I currently manage this blog, one Twitter account, one Pinterest account, one Facebook page, one Instagram account, and one email list.

In addition to this, I also have random freelance projects, run three online stores, personal life, etc. It’s a lot, and this is why without a list, I’d be completely lost.

I’m trying to manage a 40-hour workweek, but I feel scattered and overwhelmed sometimes.

The following post is my blogging and social media to-do list. So far, creating a list has really helped me organize my schedule a lot (:

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Daily Tasks

I do these tasks in the early morning or at night since my freelance projects and online stores take up most of my daytime. I manage these daily tasks with a habit tracker.

• Check email
• Respond to mentions on Twitter & Instagram 10 min
• Engage with Twitter followers 10 min
• Engage with Instagram followers 10 min
• Follow at least 5 new people on Twitter 10 min
• Follow at least 5 new people on Instagram 10 min
• Follow at least 5 new people on Pinterest 10 min

Weekly Tasks

These tasks are meant to be done once a week. I used to set a goal like write 3 blog posts a week, but I changed it to write blog posts for 2 hours. I realized that setting a time frame is much more productive for my schedule.

• Read other blogs for 2 hours
• Write blog posts for 2 hours
• Create social media content for an hour
• Schedule Tailwind community for an hour
• Create digital content on Canva Pro, about an hour

Here is my social media schedule:

Monthly Tasks

There are not urgent tasks. I do them to keep track of my progress! This data is shared on my yearly blogging report.

• Record monthly users, pageviews, social media followers
• Record traffic source
• Record monthly blog post
• Update WordPress plugins if necessary
• Record DA

Tools I use to accomplish all of this

1. Tailwind

• Reason: to automate Pinterest marketing
• Cost: free

Tailwind is a content marketing tool that includes scheduling, analytics & monitoring, content discovery, hashtag suggestions for Pinterest & Instagram. You can try all Tailwind features for FREE while scheduling up to 100 Pins on Pinterest and 30 posts on Instagram.

I mainly use Tailwind Communities to find and join like-minded people in 4,000+ niches. These communities are helpful to share relevant content and grow your reach. An honest review of Tailwind is here.

2. Monsterinsights

• Reason: Optimize SEO
• Cost: free

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank high in google search. Use SEO friendly headline on your blog title is one of the best ways to optimize your SEO.

In general, SEO tools are expensive. Monsterinsights is a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress but also helps to boost your blog traffic and increase site speed. And yes, it offers a free plan. I use the free plan, but if you purchased paid plan, you’ll get more benefits.

Things I like the most about Monsterinsights:

Headline analyzer provides a word balance score and recommendations to improve your blog headlines.

Page speed report provides server response time, visual elements loading speed, time to interactive, and total blocking time. The report points out your site’s problem as well as its solution.

3. Grammarly

• Reason: because it’s a great proofreading
• Cost: free

Grammarly is really good for students, bloggers, content marketers, copywriters, business writers, and so on. It is a cloud-based writing assistant tool that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes. It uses AI to identify and search for an appropriate replacement for the mistake it locates. I use the free plan, but thinking about upgrading to the Premium plan.

4. Canva Pro

• Reason: to create digital content
• Cost: $9.95 a month

Canva is a free cloud-based graphic design tool. You are able to create a wide variety of graphics like logos, presentations, posters, documents, and more. It’s free and really easy to use. I used the free version of Canva for a year but upgraded to a paid plan. Here is a comparison of the free and pro plans of Canva.

To be honest, Canva Pro is the only tool that I’m happy to pay for the subscription. It’s a great alternative to Adobe, affordable, and easy to use. Try Canva Pro for Free for 30 Days.

5. Lamare Weekly Planner Notepad

• Reason: to organize daily tasks
• Cost: $ 13.95

Lamare Weekly Planner Notepad is a weekly planner and habit tracker. I like this weekly planner notepad because it helped me to break large tasks down into smaller pieces.

6. Buffer

• Reason: to automate Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts
• Cost: $12 a month, $144 a year

Buffer is social media scheduler for both web and mobile. It is designed to manage multiple social media accounts on one platform. I schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest by using Buffer. The platform has some technical issues once in a while. But, it’s affordable and easy to use. Buffer is enough for a part-time blogger like me.

7. Google Trends

• Reason: to get some blog post ideas
• Cost: free

Google Trends is a free online tool that provides data on the popularity of specific search terms used on Google and YouTube. For instance, type “how-to” in the search bar and narrow down language, time periods, categories, and web search methods.

Let’s pick the United States for language, 30 days for time periods, and finance for categories.

Here is the result of a search:

It looks like people are interested in buying a bond these days.

8. Excel

• Reason: to truck blog expenses
• Cost: $ 10 a month

I’m sure 98% of people use Excel to manage their expenses or budgets. I purchased Office Home & Student edition at Costco. I prefer an E-delivery one-time purchase rather than a monthly subscription.

9. MailChimp

• Reason: to manage mailing list
• Cost: free

Mailchimp is an email marketing tool. Most of email marketing tool is free until your contact list hit certain numbers. With Mailchimp, 2,000 contacts, 10,000 emails per month are free.

Under the Anti-Spam Laws, most email marketing company’s Terms of Use require you to include certain information in every email campaign you send. (for example, your physical address or your own domain email address.)

Mailchimp required a physical address. This address must be placed on every email you send to the audience. If you work from home, you may not want your home address exposed to your subscribers, so I highly suggest you use a post office box as an alternative.

On the other hand, another popular email marketing tool like ConvertKit is required your own domain email address instead of a physical address. I really like Convertkit, but I don’t want to have my own domain email address for now. So, I chose Mailchimp. If you don’t mind purchasing your own domain email address, I highly recommend ConvertKit. It’s much easier to use and functional.

Related Post: Best Email Marketing Services to Consider In 2022

Wrapping Up

If you are overwhelmed by blogging and social media marketing, try some of these tools above. Automation really improves your productivity.

What’s included in your blogging and social media to-do list? If you have a similar post on your blog, please tag me and share it on Twitter. I would love to read your To-Do List.

Happy Blogging!