Blogging tips: my blogging on the go essentials

Having a full-time job and running a blog can be quite a challenge, especially when it comes to making sure you still have enough time for a 'real' life as well. I love blogging, but to help me make the most of my time, I often find myself preparing a lot of content while I'm on the go. Here are a few of my top tips and essential items to make the most out of your time.

Notepad and pen - Old school, but I like it! There's something so satisfying about writing down ideas on paper instead of electronically. I tend to keep a small notebook with me at all times to record future blog post ideas or interesting things I've seen. It's also great for keeping track of my to do list - i have separate ones for photos I need to take and posts that need to be finished off - I have to keep myself organised or it all turns into chaos!

Apps - I do a lot of my prep work for posts while I'm on my daily commute to and from my day job. Installing the Blogger app on my phone has been a total lifesaver as then I can draft content for my posts while I'm out, before adding images and tweaking the copy when I get home and I'm on my laptop. I also like to use Instagram for sharing photos of new launches (and cake), plus Twitter and Facebook for sharing content and interacting with people.

Camera - I have recently invested in a DSLR camera which I use to take a lot of my product shots at home. It's not always practical for me to bring this to work though, so I rely on the camera on my Nokia Lumia 1020* to take snaps at after-work events and launches. This isn't just your bog-standard phone camera - it can deal with depths of focus to get lovely blurred out backgrounds and has a 41 megapixel capability (which is insanely big), meaning that the photos it takes are always of a good quality and ones that I can upload straight into my blog posts.

Diary - I'm not a naturally organised person, so in order to keep track of upcoming events and plan out my blog post schedule, I keep my Cath Kidston diary with me at all times- if I don't write it in the diary, I'm probably going to forget!

Scheduling - to make the most of limited time, I often schedule blog posts for the week ahead, along with some Tweets and Facebook posts. This really helps me to plan ahead, keep organised and ensure I can promote my blog posts when I'm not able to tweet in real time.

What are your blogging essentials? How do you make the most of your blogging time?