Ready, Set, Review-A-Thon! – Staying On Top

Last week I wrote a post on how I write reviews in an attempt to give guidelines on review-writing in general. For that post, you can just click here. This week, however, I am going to be coming up with some ideas to help us all stay on top of our reviews once we reach the end of out TBW piles! Of course, these may not work, or they simply may not work for you, but hopefully something will pop out at you.

Just as review-writing is different for everyone, keeping on top of our reviews is also going to be different for everyone. Therefore I have thought up ten ideas on how we can keep on top our review-writing piles. Hopefully in that list, somewhere, you’ll be able  to find something that may just work for you.

1. Write a review before starting a new book
   Not allowing yourself to start reading a new book until you’ve reviewed the last book you read could be a good way to keep on top of your reviews. If you’re dying to dig into the next book, you’ll see it as the best reward once you’ve written that review!
2. Write for 30mins a day
   I am thanking Melissa from Melissa’s Midnight Musings for this advice, but simply write for 30mins a day. If you don’t finish your review in that time, don’t worry because you’ll pick up where you left off the day before.
3. Punish Yourself
   I don’t mean hardcore punishment, but maybe tell yourself you’re not allowed to eat dinner until you’ve written a review, or you’re not allowed to go for your daily run until you’ve written a review. Whatever “punishment” you think will give you enough motivation to get that review written.
4. Schedule the blog post
   Whether you’ve finished the review or not, schedule it on your blog for a specific date and then publish it. That will give you a time frame. If it’s not finished by that date, you’ll be publishing a blank post or a half-written review and you probably don’t want that!
5. Catch Up Weekends
   If you’re a full-time worker and can’t find the will-power to review during the week, why not save the reviews for the weekend and then make sure you write ALL your reviews on the weekend before starting a new book on the monday.

Now for a few less-serious suggestions.

1. Stop Reading More Than One Book At A Time
   If you only read one book at one time then the amount of reviews you accumulate at once will go down right? Therefore making it more manageable. Problem solved.
2. Put the World on Hold
   Everything else must stop until after you’ve finished writing your review. Then, when it’s all done, you can turn off the timer on the over, get the fire extinguisher and call the emergency services…
3. Don’t Enter Magnificently Magic Read-a-Thon
   Or any other read-a-thons, for that matter. Because let’s face it, reading many books in a short period of time and not leaving enough time to review them is not going to help you stay on top, is it?
4. Stop Reading
   You will never be behind on review-writing again! But then again… you’ll probably miss reading the books too… hmmm.
5. Do another review-a-thon!
   When all else fails, just wait for the announcement and then jump on the bandwagon and hope that you can get back on top, at least for a week or so. ;)

Really, there’s probably no tried and tested theory for keeping on top of your reviews. I know that I have been behind on writing them ever since I started the blog and so I really don’t know how to keep on top of it all, but here’s just hoping that something will work for you.

And if not, see you again in a few months, huh?

Faye