Guest Post: 4 Ways To Get In The Mood For Blogging

When you're a blogger, it can often be difficult to get yourself in the right mindset to do work. There are a million and one distractions out there, especially online, and every one of them will suddenly seem extremely interesting when you feel like procrastinating.

Getting in the mood for blogging doesn’t have to be difficult. Sometimes just making a few small changes to the way you work can do wonders for your focus and productivity.

The next time you're struggling to concentrate, try one of these helpful tips to get you back on the right track.

Create the right workspace

Ever heard of the saying cluttered space, cluttered mind? Well, it turns out that there’s some truth to that saying. According to a study by the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, the more clutter you see, the more easily you get distracted.


So, if your workspace is a bit of a mess right now, it might be worth tidying up a little. To further boost your mood and productivity, make sure you let in some natural light and decorate your space with household plants. Just making a few small tweaks to your office space can help get you in the right mood to do work.

Block out the distractions

One of the most challenging aspects of working from home is all the distractions around you. To help keep your focus, playing background noise could help. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that moderate levels of ambient noise can improve performance on creative tasks.

Sites like Coffitivity and Noisli allow you to play ambient sounds that have been designed to improve your focus and increase productivity. Of course, you could also head out to your local café for the real deal and a change of scenery.

While background noise helps, it won’t exactly take away the urge to visit addictive social networking sites. If you find yourself getting easily distracted by these sites, you can block them by installing an extension such as StayFocusd or using an app such as Rescue Time. If you still need these for work, you can limit the amount of time spent on them, so you don’t overdo it.

Look for inspiration 

Sometimes the thing stopping you from getting ahead with your blog is a lack of inspiration. To help reignite your passion when things get a little stale, take a break and visit different blogs and social media pages for some much-needed inspiration.

Try reading various blogs, books, and articles, as well as looking at forums or groups in your niche to find out about current trends, news, products, and anything else that might provide you with new ideas for your blog.

For example, if you run a mommy blog, you may find that joining a relevant Facebook group can provide you with plenty of topics to write about, particularly since parents are always taking to such groups to help find answers to various questions.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to your niche for inspiration. Sometimes it’s best to go outside of your niche to help you come up with new ideas for your blog or social media pages.

You may be inspired to try out a new article layout, a tool that could help you with your work, or an attention-grabbing theme. Seeing blogging from a different perspective could also help you come up with ways to help you stand out from fellow bloggers in your space.

Write about what you know

The great thing about blogging is that it offers you your very own platform to write about the things that matter to you. You don’t necessarily have to stick to current trends in your niche; sometimes all you need to do is look a little closer to home.

This very post was inspired by the fact that I am currently trying to find back my motivation for blogging now that I am coming to the end of my maternity leave. After such a long break, I have had to think about the things that help me keep my mind on work and bring me the inspiration I need to keep on writing.

Often, you will have your own relevant experiences to draw upon for your blog, no matter what niche you are in. It could be that you are planning to go out for dinner and you could write a review of the restaurant, or you have just worked out how to use a new tool for your blog, and you could share your advice with fellow bloggers – there are several ways to turn your own experiences into a new post.

If necessary, take a break

This might sound counterintuitive, but sometimes when you try and force something to happen, it can make it far more difficult to get good results. Taking a little break can alleviate some of the pressure you may be putting on yourself to constantly crank out the content and give you a well-deserved rest.

Saskia Smit is a freelance writer and founder of career blog My Kind of Monday, which focuses on helping people find happiness in work and in life. Follow her on Twitter for more tips on maximising productivity while working from home. 

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