Coming off the high of completing October's #inktober Instagram daily ink drawing and sharing challenge I signed up for the daily blogging challenge #nanoblopomo as a way to improve my blogging habit. It started out pretty well but about halfway through it I started resenting the challenge and remembered doing it last year and all it accomplished was blog burnout. So I stopped and promised myself weekly blogging combined with daily drawing, painting and Instagram sharing and enjoyed the rest of the month of November. Ready for new challenges for December!
The threat of burn out.
How to avoid blogger burnout? I have gotten through most of my second week of daily blogging and it is still hard. I remember blogging daily last November and then not blogging much at all for December and January because I was burnt out by the constant pressure of daily blogging. Unlike the daily drawing challenges I have completed blogging is not super fun for me. I think it is a worthwhile activity that has positive impact on my life, but for me pressure of blogging makes it feel more like a chore. Morning Pages is becoming a more enjoyable activity and habit but that is my personal writing with no pressure for anybody to like what I have to say. I am going to keep going with the challenge but be mindful of burning out and with a plan for December and January because my goal is a sustainable habit that I enjoy doing. How do more regular bloggers do it?
Picking myself up after failure
The daily blog writing in November was a failure. It started out really strong and about three weeks in I was burnt out writing and posting every single day. November is a long and busy month! I stopped having things that I wanted to write about and feeling that I could write about well. I didn't have the time to really spend time developing things to say and I felt rushed. Then once I started missing posts I let the failure go to my head and I started slacking off in other areas as well. But no more of that. I am going to be satisfied and proud that I blogged 22 out of 31 days and that many of those posts were in a row and that a number of them were pretty good. Then I am going to use December to rest and recover and most importantly keep going at a pace that works for me. Keep going.
