Are you feeling stressed out and overwhelmed about creating content for your blog? I was too and that’s why I took a month off. I know, this is a big no-no in the blogging world, but I feel so refreshed and I’d don’t regret my decision. I’m excited to be back, but I definitely needed a break.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just know that it’s ok to take a break. The internet will still be here when you get back.
I probably should have cued up some content, but I really just needed some time to reevaluate why I’m here and what I want to accomplish with my blog.
It’s so important to define your why.
So why are you here? Were you just curious why I took a month off? Have you struggled to create content? Do you feel overwhelmed and bombarded by everything you need to do with your blog?
Writing great content, making beautiful images and promoting on Pinterest and Facebook is hard work. When I started blogging I had no idea how much work went into each post. It’s exhausting. I work a full-time job and have two little kids, so blogging into the wee hours was the only way I thought I could fit everything in.
Keeping up with everything was impossible.
I stopped blogging for a month to reevaluate. Why am I here? Why am I blogging? I thought about who was I reaching, and who I wanted to help? Taking a break helped me to look deep inside myself and change some things so that I could better help others.
A big part of this time was spent defining my why. This was an important step that helped my motivation and made writing so much easier. When you narrow your focus the content will begin to flow so much more easily. At least, that’s what I’ve discovered.
Define Your Why
Why do you blog?
What do you plan to accomplish?
Who are you helping?
When I thought about these things I realized how little I knew about why I was doing what I was doing. I lacked direction and focus. In the beginning, I started my blog so that I could have an outlet to write. I planned to write about being a mom, a teacher and blogger.
This was entirely too broad of a subject. I struggled to find my audience. Now I know that I want to help busy moms like myself, spend less time cleaning and organizing and more time with their kids. I might throw in some teacher and mommy stuff along the way, but I want to help other moms through my own struggle.
If you are having a hard time nailing down your why, take some time off and think about your life. Is there something you are really good at that you could use to help others? Is there something in your life that you absolutely struggle with? Work on conquering that and then tell others how you did it!
Take some time and think about it. Get out some paper and write down your why.
Another thing I did while I took some time off was, I thought about my time. Time is so valuable and I want to be spending it with the people I love. I needed to change how I was using my time.
I decided that the morning hours would be the best time to work on my blog. I’m a night owl, so I knew I needed to figure out a way to make this happen.
Make Over Your Morning
I’m the girl who has 3 different alarms, just so I can feel like I’m sleeping in a little bit longer. I know it sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud, but somehow it feels amazing to get a couple more minutes!
While taking some time off from blogging, I realized that I was tired of feeling exhausted. I didn’t like who I was. I was staying up late to finish up e-mails, blog content, images, meta descriptions, etc. You name it, I was working on it until the wee hours of the nights. I was constantly tired.
After snoozing my alarms I would rush to get myself and my daughter ready. While getting in the car I would quickly add my content to Pinterest and my various Facebook groups. I would check throughout the day to see if I had gotten any more views and share other peoples content to my boards so that they would reciprocate. It truly was exhausting.
While taking time off, I decided that something needed to change. If I was going to successfully work on this blog I couldn’t be exhausted all the time and I didn’t need it taking every spare second of my day. I was sick of living in this tired state.
If you are at this point too, I would suggest looking into your morning routine or the best time frame that you’ve found to work on your blog. Maybe you are already an early riser if so, I’m jealous. I wish I was a morning person. But if you’re not, then think about the changes you might need to make in order to change your behavior. I decided that I wanted to go to bed earlier so that waking up earlier would give me those precious morning hours all to myself.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What time do you go to bed and wake up currently?
If you changed your morning, what could you get accomplished?
I will write a post about what my morning looks like now, so stay tuned. I feel like making over my morning was one of the best things I decided to do. If you are a morning person I would love to hear about your routine. Let me know in the comments below.
Get Organized
This is something that I’m still working on, but I know that it will help so much in the long run. I think this is my biggest hurdle. I want to be organized so badly, but I just struggle to get it all done.
While I took some time off, I read a lot and watched many youtube videos about minimalism. It was intriguing. Lately, I’ve just felt like I’m drowning in stuff and I’m so sick of it.
I want so much more from life than to keep cleaning up stuff. Maybe you feel the same way if so help me help you. What is your biggest struggle when it comes to blogging? Is it organization, like me or is it something else?
For me, it was hard to decide where to start once I decided to get organized. My house feels so cluttered and the accumulation of stuff is everywhere. The table is always covered with mail, preschool papers, and random stuff that has no home. I am going to be working on keeping the table clean and getting rid of stuff.
I’ve already brought 2 big boxes of stuff to Goodwill, sold some stuff at our local Just Between Friends Sale, and have 3 more boxes ready to give away right now. Decluttering has made me feel lighter already. I can’t wait to clear more of my head space, but decluttering my computer. It’s a mess though, so I’m not excited to start.
Being organized is a big piece of blogging, so I feel like it’s something I really need to work on. Maybe it’s something you need to work on too. Maybe you’ve already realized this was an area of weakness and you’ve overcome it. I’d love to hear your story!
Feeling Refreshed
Taking a month off might not be something you’re interested in doing, but it let me tell you, the experience was something I would totally do again. I don’t want my blog to run me. I want to run my blog. If you feel overwhelmed, maybe it’s time to take a little break and reevaluate why you’re here and what you actually want out of blogging.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there saying that blogging is this simple easy process that anyone can do. They make blogging look so easy. Start your blog today! It only takes 5 minutes! Believe me, blogging takes longer than 5 minutes. Yes, you can sign up for a blog in 5 minutes, but the time that it takes to build your blog is infinite.
Don’t get discouraged though, if this is something you want to do, keep with it. It’s a long distance race, not a sprint. That’s why you might need to take some breaks along the way.