Since I’m reminding myself this week that “I am my own boss” as a self-employed blogger, I thought it would be good to remind you too. I need to remind myself of that right now in order to keep my blogging fun and flexible enough to accommodate my schedule. With the holidays coming up, many of us are traveling or having company at our homes. Don’t stress yourself out about keeping your blogging humming along like normal. Because guess what? You’re readers are not going to go away if you take a few days off. Likely they are taking a few days off themselves from their normal routine. Remember that you are your own boss and that you are the only one who sets your blogging schedule. You don’t have to post something every day. Your posting frequency is determined by you and it is completely flexible.
I know that most bloggers love to blog – it’s a work of passion to write about what interests us. But we can do so much blogging that we can also easily get burned-out. Here are four things I’ve learned over the past month when I’ve been trying to avoid burnout myself:
Schedule Guest Posts – But make it easy on yourself! Ask your guest posters to send you their html code for the guest post so that you can simply copy and paste it into a new post.
Take a Day Off – This is challenging to do, maybe impossible for some. But consider taking one whole day off. And maybe that means you still read your comments, but you aren’t actively working on anything new to post on your blog. The best way to do this is to write things in-advance so you can still post something new but can do so in just a few minutes during your “day off”.
Say “NO” to Yourself – I’m doing this more and more. Yes, there are million things that I could be doing to develop my blog and network with new people. I just have to say “NO” to myself to keep blogging an enjoyable part-time job for me. This even means canceling something I planned on doing because I can not squeeze in the extra time for it. I try to be a flexible boss to myself.
Work Smarter – I’m always looking for ways to work smarter to help me accomplish more in less time. My latest new tool to use I wrote about in “Smarter Email with Gmail” and it is helping me keep up with my email better.
The Money 4 Mom weekly series focuses on blogging as a potential source of income. It’s where I share tips and resources with bloggers every Monday.
Subscribe to Freebies 4 Mom and keep up with the free stuff!
As a new follower of Freebies4mom I must say I enjoy waking up and wondering if I will have a new e-mail from you. It’s quite addictive, but when I subscribed I remember reading that if you didn’t have anything new, you wouldn’t send an e-mail. That’s OK with me! Don’t feel like you have to send a new e-mail every day! We all love freebies, etc. but we all need a break sometimes. If you don’t take one, you will begin to resent it and the joy will be gone. Remember why you started this and remember that we won’t give up on you if we wake up and there are no e-mails in our inbox…we will know that you just don’t have anything new to share. Thanks for all I have been able to learn and save. I love going to the mailbox now. I used to hate it! Keep up the great work! WitnessForU@aol.com
Speaking of saying “no,” I learned some very creative ways to do just this is a very thoughtful book from fellow Texan, Renee Trudeau. It’s called the Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal. A sample of the book’s chapters 3, 4 and 5 are available online, but Chapter 4 is found here: http://reneetrudeau.com/book/mothersguide_month4.pdf. The Nine Ways to Say No are on p. 56, but read the whole chapter. Very helpful, especially this time of year!Thanks for all your great posts!
I agree with you, with such easy access to get online, it is harder to stay away. Just pretend the office is locked for the day and you can’t find the keys :)
So ironic you wrote about this today. I am relatively new to your site, and was wondering, when does she take a day off :) Your hard work and dedication is commendable and appreciated so much! Everyone needs to have time for themselves, no matter what kind of job they have. Thanks for the reminder and enjoy your holiday!
Thank you so much for this important message!!! I know I tend to forget that it is okay to slow down. I needed this reminder!
I took most of this past weekend off – I feel better today than I have in a long time. I took time off after a good day of catch up on Friday. Also rememeber everyone that reads your blog is busy too. I know my business drops drasticly at holiday (I am not a big Christmas type business) So December is usually a down time for me.
Thank you for doing all that you do :) Keep up the good work, but take a break every now and then ;) Shannon, WV