day (or you may even be doing your own schedule), but you also might want to be doing other things during this month such as sorting out things for Christmas or spending time with your loved ones and the most important thing is finding that balance. Blogmas is meant to be first and foremost a bit of fun - and a little bit of a friendly challenge at the same time - and at the end of it all, on Christmas Day you want to be in a good mind-set to really immense yourself in the festivities and enjoy yourself. Have fun with it and Good Luck to those of you who are in the midst of Blogmas right now! I hope it's going well for you and you might have found some of these little tips helpful in some way! And remember - We're all in this together... *tries not to burst out singing High School Musical*...