Finding My Blogging Groove, #Blogger Burnout & Other #BloggerIssues

Is this blogger burnout? And if so how the heck do I get my blogging groove back?

Lately I've struggling to find the energy or the will to engage on social media and publish on Cathy Thinking Out Loud. Where these used to energize and excite me now they suck the energy out of me, which is further compounded by the stress of not posting with any consistency. I have ideas, numerous outlines, drafts and partially written posts; I just can't seem to motivate myself to complete, edit, add images and finally hit publish on any of them. 

Could it be I'm experiencing blogger burnout? Or worse a combination of blogger and social media burnout? The thing I like best about social media and blogging is the platform it gives me to share ideas, engage and interact with others. But lately it all seems like a chore or a one way conversation with myself, leaving me feeling alone and lonely in a crowd.

The above paragraphs were actually written in April of 2015; the beginning of a post I started in response to how I had been feeling. 

They were part of that large pile of partially written posts waiting to be finished. These feelings continued until very recently and as a result I was down to completing only posts I was committed to write and What to Watch Wednesday posts. Each time I looked at my blog I'd cringe at the post stream and how little I was offering my readers, but still I couldn't manage to motivate myself to do more. I've always known my Hubby doesn't read all my posts, in particular sponsored posts, but over the holidays he revealed he rarely finds ones he's interested in reading anymore, further confirmation (like I needed any) the content I've been offering my readers is at best lacking. I think an examination of the reasons I'm in this rut and how I might get my blogging groove back is far overdue. 

Apathy Begets Apathy

The Blog: I knew it would take time to grow readership and my numbers, but after 2 1/2 years my blog hasn't seemed to grow; month after month the numbers stay the same. Unless I'm running a giveaway visits and page views remain low. I want Miracle Grow for blogs that I can sprinkle on my posts then watch my readership grow. So if any of you know where I can my hands on some, let me know. The thing is, when people read what I write it inspires me to write more, but apathy begets apathy squashing my inspiration to write. Lack of inspiration leads to inconsistency in my posting, and for readers out of sight is out of mind resulting in fewer blog visits, and round and round the vicious cycle goes. But it's a new year and with that I'm determined to push myself to consistently press publish, and more importantly dig deeper to produce more interesting and diverse content, regardless of how many actually read it. 
Having said that but please visit me I get lonely!

Social Engagement When You Feel Anti-Social:

Twitter: As my twitter numbers increased I've found it harder to see people in my tweeter stream. Lists help but even so my experience has been the bigger the numbers the smaller the number of meaningful connections and interactions. Twitter parties once so fun and interactive are a challenge to engage and participate in because of their ever growing size and loss of the beloved tweetgrid. Over the past few years I've noticed a shift on twitter by many brands from 2-way conversational engagement to more 1-way promotional content. It's great to see brands embrace social media but I'm really interested in what the brand stands for and the people behind the brand. Even brands once outstanding at connecting with followers seem less likely to engage, retweet and have conversations on twitter. This may be a result of outsourcing promotions and social media, but I kinda miss the type engagement that inspired this best brands list. The end result is social media often leaves me feeling anti-social. 

We should all strive for the kind of daily agenda-free and personal engagement I see from my friend Todd (@tgreenc). Time to reinstate my daily ritual of  looking at 10 different twitter friends' feed to see what they've been up to and comment, engage or just say hello. Who knows, this type of social might just leave me feeling less anti-social.

Facebook & Other Social Media: Although I like other social media platforms time management of them is a puzzle I've yet to solve. I could spend every waking minute reading and responding to friends on the handful of platforms I'm active on and still miss the majority of updates and wonderful content shared. Add to that, sharing content on the CTOL facebook page, and my continued efforts to understand the ins and outs of the various social media platforms and I'll need to clone myself soon. Juggling life's obligations, the Blog and engaging on twitter, facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram can definitely trigger my my anti-social tendencies, followed by burying my head in the sand (aka marathon steaming sessions on Netflix). I truly have no idea how others do it. 

The Pressing Issue of Word Press

In my head I know exactly how I want my blog posts to look, and the design style and feel I want for my blog, headers, logo, and business cards. It's not a cluttered patchwork of what I've managed to add, edit, or customize on my own. I spend more hours fussing with positioning and sizing text and images for a post trying to get something remotely resembling the aesthetic I want than actually writing it. I really want more control over image and font sizing,  placement and editing options. I would love to figure out how to add a PDF with print option to a post. I want pull down tabs, and a user friendly browsing experience for all those who visit; so basically the polar opposite of what I have now. I want to switch from Blogger to Word Press but thinking about the learning curve involved to switch, maintain and trouble shoot issues for Cathy Thinking Out Loud triggers a flight rather than fight response in me. Plug-ins, hacks, hosting, self-hosting, domains and HTML code; all just synonyms for fear. I'm an advocate of outsourcing to the professionals and would be happy to hire someone to redesign and switch Cathy Thinking Out Loud to Word Press, AND give me one-on-one WP tutorials, AND be available for emergency IT and tech support, preventing me from having a complete mental meltdown. 

To that end I've started a list of potential blog-whispers referred by fellow bloggers.

