Just the other day, I was chatting with a fellow dad blogger Brandon over at the Rookie Dad. We’re on good terms and he was thoughtful enough to check in with me to see “how I was doing”. We exchanged some latest happenings in life and blogging. We chatted about some of our latest successes and about work. Turns out that he welcomed a new baby into his life. We continued to chat and he shared with me that he didn’t feel able to fit blogging into his schedule any more.
That got me thinking….the lifecycle of a blogger producing posts certainly has ebbs and flows. Some bloggers go “dark” for weeks (or sometimes months) at time for a myriad of personal or, professional obligations. You may have lost a job, gone on vacation, lost a loved one, had a change in your relationship, welcomed a new baby into your family, decided to seek counseling or, some other life event. With many of these changes comes an often mentioned refrain like:
- “I don’t have the time to write anymore.”
- “I have three drafts in WordPress and they are stuck there.”
- “I’m thinking about quitting blogging.”
These life events (or any others) and the statements above are all reasons for not blogging. Some of them more so. In fact, there have been several times here on my own blog that the muse left me for a number of reasons. Or, I didn’t make blogging enough of a priority. So, I know some of the exact same reasons why you might not be blogging. But, for (almost) everyone of those reasons, I bet you can find a blogger that wrote about it. I respect that it’s your choice not to write. It might be painful or, has fallen to last place on the proverbial to do list. Maybe you are waiting to reflect on what is happening in your life before writing (even I’ve done plenty of that).
If the reason you are no longer writing is (only) lack of time, I’d like to offer a suggestion…
Break up your
- idea generation
- post drafting
- post editing
- image creation
- publishing and social sharing
Into 15 minute “sprints” or, blocks. Surely you can find 15 minutes? The idea is to do what you can in that block of time and then, move on to the rest of your day. If you don’t get done with something in 15 minutes come back to it the next day for an additional 15 minutes. If you get done with one part before the 15 minutes is up, move on to the next step.
Use a timer. You can use the clock/timer app on your phone or, use a web based timer like this http://e.ggtimer.com/
What are some ways you manage to continue to blog with limited time? Let me know in the comments below.
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