I haven’t blogged the past two days and it’s felt super, super weird. Also liberating. This past year, I posted something every single week day, and over half the weekends too. On Friday October 26th was my official completion of one year of daily blogging. I wasn’t sure I could do it but here we are 312 posts later. Whew! I am tired!
It’s been an interesting year with as many lessons as posts. In that year, I celebrated the 10th year anniversary of writing New York Cliché. 10 years and I decided the best way to mix things up was an ultra blog marathon.
I once went on a couple dates with a guy who ran ultramarathons. If you’ve never heard of this before, I hadn’t either before this dude dropped his hobby bomb. Over a traditional first date beverage, I learned that ultramarathons are typically 50 or 100 mile races. WHAT THE FUCK? I screamed, flipping our table over in an outrage, WHAT HUMAN DOES THAT?! AS A HOBBY!?!
Poetic license surprise: I didn’t actually scream that. But I never forgot the revelation. It popped into my mind last Friday when I sat hunched over a laptop at 11:50PM, frantically trying to finish a blog post as my fella lay in bed dozing off and occasionally protesting, “Hi. I’m still awake!”
WHAT HUMAN DOES THIS?! AS A HOBBY!?! I wanted to scream at myself.
The Truth about Daily Blogging
I took on this challenge mostly to shake myself away from debilitating perfectionist tendencies. Publishing a post every day makes my typical standard of I MUST BE PROUD OF THIS, IT MUST BE BRILLIANTLY ENTERTAINING impossible. I have a colorful sign on my desk that reminds me DONE IS BETTER THAN GOOD. This is something I need to be constantly reminded of. Blogging every day 100% helped me work through my perfectionism.
Did the daily blogging make me a better writer?
I honestly don’t think so…blogging daily certainly gave me less time to read. Having to publish a post by midnight means I don’t have time to sit and mull over a perfect metaphor or turn of phrase. So I skip it in favor of simple syntax… That said, having a habit of constantly writing, that discipline probably does make me a better writer on some level.
Did the daily blogging make me a better blogger?
No! Blogging daily didn’t even make me a better blogger! See, my one goal this year was to blog every day, and I accomplished that. But something had to give- because I spent my time writing, I didn’t put as much energy into promoting my blog or interacting with readers and other bloggers. Sure, I posted every day, but I let emails, comments, and Facebook posts go unanswered. In my experience, daily blogging while working a full time job turns a person into a bit of an asshole.
For one year, I constantly carried my laptop around with me so I could squeeze posts in between activities. It’s a New York Cliché miracle I never got mugged.
I think my daily blogging has overwhelmed all my readers. When I run into friends I haven’t seen in a while, I can tell they don’t read any more. It’s just too much! Not one single person who I know personally has said “I’m so glad you’re blogging every day! I love reading every single post!” Not with 2018 attention spans. Search the internet and you’ll find an influx of articles about how no one reads blogs any more.
I am done. This is the end of daily blogging for me. I’m pretty happy about it.
November 1st is the start of NaBloPoMo – National Blog Post Month. Thousands of bloggers wrote a post today, the first of a hopeful month of daily content. Power to you guys. You’ll absolutely complete that goal if you truly want to. It’ll be fucking hard, but you’ll also feel a sweet sense of accomplishment.
The bragging rights are top notch too.
It was truly a joy to watch people’s brains explode when I told them I have a blog, have written it for ten year, and for the past year I’ve updated it daily.
I imagine it is identical to telling people you run 100 mile races. But my knees are a lot happier. Could definitely stand to catch up on some sleep though…
From here on out, I’m hoping to maintain a thrice-weekly blogging schedule. Monday-Wednesday-Friday maybe. Definitely keeping Friday’s New York Minutes. Back to the ol’ quality over quantity. I’ll keep you posted.
Man, kudos to you! I’ve done months of daily posting, and even that has been quite difficult. I totally understand wanting a break, but I’d just like to say, I sure enjoyed your daily posting while it lasted! Thanks for the work you put into that.
-Your North Carolinian fan
I think posting every day no matter what would be beyond me and I admire you for keeping it up for a year. I try to post several times a week but if I didn’t have photo challenges I probably wouldn’t post as much as I do. I decided that I wasn’t going to post for the sake of posting. In the end, we blog because we like doing it. If you are forcing yourself, well where is the fun in that? A lot of bloggers I follow say that they struggle to keep up with reading, commenting and writing their own material. I think you have found what is comfortable for you now.
Woo hoo, well dext one for completing it! I was actually thinking about making that my goal for next year but I think you’ve put me off. I think youre right – I’ve loved the extra content from you but everyone is so busy that there isn’t time to keep up. I usually hopped onto your blog at the weekend for a catch-up session! Looking forward to what comes next…
Nikki| http://www.thoselittlemoments.net
Everyone has their interests. You will dedicate time to them because it brings you happiness.
Hobby bomb? 😛
I did end up moving to Colorado. Still doing the ultras.