I had the best of intentions, honestly. I always do!
Somehow, life got in the way of all that I'd planned. It's not the first time that's happened though, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised.
I started this blog just a few weeks back, intending to publish two posts a week. Or, at the very least, one. Like I said, with the best of intentions.
As this is the first time I've written a blog though, I knew that I would have to work hard to meet this self-imposed posting schedule.
It may not seem a lot to some bloggers to write just one or two blog posts a week. I know there are many bloggers successfully writing three, four or more posts weekly. But while I would love to be so prolific at some point further along my writing journey, for now, I'm just figuring it out.
I haven't had a daily routine before now that involves writing for anyone aside from myself. I've never felt the need to think of drafts, rewrites, edits and all of those things that successful bloggers do!
I knew as 2010 came to an end, that this year writing would be a far higher priority for me. I just hadn't yet figured out how I would work time to write into what can tend for me to be a fairly busy schedule.
Since writing my last post, the demands of daily life have had me going from here to there, there to here, and often back again. Sometimes several times a day.
The things I've had to do in the past week have been more important, a higher priority, than me sitting down to write.
Seeing my children safely and happily back to school, and the eldest off to high school and camp, those things were more important than writing.
Keeping my husband's business running smoothly amidst the back-to-school craziness was more important than writing too.
Making sure that the family had clean and ironed clothes to wear, and healthy meals for the day? Definitely. More important.
Spending a few hours to do a job that I'd promised someone two months ago? That was important. Not only important, but well worth the sense of relief I have now that it's done!
As for my writing, I have written, at least a little, in those tiny windows of opportunity that I've seized throughout the week. A couple of pages here, a couple of pages there. A few pages on one blog post idea. A few pages on another. Unfortunately, nothing complete, nothing close to being publishable!
During my second pregnancy, several years ago now, I was very overdue and didn't end up going into hospital until ten days after the baby's due date. I recall at the time having a feeling of hope every time the phone rang, that it might be someone calling to let me know I was in labour!
It's been a bit like that with my blog this week. I've gotten a bit tired of looking at my blog and seeing that nothing has changed, somehow expecting an amazing post to show up from one look to the next. And of course it's been on my mind that you're very likely feeling the same way.
So I have moments of "not-so-bright"-ness where I check out my own blog, hoping for a miracle, and expect that labour and blog posts can go ahead without me! And I can be easily distracted...by blogrolls, links, email... the list goes on. At times I can be so overwhelmed by all of those things that I have to do, that I become almost paralysed into inaction.
Some days, I could take on the world. Other days, the idea of taking on my kitchen in order to prepare dinner is just too much.
This week has just been one of those weeks. Family life, work commitments, the never-ending housework, those extra jobs we take on. There are times when no matter how much we'd like to spend time on those things we love to do for ourselves, we know that - temporarily - we need to push them aside.
It's OK to do that sometimes too. As long as we're not always pushing our own dreams and interests aside.
And so this week, as the school year begins and life again starts to settle into a rhythm, I intend to spend time finding my own writing rhythm.
It may not be easy. I'll have to work at it, I know. But it will be worth it. Definitely. It's always worth making time for those things that are important to us.
Brigid
What about you? What are the important things that you're wanting to include in your daily routine? How are you going about finding your own rhythm? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Share what's on your mind by clicking on “comments” at the top of this post.
Photo courtesy of What is in us on flickr
Oh Brigid I hear you!
When I started (not so long ago) I set myself the target of 3 posts a week. After a couple of weeks I set the daunting task of 5 posts a week – WOW that was hard!
What I ended up doing was sitting down for 2 days and writing my heart out – I ended up with 20 posts, enough for a month (at 5 posts a week). Doing this has given me the breathing space that I needed. Some days I will sit and write for an hour or two and I have shortened the length of my posts (which has helped my readers) but it also requires me to get my thoughts across in less words.
Keep at it…you can be the writer that you want to be!
Juanita, thanks for the encouragement, and for the great ideas. Shorter posts is something I can definitely work on, although I’m pretty sure that I’ll never be so quick as to write 20 posts in 2 days. That’s impressive!! I had hoped to have several posts written before getting my blog up, but didn’t end up doing that. I might clear a couple of days too, and see just what I can get written in that time. I’d much rather be ahead of myself too than feeling like I’m on the back foot all the time. Thanks for the inspiration!
Brigid! Thanks so much for your post on my blog–I was just wondering if anybody had heard me. Yes, I’ll just do it! As for your picture of the woman with the whistle and the hurdles, I’ve often thought that the most beautiful and graceful of olympic events is the hurdles–I love watching them soar over those things meant to get in their way. Let’s all just soar over our hurdles!
Barbara, I definitely heard you! I was reading your note and Tara Sophia Mohr’s wonderful response over at her blog and could really relate to your experience.
I think those olympic athletes make the soaring look easy, when there’s so much hard work and practice that’s gone before!
If we dive in and do it though, I’m sure before too long we will be soaring, and wondering why it ever seemed to hard to get started.
I look forward to seeing you gracefully jumping your hurdles! And am inspired by this conversation to do the same.
OH right–you have to work at it. I just read about a sad famous person who said she was seeking financing for a project–she wanted to be “The British Martha Stewart.” She missed the part where Martha worked her buns off for years as a stockbroker and then a caterer–she taught herself to make croissants, for heaven’s sake.
That’s the intimidating part. The good and encouraging part is that if you find work you love, working at it becomes a pleasure in itself.
I’m working on an article about Georgia O’Keeffe, one of my early idols, and what she said about painting, but writing for me is a little like eating that frog.
Can I have fries with that frog?
Barbara, you’re so right in saying that when you find the work you love, the work becomes a pleasure.
For some people, writing a blog is the work they love. Then for others of us, it’s just one aspect of having an online business.
I expect the blog writing gets easier as we get clearer on who our audience is, and what (and why) we’re wanting to communicate to them.
For me, that’s something I’m still working out too. But the more clarity I have with those aspects, the more ideas I have about what I want to write.
Now, I just need to make more time to get the thoughts out of my head and onto my blog.
I look forward to reading your article about Georgia O’Keeffe!