Is there a blogging burnout support group out there? If so, I desperately need to attend. At the end of May, I got so burned out on blogging that I considered deleting my blog. Now that I've recuperated a bit, I realize that I don't really want to give up blogging, but I do need to alter my approach.
When I started blogging it was a way for me to write about whatever was going through my mind. I wrote about whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I wrote for myself. As I started reading more blogs and getting a sense of what I liked and didn't like in a blog, I started to approach my blog differently. I started to write for other people and I started to worry about being part of a blogging community.
So, I began to spend more and more time trying to develop my blog. There were some weeks when I probably spent fifteen hours on blog related activities! Do you know it takes probably takes me an hour just to comment on five blogs? (Twitter tangent: I joined twitter to get more connected to the blogging community and I loved it, at first. Then, I started to feel guilty and inadequate when I wasn't on twitter more. I'm still really confused about how lots of people manage to be on twitter all day every day, but I just have to accept that I do not have the sort of life that allows for that.)
But, as more people started reading my blog (and I realized family members were reading it), I started to censor myself more. It got to the point where I didn't even feel like I could write about what was truly going on in my life.
Spending too much time writing posts that don't even feel real to me = blogging burnout.
I think this was a good wake up call. Quite honestly, blogging isn't one of my primary goals. Unlike so many of the bloggers I read, I have no desire to become a full-time blogger. Nor am I using blogging to break into the wedding planning business, become a wedding photographer, fuel my designs, get my writing discovered, or fill some sort of void. I work hard in graduate school so that I can get my PhD and become a clinical psychologist, the career I've dreamed of ever since I was in seventh grade. If anything, blogging is actually antithetical to this goal.
So, I'm reclaiming this blog and my time. I may not post as regularly and I won't be able to comment as much on your blogs, but when I do it will be real. I hope that you will like this new blogging me, but realistically I know that these changes will probably mean that my posts will get fewer comments and I will have fewer readers. This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
How real are you on your blog? How do you manage blogging with everything else going on in your life? Have you ever experienced blogging burnout?
xoxox
Alisha
Good for you, I say! No point doing something just to please others if you get no joy out of it too. I'll keep reading :)
ReplyDeleteAlso - I should say that I completely understand where you're coming from. After I'd starting looking more at blogs I thought I should have 'theme' days, and try a lot harder to be funny etc. Then I realised I was pressuring myself and not finding it fun at all! So once I got rid of that and remembered I'd never started it to be famous I felt much better.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand! My BOSS found mine! Yikes! lol & my future BIL went an blabbed what I wrote to my future MIL & it was really embarrassing! (nothing bad about her but STILL!) Anyway I try to have a healthy balance between blogging for me and blogging for readers. & I am on twitter A LOT but it is on my iphone SO a quick browse and reply on my break doesn't make me feel unproductive. Can't wait to read the new you! =D
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely all about finding a balance. When I first started blogging, it was just for me. It was just to document my life as a bride-to-be and planning my wedding. I had no idea what the blogging community offered - opening doors to photography (which I love and aspire to be), sponsors (getting paid to write, another goal) and meeting so many people around the world.
ReplyDeleteI have my undergrad degree, but don't see myself pursuing a masters, at least not yet. I still work my full time job doing what I love. Just take the time you need for you, and blog when you can.
About blogging and the content - it's really all about how much you are willing to put out there. Like Nicole (above), my boss found mine too, but that doesn't stop me from writing what I want.
Love your new approach to blogging! Good luck, girlfriend!!
I only have so much time for Twitter because I'm unemployed. I'd much rather have a job than be on Twitter all day. :) I don't censor myself at all, I don't say anything that isn't true and I don't purposefully try to hurt people, so I'm just honest and me on mine! I don't know what my plans are for blogging, I do it sporadically, at least twice a week but really, no more than that. Sometimes I take a break for a few months and feel like you do - that if I'm going to blog, it needs to have an actual purpose instead of being so general. But I really don't have a niche! Anyway, I'll still be around when you do blog!! :)
ReplyDeleteThe whole blogging thing is a mystery to me. There are times when I am really into it and then times when I don't really know why I blog. I started this most recent blog to document my first year of marriage - but to be honest I never find myself writing about that. I like to use it as an outlet.
ReplyDeleteI think your new approach is admirable. I should follow suit.
I actually feel the same way right now. I love blogging and its mainly for me, mainly because i only have 5 followers, but its been so hard to keep it up as of late.
ReplyDeletePS by the way i love your blog, style, and personality on this thing i feel like your my first true blogging stranger friend. =)
i don't think you should give that up if your family is reading it.
I completely understand your confusion regarding twitter. I find myself asking that same question every day. There's so much social media in the world it's hard to keep up sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI blog about what I want, when I want, and have found that people SEEM to like it. If I do anything for my readers, it is to make sure that I stay true to myself, and only post things that make sense coming from me. IE: a political essay about the economic impact of the republicans' possibility of regaining the Presidency in 2012 would seem out of place in Kate As Of Late lol. But then again, while i enjoy economics in school, I don't want to write about that on my personal time.
