My name is Sam. I am married, a mum of 3, one with special needs, and I work full time. Life is chaotic day to day for most people, but I found I was getting overwhelmed with trying to do it all – work, cook, clean, after school activities, my sons doctors appointments, and everything else on top. It was too much, and I started to suffer with depression.

I have used planners for a few years but because the rest of my life is/was a mess, it didn’t really work. If my children gave me letters, and I didn’t have my planner on me, or couldn’t write on it there and then… then often it was forgotten about, and my kids would come home and say its Egyptian day tomorrow (as their teacher reminded them), have you sorted my costume? Of course I hadn’t so it was a last minute, and frankly rubbish attempt to sort something out for them.

So I have decided to sort it out, life is passing me by, and it should be better than this. So I have decided to get more organised. By researching this (and watching a lot of YouTube videos), I identified the main issues and started there. I’m still in the middle of the process, but hope other people can take some ideas and get more organised as well

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.