The Big Benefit of a Blogging Break

Sometimes, the best method for growing your blog is to simply place your hands above your head and slowly back away from the computer. Okay, maybe you don’t need the police procedure, but taking some time away from your blog can be a big boon to your overworked brain waves.

You don’t have to take a trip around the world, or even a two week vacation, but sometimes getting away from the day in, day out incessant grind of running a blog is all you need to come back feeling refreshed. Let’s face it, blogging is a demanding mistress and there’s no quicker way to resent her than finding yourself pulled into the relentless vortex of an all day every day as long as the earth’s in orbit work schedule.

Not only will this cause you to resent something you should be loving, it can cause your entire view to grow murky. Working without pause has little benefit and doing so will invariably lead to the law of diminishing returns. 

About three weeks back, I hit a wall. Many of the things I was trying at the time weren’t working as well as I would have liked. Of course, this was entirely my fault as I was expecting for Father Time to grant me special favors. Though he was unwilling to look the other way for the other six and a half billion souls surviving the minutes on our planet, I thought he would somehow do so for me. 

Nope. it turns out I need to be patient just like everybody else.

The world of blogging, for a brief little bout, was just a bit too much. I needed to step away. I took a break from Writer Dad, my first retreat in seven months. I intended to be gone a week, but a busted modem kept me away for ten full days.

This ended up being a hallelujah and a half. When I returned to Writer Dad, I felt a peace I had not yet felt at any time this year. I returned ready and motivated, and I have had more fun at my home base than I have in a long long time. It wasn’t just about the fun, I also returned with a month’s worth of planned posts. 

Humans have a need for an occasional change of environment. Some of us blog because we are seeking a vent, some of us do it because we are searching for a way to make a living for ourselves online. Either way, if we never step away from the track, we are only running around in the same circles we were once wishing to avoid.

Take a long weekend, an extended holiday, or maybe even just a really long coffee break, but step away and grow a little while you’re gone.

Sean

Sean Platt is a fantastic father and gifted ghostwriter. He tweets here.

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Writing in Mass

We’ve all been there – we’re supposed to drop a post for the coming day, but the idea of sitting down and writing is about as appealing as chasing 200 sit-ups with a Brussel sprout smoothie. The feeling of looming drudgery is not something we ever want to face with our blogs. The moment our blogs begin to feel like a chore is the precise moment our human nature will render waning enthusiasm to resentment. Our jaundiced fervor will show in our voice, displayed for all our readers to see. One surefire way to guard yourself against this feeling is to have a bank of posts ready for publishing at any time. 

How do you brim a bank with posts when getting one out at a time is such a chore already? Easy. Stop writing one at a time.

The more you can streamline production, the more efficiently your blog will run overall. The more efficiently your blog is running, the more fun you will have, and the more opportunities you will be able to see. As my daily writing duties expanded from one piece of writing to twenty, I knew I would flounder without a system; every day a struggle spent hoping I could soon catch up.

The most effective method I’ve found to fill my bank is to write my posts in batches. Think about it: your brain is an efficient machine, but it will only work as orderly as you demand. Sitting down to write a post each day is not an effective strategy. Compare the act of muscling through one post per day to sitting in the same spot and spitting out a week’s worth of content and then scheduling it all to drop the following week. 

Once you’re writing your articles in batches, you can then start to streamline the process even further. Let’s say there are 3 components to penning a post: research; write; refine. Each time you switch from one task to the next, you are asking your brain to slow down, shift gears, and change direction. Decide on the number of posts you want to write and then complete each step in full. 

RESEARCH: If you gather a lot of your ideas from reading other blogs, then spend some time online reading and making notes. If you draw your inspiration from the well of the world passing before your eyes, that’s fine too. Just make sure that you have a few notes, lines, sketches, or anything that will help you to get started. It is infinitely easier to pull an inferno from a spark than it is fan a flame from nothing. Once your research is in place, you can move on to the writing.

WRITE: This is the hardest part for most, yet it doesn’t have to be. Don’t slow to think. Be confident in your pending edit and write your words with abandon. Know you will thicken the good and trim the bad. Allow your mind to wander and release. Finish one post and then bounce from one subject to the next. You’re in writing mode now; your synapses should be spinning, creativity crackling, and writing rolling along with a lot more ease. Let it spill, then bring your mop to the edit.

REFINE: Once you have a few drafts finished, it’s time to take it from the top. The dish will have cooled and flavors settled. Now you should be able to truly taste what you might not have in the immediate aftermath of your first draftg. Sharpen your voice, augment your arguments, and eliminate any unnecessary tangents. Add a bit color to your black and white by adding a picture if you so desire, then schedule your posts for publishing. 

Writing a week’s worth of content in one fell swoop isn’t necessarily easy, but it is effective, and if you want to pull all you can from blogging, it is absolutely worth the effort. 

Sean

Sean Platt is a dad and freelance writer. Subscribe to his feed or follow him on Twitter.

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