Having Blogger Block?!?

It's a Tuesday morning in May when I write this and to be honest I have no idea what to write. I have no inspiration of what to write about; I look round my room and all the ideas I can think of are boring or I can't think of any. To be honest I never really had blogger block in the past but at the moment I am suffering from it (I'm making it sound like a disease).

When I get home from school all I seem to do is relax, revise and watch Netflix. I don't watch much YouTube anymore, which I think is one of the reasons why I haven't got any inspiration. If I wrote blog posts about my life it would be so boring as I have no exciting storytimes and nothing interesting happens. 

Writing this mini blog post has helped me think of some new blog post ideas which I can do such as an After School Routine and a Current Favourites but I won't promise anything as I'll probably get bored writing them and give up. In my draft folder I have 2 draft posts but I haven't scheduled them yet as I haven't been bothered to take the pictures of them and I wrote the posts in March.

Hopefully in the summer holidays I'm going to write a lot of blog posts because I'll need them when I go back to school in September due to the fact that I'm going to be in year 11 and probably have no spare time! 

If any of you have had experience with blogger block (I'm still making it sound like a disease) let me know what you did to overcome it because I don't want to be forcing out content that I don't like but I really want to write. In the meantime, I have been posting on Twitter (@TheLipInsider) and Instagram (@thelipstickinsider) so if I'm not posting on here I'll be posting on either/both of them. 

Productivity Tips

I always go through times where I'm either super productive getting everything and more done or I'm just total lazy and take forever to do the things I need to do so I wanted to share with you some of the tips that have helped me become more productive and get more sh*t done!

1. Make smaller to-do lists with about 3-4 tasks every day so it's more realistic to achieve the goals in one day. If you do complete them do more before planning the next day so you're not encouraged to stop working and end your productivity. I only started it because I couldn't fit many into my planner so it's really helped and afterwards I do more and then plan the next day before I go to bed.

2. Obvious one but don't multitask. Don't text while doing your tasks, don't check social media while doing your tasks. Have breaks and make them for a reasonable time so you can do all of these during your breaks. I don't really like to take long breaks personally because I find I'm more encouraged to stop working.

3. Make routines so always have your breaks at the same time and have it in place so you are always like ok I have (insert time here) minutes left, lets get everything done and it really works.

4. Find out when you are most productive as there's no point trying to do activities when you just don't feel like it. I like to take my blog photos in the morning and I like to do my homework late at night- I don't know why it's just when I work best and produce my best work.

5. Another obvious one but if you have a planner actually use it! Keep it out so you are encouraged to check it on a regular basis and write stuff down when you think of it so you don't forget it. Another thing I like is having a corkboard and pinning post it notes as soon as I think of anything and I really think it's helped my productivity over the last couple of months since I've had it.

I hoped this post helped and if you have any tips let me know in the comments section below. For more on me follow me on my social media which is Twitter (@_louisecarter_) and Instagram (@thelipstickinsider) and I will see you soon on here for some more summer themed posts!

Behind The Scenes Of Blogging

Today I thought I would share with you want goes on behind the scenes as you don't know and if I was a reader I would really enjoy this post as I like behind the scenes things. These are my secrets on how I plan, take and edit my pictures and write a post.

Planning-
I love planning so this is one point I really enjoy even though I enjoy them all. I have a blogging notebook from WHSmith which I write all of all my plans in for a post such as the concept, thumbnail and what I want to include in each post. I know some people like to do spur of the moment posts and I do occasionally (this one is) but I'm a perfectionist so I want everything to be as good as possible.

Blog Photos-
Whenever I take blog photos I always take them in bulk as I find it easier and so I have good lighting and that's important and it's most helpful in the winter months as I have school when there is good lighting and I don't have time so I like to do them in bulk, even in the spring and summer. I take my blog pictures on my Kindle Fire as I don't have a proper camera but I do want to get one, hopefully for my birthday or Christmas (but both of them are in December).

Editing-
I edit all of my pictures on Picmonkey as that is really easy to edit on. I have edited on here for ages but now my way of editing is just a colourful border as I like them all to be simple. On my old blog and early posts on here I used to have words on all posts but I then didn't like it that much so I changed it and only do text on my thumbnail which I really like as a thumbnail.

Writing-
Writing! I love writing and I can easily wack out a post quickly (today I wrote a long post in 20 minutes). However when I write I have to be in a writing mood so sometimes I put it off as if I'm not in a blogging mood I make loads of mistakes and I don't know what to write and everything is also not as good as if I was in a writing mood. I usually write in the middle of the afternoon (if I'm not at school, before I go to school or late in the evening.

So that my friends is how I make a blog post. I don't have a average length of how long it takes me to write a blog post as sometimes I don't have time so it takes me a couple of days so I do it in chunks or I'll do it in 1 day when I'm on school holiday as I have time and usually I really focus.