Why I Took A Blogging Break

Work break... [Image credit: kaboompics]

Women are meant to be great at multi-tasking. My current job role has certainly improved my ability to think on my feet and juggle multiple tasks.

However, sometimes life just gets the better of you and there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So things like hobby-blogging have to take a backseat.

To be fair, it has been an extremely busy few weeks…here are some things that have rendered me with less free time:

- Joining a walking group, where I subsequently met some lovely people who I ended up striking up a friendship with and as a result, my social life has been a bit more active.
- Going from part-time to full-time at work after a member of staff left.
- Starting a weekly writing class.
- It’s that time of the year again, where colds and flus are spreading and unfortunately, I wasn’t immune.
- I’ve had annoying household things to take care of e.g. boiler repairs, switching broadband services.
- This website domain is up for renewal so I’ve had to do some work for that.
- My sister who still lives in London has visited us a couple of times.
- Those friends that you only hang out with from time-to-time have been reaching out, wanting to catch up.
- And finally [shock-horror :P]…I’ve been dating.

As a result, it’s been difficult to keep up with my blogging schedule. It’s always been in the back of mind however, and the guilt I’ve been feeling for neglecting my blog is amazing: the weeks starting to build up (since I last posted) has been difficult to ignore.

I’ve attempted to write a post, but the motivation just hasn’t been there, almost as though I’ve had writer’s block. I had a similar period at the start of this year, but luckily it never seems to last longer than a few weeks.

I notice that the quality of my writing seriously goes down when I’m tired or unmotivated too, so I guess I’ve been waiting until I feel energised enough to start blogging again, when I know the standard will be better. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.

But I’ve noticed that slowly, over the past few days, my passion for writing has returned. And how do I know that? Because I’ve been having these random moments where I’ll be in the middle of doing something, I start thinking about a situation, analyze it, think about how many other people would be able to relate, have this epic moment of wisdom where I summarise the situation in like a sentence or two and I’m like woah! I need to write that down, that’d be great blog!

What these past few weeks have taught me is the importance of balance: when things are getting too crazy in your life, take a step-back and evaluate which things you’re just going to have to temporarily neglect.

For me, as much as I hated it (and I hope I don’t sound too melodramatic here), I had to sacrifice blogging. I felt it was necessary to go out and live my life and have new experiences…instead of prioritising a life through a computer screen.

It is definitely a good thing that I’m going out, meeting new people and sharing new experiences… but at the risk of sounding ungrateful, it’s just typical that it all had to happen AT ONCE. It makes it difficult to fully enjoy moments when you have too much going on. But hey, these experiences have definitely given me a few more juicy topics to write about.

However, a social life is expensive so that’s motivation enough to slow-down. Also, my writing class is nearly ending, so that time I’ve been spending on assignments and going to class I can definitely spend on blogging now.

Blogging is something I enjoy doing, and I noticed that I haven’t been as happy these past few weeks… subconsciously, I must have missed doing it: writing and posting online must be a form of stress-relief for me.

So I think it’s also important to remember that, no matter how busy things get, try to set-aside a certain amount of time per week to still do the things you enjoy. Things that keep you sane.

When you’re having a busy period in your life, certain things will naturally run their course therefore eventually freeing up your time. If it’s a major life upheaval like moving house or starting a new job, eventually you’ll start to adjust to a new routine or surrounding, and you can go back to dedicating some of your time to your preferred interests and hobbies.