Blue Bayou
Finding a balance between a full load of upper division classes for my double majors and blogging as full-time as possible has been definitely a process but in no means is it impossible!
Time-management is a skill you never fully master but that just means there's always room to grow, right?
Since I was little, growing up in an Asian household meant my parents always pushed me to become a jack-of-all-trades. From juggling sports and piano to dance, clubs and tutoring sessions, I had to adjust myself to a routine.
There's a rhythm to it.
As time passed, courses got harder and my schedule got tighter, and then the inevitable happened--I stopped posting. I went on a hiatus or two and every blog's worst nightmare came true for me. I lost my online presence and I was no longer consistent.
To counter that, I created a system of organization: Prioritizing, planning, bunching, queuing.
1.) Prioritzing
Among all of my commitments I'm usually short on time, but I know that I must have time to put into Polydeux and that time I've set aside for it remains sacred.
Typically I have three days out of the week to shoot and the rest to post, edit and process content, or whatever else a blogger needs to do to function. I also know that if I have several campaigns lined up, I can't knock them out all at once.
Some require more than just one shoot to finish the campaign and therefore need more brainstorming and planning ahead. Therefore, I need to figure out which campaign needs to be done first and which ones I can set aside for the week after since most usually require the content two weeks after receiving their products.
2.) Planning
When it comes to my agenda, highlighters are my best friends and I color code my life away to stay on top of things. I also have meetings with my photographer, Justin once a week to plan the upcoming week in terms of our shoot: what content we'll be shooting on our scheduled days, location and concepts.
Not only that, but I also organize my inbox. I label e-mails and categorize them, that way I have all of my communication with current collaborators in one box and emails I'm waiting to hear back on or need to get back to underneath.
(Yes, I have a lot going on)
This is one of the most essential steps in order for Polydeux to function the way it does.
3.) Bunching
The hardest part about figuring out how much time I need to dedicate to Polydeux is making things a routine, that way me and Justin can work faster and I have more time to shoot more content in our allotted time slots. To make the most of our time, I bunch my tasks together.
For example, on Mondays before class, I shoot and Tuesdays at work I'll post on Lookbook and try brainstorming for blog topic ideas. Maybe I'll write the post ahead of time. Then I'll shoot again Wednesday and either edit a vlog the following day or publish a blog post.
The point of bunching is to be able to do as many tasks possible in a short amount of time by divvying them up.
4.) Queuing
Lastly, I may not always have time to wait until peak hours or I'll be in class by the time I need a post to go live. In that case, I'll have my content queued up. Whether it's my blog, or the dreaded IG post, which takes years to make live because #captions.
Therefore, I depend heavily on this app called Latergramme, which will notify you when your post is ready that you scheduled ahead of time. It also saves your caption and does 90% of the steps for you ahead of time.
So if you ask me how I balance everything, it's all about organization. Create a routine and stick to it.
Blogging just got a lot easier.
Dress via Donya Vogue
Photography by Justin Quebral