Okay, so if you’ve been checking in around here, you know I haven’t been blogging much lately. When I decided on this new blog/direction earlier this year, I promised myself I wouldn’t do that thing where I don’t blog for awhile and then blog about how I didn’t blog for awhile (you know we’ve all done it…) Yet here I am.

I fell a little behind on the schedule I set for myself and then just felt really burned out. So without any real planning, I decided to just take a break from blogging/social media/being online in general (except for work stuff). So this post is sort of a summary of stuff I didn’t do but should have. I wanted to offer some tips that could actually help people (and me) in the future instead of just making excuses for stuff I’ve already done.

So here’s how you can better prepare for taking a break from your blog (a.k.a. do as I say, not as I do)

Create a post schedule

This is kind of a no-brainer tip even if you’re not planning on taking a blog break anytime soon. You need a schedule for regular posting that you can actually stick to. It’s a good practice to keep a schedule of blog post ideas covering at least a few months in whatever calendar you like to use for blogging. Then you can work on actually writing, editing and designing those posts in the weeks leading up to publishing them. The goal should be that you never end up scrambling to finish something on the day you plan to post it (we’ve all been there!) If you’re constantly playing catch-up, that makes it really difficult to ever take a relaxing break.

Batch your tasks

While you’re working on getting ahead with blog posts and other tasks, it makes sense to batch, or do a bunch of the same things all at once. So when you sit down to actually write posts, write a bunch of posts while you’re kind of “in the zone.” Then when you go to take photos, take photos for a bunch of posts at the same time. And when you go to schedule social media, schedule it for the whole week or more. Whenever I do this, I tend to get way more done in a shorter period of time. More work done in less time = more time available for breaks.

Actually plan for your break

Even if you regularly stay ahead with blog posts and batch your tasks and all that good stuff, a lengthy blog break is likely to still take a bit of extra work. So a few weeks before your break, or a month before if possible, start putting together a plan for how you want your blog to run while you’re away, what posts you want published, and anything else you want to happen. Then put together a plan to make those things happen leading up to the start of your break.

Ask for help

One way to get ahead of schedule without putting in tons of extra work before giving yourself a rest (since those things seem to cancel each other out anyway) is to ask for help from others. If you have a team helping you with your blog, then this part should be pretty easy for you. And if not, you can consider reaching out to some other bloggers you like and trust to see if they might want to guest post. Then you can schedule those posts before you leave. And offer to return the favor for those bloggers the next time they go on vacation.

Schedule posts ahead

Once you’ve gotten a bunch of posts written and edited and such, you need to actually schedule them for the time you’re going to be on your break. Have your blog posts and social media posts set to automatically publish regularly throughout the time of your vacation or whatever.

Stay on a realistic schedule

Breaks aren’t usually as effective or restful if they come when you’ve just reached the end of your rope and you have no choice but to just let it go for a bit (*cough* me *cough*). It makes more sense to just keep a realistic workload the rest of the time so that you don’t just wear yourself out so much that you have to call it quits for a lengthy period of time pretty regularly. So if you get worn out pretty easily posting every day, running a newsletter, and hosting a Facebook group, you might need to cut out some of those things. Try posting three times a week instead, or just outsource some of those tasks so that you can more easily manage. For me, this means cutting down to one post per week from now on – at least until the end of this year, so that I still have time to work on newsletters and content upgrades and all that good stuff without falling too behind.

Take small breaks regularly

And another part of keeping a realistic workload means taking regular breaks. They don’t need to be long or anything. But maybe just take a weekend to unplug every now and then. Doing this can help you stay sane and on track so that you only need to take those longer breaks occasionally. And if you’re able to stick to a realistic schedule and stay ahead with your content, these little breaks shouldn’t really require any extra work or planning on your part.

So what do you all think? Do you have any other thoughts on taking blog breaks?

BONUS: I’ve created a really easy to use checklist to help you prepare for your next break. It covers every major task you need to complete for the month leading up to your blog break – get your free copy here!