Are you experiencing a creative drought coming up with content for your blog? It can happen from time to time – don’t be hard on yourself, if so, okay? You may just need an inspiring ‘jump start’ or a refreshed perspective on the purpose of your blog.

Coming up with ideas for blog posts can be three things: reasonably easy, a l’il challenging or a bit frustrating.

Ideally, most writers would love obedient fingers that fluently skip across keys making words dance across the screen almost effortlessly…but that’s not always the case. We can go through different seasons in our writing or whatever expression of creativity we’re gifted with. Part of that process is what translates into growth.

It could be a life circumstance that temporarily distracts our focus, a lack of rest, a noisy environment, a schedule change or a purposeful pause for a cause…

Some of the ways to grow beyond ‘writers’ block’ are to:

• get some inspiration through refreshing activities

• write in bite-sizes during peaceful pockets during the day

• recognize the moments when ideas do flow but sometimes aren’t logged in real-time

Here are 3 Ways To Plan Your Blog Post Ideas, because as long as your mind is working, thoughts are flowing. It’s about setting aside gifted time to pour them out, fine-tune them, and prep the best ones to develop and publish on your blog.

Write them in a notebook

Writers write. Yes, we have tech tools to type with, but there’s something about the tactile motion in writing using paper and pen, or in a journal or notepad. In a quiet space, rest your eyes from screen time and jot down as many blog post topics that come to mind.

No need for a fancy font right now; just make your writing legible. If one topic doesn’t seem to connect to the next, still flow. You can filter and prioritize them after. Not every idea needs to be developed or shared online.

You might even find yourself doodling at the edge of the page, and this can give you some clues about visuals to add to your blog or post as well as give your mind another creative exercise that allows more ideas to stir up.

Use the Notes app on your phone

Start a new note to store and save ideas that match the essence and theme of your blog as they come up when your phone is nearby. Just open that same note specifically designated to listing topics, and add to it.

Avoid creating a whole new Note each time you think of a fresh idea for a post, so you don’t lose track of the previous list.

Log topics into an Editorial Calendar or Project Management app

I use an Editorial Calendar and Trello. The first is in SpreadSheet format, so it’s really just a summary of your posts in a digital list that’s easy to print (if you wanted to) because all the info is compressed.

Trello is a top project management app that has a free or paid plan. You can upload files related to each post and add a lot more details which I’ve mentioned on the blog before here and here.

You might actually not be going through much of a creative drought. It could be a temporary challenge of not recognizing possible blog post ideas as they come and logging them in real-time to work on either one by one or by batch writing (if that’s your thing.)

No notebook, app or calendar reminder can replace motivation, discipline and follow-through. So, after making that list and sorting topics, it’s time to get to writing, editing, and publishing.

On the nearest piece of paper or in the Notes section of your phone – whichever is closer, write or type one thing you can blog about starting today. Don’t bully yourself – encourage yourself, and remember your readers.

And by the way, it’s okay if you need to go get some fresh air first – stretch your legs, take in some beautiful views and refresh your mind…

‘3 Ways To Plan Your Blog Post Ideas’ first appeared on ‘Joy within‘ blog