How to create a blog while commuting

Better Productivity blog has started in a train while I was commuting. I wrote first to clear my mind. It took several months until I realized that I could start publishing my writings and I was able to create my first blog in wordpress.com. I named the blog as Commuting Time.

Time passed and my ambitions crow. I renamed the blog. I wanted that the blog would look more professional. I did understood the need for SEO miracles. If I want to rank my blog to something else than commuting, I need to change the name (Since then I have learned that name does not matter that much)

My commuting time is 30 minutes to one direction. It means that I have one hour every day that is not efficiently used. The time slot is free for any activity – well any activity that is possible in a train.

Sometimes I miss the train in the morning and I have another extra 20-30 minutes in the coffee shop of the railway station. People get upset when trains are late, but for me it is more minutes to write my thoughts and blog posts and I enjoy it. Occasionally I hope that trains would be late.

Here is how I work:

1. Coffee shop

I wake up and take my youngest daughter to pre-school. It depends, but quite often I miss the first train I could catch. During winter, it is not uncommon that the train is late. If it happens I take coffee from the coffee shop and start to work.

I check my “worry list” and make sure I have two tasks which I want to achieve during the day. After I have selected the tasks, I start to work with my blog. I have now goal to produce 4-6 posts per week.

I am most creative in the morning, so it is not difficult to produce drafts or topics. The writings I have started in the coffee shop, I will continue writing in the train. I write with Ipad. I think it is the fastest way in a train. I find it a bit difficult to use laptop, but Ipad is perfectly sized.

 

2. Evernote

I do all my drafts in Evernote. It is easy to write and since I have Evernote with me everywhere, I can add text to that draft when I have something in my mind.

When I started I did not have iPhone. Now I have the iPhone with Evernote and my process has evolved a bit. Now I write anything related to blogging ideas with my iPhone to Evernote whenever the ideas appear. Be always ready to write your ideas whenever they occur.

 

3. Blogsy

When I have enough material in the draft I will move to Blogsy.  I just copy paste the text from Evernote to Blogsy and continue writing.

Blogsy is Ipad app for blogging. It supports several different blogging services and self hosted WordPress.

I like it. It has few edges, but it works well. Blogsy is not free, but it is worth the price.

You can use Blogsy to add pictures to your posts, but I usually do it from home with my computer. Before I go to sleep I usually add pictures and then post.

Most of my blogging happens in the train with Ipad, Evernote and Blogsy. Without them I would not have a blog. Blogging while commuting is probably the biggest personal time management and productivity achievement which I have done.

 

Photo credit Flickr.com Left-Hand