I'm also starting to realize that blogging is essentially a friendship and as long as you approach it like that you won't be disappointed. If people don't like you being true to yourself, they were never real readers in the first place. I'll keep reading though :)
Staying true to yourself is important. Don't write just to get more attention/followers/comments/etc. Write whenever and about whatever and however you want...it's your blog and your thoughts anyways! ;)
ReplyDeleteI blog at work, and unfortunately blogging has turned more into a "fun" process where I just post mostly for the random link ups that people do. I do some "real" posts but, like you, some of my family reads it and people I know who don't actually have blogs, so it's hard for me to TRULY write how I feel. I still live at home, so I feel if I lived away from others, blogging would be more of a way for them to keep in touch with me, but for now it just annoys me that they're reading it (especially without commenting). I'm 100% real on my site, but I definitely don't write a lot of what's really on my mind. I'm still gonna read yours, though!!
ReplyDeleteHa, I'm totally going through this right now! Someday it will come back to me.
ReplyDeleteI think my blog went through a similar transformation. I still write my average, whiny, "this is my life" posts, but I enjoy including well composed blog entries with pictures and fore-though. I don't have a lot of time for blogging, despite how much I like my blog, so when I do have time I write several posts and pre-date them, so they will be published later. I also keep a real, hand-written journal. I've always been a journaler though, and writing my blog has always been about connecting with other people.
ReplyDeleteI say it's your blog, do what YOU want with it! My blog is just mine and I do it to document my life...not to please other people, but sometimes it's hard not to want to write for others. I do enjoy sharing crafts and recipes, but if I don't have any to share then oh well. I write when I can and when I feel like it. Don't delete your blog! Just try to take some of the pressure off yourself and write when you feel like it!
ReplyDeleteI go through fits and starts with blogging. Some days I am really excited to share photos and recipes and stories and others the last thing I want to do is pick up my camera or turn on the computer! It still is a great way for family and friends to keep in touch with us and get updates on what we are doing (they all live out of state) and I've made some blog friends who I like chatting with daily :)
ReplyDeleteI'm on blogging burnout as we speak. I have posted exactly ONCE this week, & it was a post I wrote and scheduled last week. But I know I'll get my groove back over the weekend so I don't sweat it.
ReplyDeleteRe: Twitter. My job involves being on the computer nearly all day. I keep an internet window open to play music, have my twitter page up, and my google reader page. When I need a break, I can easily click over and tweet a few things. It doesn't hinder my work time or ethic but it provides a nice break to my day.
Don't sweat it--you'll get your groove back soon enough. I usually plan my posts out on the weekends, write a few of them & schedule them to post during the week, or start drafts of all of them. That way when I do post, it takes minimal time and effort. I also keep a draft open in Live Writer that has blogging ideas on it--so if I ever feel like I have writer's block, I look to that list for ideas. And if you're NOT using Windows Live Writer, GET ON IT. It makes blogging 110 million times easier. I love it so so much. Just google Windows Live Writer and you can download it for free.
We are all still here reading so no worries! Blog for you and you'll be just fine. :)
This post was so interesting to read. I have experienced the exact same thing! Thanks for putting it out there!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! Like you, blogging is my hobby - and hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable. If it's starting to be more stressful than anything, it's not worth it!
ReplyDeleteYou took the words straight out of my mouth. I started blogging because I was living in Sweden, and LONELY. I kept blogging because it's so fun to be a part of the lovely, honest, amorphous "humanity" that the internet has come to be-- does that make sense? Like posts just like this one, where I read it and love the fact that I'm not alone in the way I feel or think : )
ReplyDeleteThat being said, now that I have a job, and side projects, and the weather's nice, and I have wonderful people I like to see often... blogging is definitely on the bottom of my priorities list. Thanks for writing this; I think I might follow suit and write something similar in the next few days.
Looking forward to reading the 'real' Alisha!
Thank you SO MUCH everyone! I feel loads better knowing that other people experience similar feelings. I feel like you guys were my own personal blogging burnout support group ;) I was nervous to publish this post because I thought people would think I was just being a boring old whiner and I can't tell you how awesome it feels to have your support!
ReplyDeleteDon't have the burnout yet as I still love working on my blog and posting. I love getting comments. But I work full time and it is so hard to keep up with writing and also reading other blogs and commenting, etc. I have very, very little time left for other stuff, but so far I continue to be willing to make the sacrifice. We'll see how long this lasts. Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteI started blogging 3 years ago for me only but have developed a small audience over time and now I feel like it is important for me to get some comments otherwise I feel like I'm doing this for no one (even though it should be for me!) I am censored on my blog because I do have family members that read and I sometimes can't say what I want to and sometimes when I just want to talk about sex or swear or whatever, I feel like I can't. My blog probably isn't very exciting for others because it's not very engaging and interactive because all it is are words and a picture journal of my life. I want to write about other things but feel like I don't have time to do so because I'm always documenting what I'm doing. Oh, and I get blog burnout every so often. It's natural. Good for you for taking control of your blog and doing it on your own terms.
ReplyDeleteI think its great you realized your mistakes with your blog. If you cant be yourself and talk about what you want to talk about, why blog? I haven't experienced the same kind of burn out, but I do feel like i've had a burn out. When I first started blogging, I was new in the area and didn't have much going on in my life. I just graduated college, had no job, my life was limited. So i used it as a way out and to feel like I had something to do. Then it turned into the way I was tracking all the new and exciting things in my life. Then i hit a plateau. I became less motivated to blog and I didn't know how to get back into the groove of things. I just felt like i had no purpose but I wasn't ready to get rid of it. Now things in my life are changing, changing big and for the better and I have a new fire under my blogging ass.
ReplyDelete