Do you blog frequently? Perhaps you blog daily or almost daily or maybe even more than once a day. That’s a lot of content to come up with per year. If coming up with images is just as important as your words, then the work is doubly hard. Add the stress of a full-time job to the equation (if you’re not blogging full-time) and boy oh boy, I can already feel the potential blogging burn-out from here if you don’t contemplate taking any break from blogging.
I recently took 2+ weeks break from blogging. Initially, I was going to either prepare and schedule content on the blog for when I was away from the country but at that time, the thought of squeezing out content when I had nothing left in me to squeeze out was quite terrifying. It was a tad last minute to get guest contributors in, and given how pedantic I am about guest posts on the blog, I wanted to make sure you get the best. So I just left things as they were. As I expected, my traffic dropped during the time I was away. As scary as it looked on Google Analytics, I knew that I had to take a break no matter what because at that time, I really had nothing more to give.
The unscheduled break from blogging taught me a few things.
- 1. When I didn’t plan any scheduled blogging breaks during the year, my blogging candle burned out big time. And even though the break was supposed to refresh and recharge me, it didn’t actually do much because I was hoping so hard to come home brimming with ideas. I came back with barely any. And the thought of not getting the inspiration I so hoped for freaked me out.
- 2. The break wasn’t a scheduled one. It wasn’t something I planned at the beginning of the year. Oh I welcomed it big time but if I knew I was going to be taking a break much earlier, it would have given me something to work towards and then look forward to when the time came. Even though I really welcomed the break, I also felt really guilty for leaving the blog unmanned for that long.
- 3. Not knowing when my break would be meant that I was seriously burning my blogging candle out without even realising it. Even though I’m a bit of a planner and organising freak, and that I would normally have my editorial content planned out for at least the next month or even two, it came to a point where I didn’t have anything for the next week. I wasn’t giving you nor the blog what I thought was my best.
It’s a lesson I learned and something I hoped to share with you, and that’s to actually plan scheduled blogging breaks into your editorial content, even when you feel like you don’t need one. Content creators often forget to take breaks because everything online happens so quickly and we feel as though we must always be connected and come up with content after content after content. We don’t even realise we’re burning out until it comes to a point where the juices have run dry and we have bupkis. And then we panic.
It’s funny how many of us take scheduled leave from work but not from blogging. I work far harder on my blog than I ever did when I was an engineer and I love it because blogging is a passion of mine. The thought of taking a proper break from blogging and even social media altogether is really scary. But I so often forget how much it’s needed, and how important it is to actually schedule that break into my editorial calendar.
I’ve decided to schedule at least 2 breaks in 2016 and onwards. Even though those breaks will only be around for many months to come, it’s a relief to know that in that coming time, I’ll be able to leave for a while and not worry that my blog will collapse (fingers crossed it won’t) and that you’ll leave me (please don’t leave me). I’ll be able to prepare content to be scheduled in advance without worrying about it at the last minute.
The next time you’re planning your editorial calendar, I highly recommend scheduling in a break or two as well, even when, at that time, you really won’t feel as though you’d need it. Believe it or not, it would be something you would really look forward to when the time comes. A properly scheduled break from the blog will have you come back refreshed and recharged. Even if you don’t come back with heaps of ideas, at least during that time, you’ll give yourself a well-deserved rest.
I took a month break in May 2015. I had planned to blog, but was having too much fun to do so. I didn’t mention that I was on vacation. It wasn’t until a subscriber asked if I was still blogging that I felt bad. Like oye, I left ’em hangin’ but I didn’t really know I had a following or that I would even be missed!. Now I’ll make sure to let folks know when I plan a hiatus.
I think bloggers fear that their audience will go elsewhere and in reality .. we’re all right here 🙂
Monica.
MonicaP recently posted..A summer style cami dress that’s ready for fall
Haha I know what you mean! It freaks me out when I leave as though all my readers would suddenly run away and never come back if I take a week or more off. It’s all in our head!
I discovered this a couple of years ago, and since then I take a scheduled week off in a year around my birthday and another time around CNY when I’ve no real intention to blog anyway. Who does, when you’re stuffing your face with all that wonderful food eh? 😛 But otherwise, the rest of the year is fair game. Since I dropped my blogging schedule to 3x a week, I’ve found it easier to not burn out. It’s also helped me prioritize my content and sometimes, I think that’s something that’s a little more overlooked than normal 🙂 Oh I notice the ups and down in the stats, and it bugs the hell out of me! But I’ve also noticed that I’ve been whacked AGAIN by Google for heaven knows what now, so stats are all way down anyway. Damn bothersome and demoralizing 🙁
Paris B recently posted..L’Occitane Immortelle 28 Day Divine Renewal Program: 28 days! Challenge accepted!
Google made bloggers slaves to them, I tell ya. When I got burned, oh it stung so bad. I wanted to cry, quit blogging and never return. It was damn demoralising all right and it took a whole year for the traffic to get back to normal what Google smacked off me in one month. *enter cuss words*
I missed your daily updates. I often found myself browsing pharmacy aisles, thinking “I wonder what Tine would think of this product…” and then go back to your archives to see if you had already expressed an opinion in previous posts.
While you are feeling a little blog-weary, would Tim Talks be a more regular feature? There has been so much controversy around provision of psychiatry services (e.g. HEADSPACE almost a white elephant), the catch-all cry of ‘mindfulness’ as a cure of all mental ill-health, the explosion of adult colouring books… the list goes on. Maybe get a lively discussion going with you international readers with their own country’s experience.
Awwww thanks for thinking of me, Catherine! 😀 Tim Talks is a monthly feature. Unfortunately, it’s not easy getting Tim to write because he’s so busy at work and when he’s back, he doesn’t want to write about work. Don’t get me wrong, he loves to share more about mental health via Tim Talks, but at the moment, it would only be a monthly feature (heck, I had to go all editor on his backside for him to meet my deadline! 😛 ) I’ll let him know you enjoy it and your suggestions. They’re very interesting topics to write about!
Whenever I go on a break I generally do not schedule anything on (although on occasion I do). We all get burnout if we are not too careful even in the blogging world
You got that right. Scheduling in advance is okay but when you blog almost daily, take 3 weeks off and having to write 15 posts in 1 week (see how I enjoy procrastinating. Tsk tsk), it’s a killer. 😛