I'm just not sure anyone truly understands just how blog-tech-code challenged I am. Assuming reliable, patient, knowledgeable, professionals who can tolerate my neurotic personality and whose services fit my budget exist; how do I find and recognize the one that is a good fit for me? Many blog-whispers are also bloggers or closely connected to the blogging community thereby increasing the threat level to DEFCON1 that I'll be exposed as the bat-s@%& crazy person I actually am. Cause that's been such a well kept highly classified secret up till now. Can you imagine the size of the cone of shame required if I was fired as a client due to my inability to grasp concepts and being too clingy-needy. So one my goals for 2016 is to find this superhero blog-whisper who can help me turn my blog vision into a reality.

Getting My Blogging Groove Back

I can't figure out how others pitch and post so often and consistently, it takes me hours to write each post. Not to sound pessimistic but my To Do Lists are pages long and my current rate of posts, pitches, blog maintenance, and social media engagement already seems unsustainable and overwhelming. So baby steps starting with: 

 Strategies to Feelin' Groovy: 

• Create and add a really great About Me page to the blog.
• Write everyday. Whether it gets posted or not it keeps the creative juices flowing and may inspire a really great post.
• Take at least one random picture a day. Not only are they fun to share on social media, a collection of images to use for posts makes getting from draft to published that much easier.
• Schedule time once a week to experiment and try a new photography technique or hack.
• Write and publish at least one non-sponsored post per week in addition to the What 2 Watch posts. Dig deeper to create more interesting and diverse content. 
• Read and comment on at least 1 fellow blogger's non-giveaway post each day. The comment lets them know I have read their post. No apathy here! 
• Tweet a hello to 10 people each day, just to say hello. 
• Research a different social media platform each month. By year end I'll be an expert.
• Reach out and get a few more names of blog-whispers who might be a good fit to help me redesign and switch my blog to WP.
• Find ways to better schedule blog and blog related activities, including an editorial calendar, and improve my time management skills. 
• Pitch an idea to a brand once a week, and don't be discouraged if pitches are rejected. 
• Examine goals and long To Do Lists once a month to track my progress and edit as required to ensure I continue moving forward without the burnout. 

Doot-in doo-doo, feelin' groovy!

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about blogger issues and getting my blogging groove back.

Blogger Issues: Trying to find that oh so elusive balance.

Balance: A harmonious or satisfying arrangement or proportion of parts or elements. (6) via The Free Dictionary.
I am struggling with finding a balance between my family, life obligations, things I should do, social media interactions, and blogging. They all seem to cross over and the boundaries are blurred. This is certainly how my family sees it. To them it appears that, writing for the blog, twitter parties, entering a contest, and connecting with friends on social media, are all the same thing. So they have the impression that when I am at my computer I am just playing on twitter" again, and neglected them. To be fair to them, sometimes this is true. I have two teen boys that sometimes I truly am happy to avoid, or put some distance between them and myself. 
Only another blogger will truly understand how much effort is required to write and maintain a blog, or the considerable amount of time required to outline, write, possibly research, take pictures for, proof read and edit each post. It is far more time consuming than I ever imagined until I started blogging. I find as a new blogger the time commitment and the learning curve to be overwhelming, and this often results in total inaction. 
To deal with the time management, and to un-blur some of the boundaries I decided to approach my blog like a job, which I should have done in the first place. I thought the process of doing this would bring me closer to finding a balance that works for me. With the use of an agenda I hoped to schedule in specific times for all the different activities in my life. I also thought by sharing this said agenda with my family, they could see, and understand where my hours go. Just because I am at the computer doesn't mean I am just "playing on twitter" again. 

Schedule Draft One:

• Write, research, take pictures, edit and publish blog posts. Deal with all things blog related. I have allotted 3 hours a day 4 days a week on weekdays, plus an additional 3 hours on the weekend. Initially I scheduled 5 days on weekdays, but realized that at least once a week something will interfere, or conflict with this. (15 hours) 
• Schedule the times and days of specific weekly twitter chats I enjoy participating in. There are about 4 or 5 of these. (5 hours)
• Scheduled free time: for chatting and engaging with friends, participating in a twitter party, entering a few contests, watching TV, or reading a book. I consider this to be the equivalent to my lunch hour and breaks. I allotted 2 hours daily. (14 hours)
• List and make a timeline for specific life obligations: I allotted 5 hours a day, 7 days a week for this. This includes grocery shopping, errand running, cleaning, meal prep, etc. (35 hours)
• List and make a timeline for things I should do: I have allotted 15 hours a week. This includes regular exercise, get my eyes checked, clean the garage, etc. (15 hours)
• Lastly I have allotted 1 hour a day for personal time to shower, brush my teeth, etc. (7 hours)

These all seemed like a very reasonable scheduling of my time. Here is a recap:

Assuming 24 hours in a day (which I do) and 8 hours of that is for sleep. That leaves 16 hours a day. The above schedule would take up 14 of those hours on weekdays, and 12 on weekends. Of the 112 hours a week available, this schedule would take up 91 of them. 

WOW! life is busy, no wonder I feel overwhelmed. That doesn't leave much time for one on one time with my family, or breakfast with a friend. But, going through this process has helped to focus my attention, understand I need to further prioritize what is important, and realize time management is going to be the only way to do all or most of the things I would like to do in my life. Clearly it is going to take more than one draft. Baby steps.

Yep, just me Cathy thinking out loud about balance.