Blogging can be quite the time-consuming activity. I’ve been doing it for a while now and along the way I’ve picked up some ways to be more efficient at it. My hope is that by utilizing these WordPress blogging productivity hacks, you’ll save a significant amount of time writing your next blog post.

Re-use old posts as templates with Duplicate Post Save time by starting with new post drafts that are copies of old ones for similar content with Duplicate Post.

Utilize Post Snippets to write posts faster The Post Snippets Plugin allows you to fill out forms with only the unique parts to your commonly used shortcodes and HTML and then spits it out for you. It’s a huge time saver that also helps you maintain formatting consistency on your blog.

Auto-promote your new posts on social media Use Jetpack’s Publicize feature to automatically promote your new blog posts on your social media accounts. It supports all the most important social networks: Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn & Twitter. For some reason they bothered supporting Path & Tumblr as well, no idea why.

Use one of the best wordpress web hosts Host your WordPress site on one of the best WordPress hosting web hosts so your WordPress site runs as fast as possible. A slow backend WordPress interface will inevitably make you far less productive by literally slowing down everything you do on your site. So absolutely make sure your WordPress site is running as fast as it possibly can be!

Find & replace characters in all your posts simultaneously The Search Regex Plugin has probably saved me the most time of any plugin. It’s a must have.

Auto-link keyword phrases to relevant posts The SEO Smart Links Plugin makes it easy to cross-link your content with target keyword phrases. It’s great for reader engagement, SEO & usability.

Auto-link to your latest blog post in your email signature Use Wisestamp to help promote your latest blog post in your email signature.

Tackle your 404 errors with 404 Redirected Use the 404 Redirected Plugin to track & redirect 404 errors on your blog.

Log distractions and focus on the task at hand Discovered an interesting article to read?

Pocket it. Remembered that one thing you have to do?

Todoist it. Found something you want to remember?

Evernote it. Received a file you need for later?

Dropbox it. When you “log” the distraction in some fashion, it allows you to close your thought process on it so you can get back to whatever you were trying to accomplish when you were interrupted by it.

Use CTRL+SHIFT+V This keyboard shortcut is a massive time saver. Notice how when you copy and paste something into the WordPress Visual Editor it carries with it whatever formatting it had? Simply use CTRL+SHIFT+V to paste whatever you copied and the formatting won’t come with it.

Blog late at night When everyone else is sleeping is when I get my best blogging done.

No distractions = focus = productivity.

Set deadlines for yourself and stick to them When you have limited time you’ll be more focused and productive.

Shoot for perfection, don’t enforce it Facebook’s company motto is “Doing is better than perfect.” and for good reason.