It’s true confession time: blogging has flooded my life. It has exceeded it’s boundaries, that is, overflowing into areas where it doesn’t belong and adding to the stress.
Of course, it’s not all bad. I love the people. I love the conversation about what to wear. And I love the creative outlet. But even my personal wardrobe has suffered as of late, due to just not taking time for non-computer related activities. My life, I’m afraid, has become two-dimensional.
Homeschooling moms are familiar with the schedule-building process and for quite some time I’ve known I needed to build me a new one. Now that I’m home, unpacked for the most part, and have my taxes mailed out, here’s the updated schedule I’m trying out (as with the old one, it’s built on 1 1/2 hour increments):
7 – 8:30: Seek God’s direction for daily living through Bible reading, prayer, and journaling.
8:30 – 10: Varies by day. Monday I go to Value Village, Friday is set aside for MOPS activities.
10 – 11:30: Laundry & Studio Time (Mon- Thurs).
11:30 – 1: Errands/exercise.
1 – 2:30: Computer time.
2:30 – 4: Putter outside and be available to help daughters.
4 – 5:30: Food preparation.
5:30 – 7: Family dinner, including clean-up, of course.
7 – 8:30 Varies by day: church activities or family projects at home .
8:30 – 10 Those last few things …
One of my favorite things about this blog has always been getting reader input. This topic, personal as it is, is no exception. What tips and techniques have worked for you to keep blogging in its place in your life?
HA! Good question. Let me know when you figure it out. 😉
You too, eh? Well, before the trip to Italy landed in April, I had been planning on doing Frugal Upstate’s Improve Your Blog Month and getting some ideas for making blogging easier (like a plug-in for photo editing … I should just go find one).
I’m also thinking that if I get my head out of the computer a bit more that the blog will be more interesting, even if I post less. Maybe not.
It’s a constant struggle here too. I don’t think folks who just read realize how much time it takes to write a decent post 🙂
I keep telling myself that I should write at night after the kiddos go to bed, but find that I’m more in my groove in the mornings. Sigh. I do have to limit myself otherwise I’d just be at the computer all day.
One thing I do, since the kiddos are small, is move to a 3 day a week posting schedule in the summer. They are home, the point of my being home with them is to spend time with them, so I force myself to take a couple of days off from it a week.
I’m not a blogger, and I still have trouble staying off the computer and keeping a balanced schedule. Your schedule outline was a good motivator for me to really examine my routine and put more structure in my day to make life around here a little easier for everyone. Thank you!
I am still working on that one. Seems having 2 small children and one on the way any day makes for a natural distraction, however I spend almost all of my free time doing comptuer stuff which is kind of sad because there are other things that I enjoy doing as well!
You could get extra sick so that the effort required to get out of bed saps any motivation you might have had for creative activity….blogging could be the first thing you find being trimmed out of your life. Hey, it worked for me. 😉 (but I still don’t recommend it to the general public. the losses quite outweigh the gains!)
I’m sure if I were that sick I would have no interest in blogging. But I like what I did better – going on a trip – it’s less painful. I’m so glad you are doing better!
I am overwhelmed as well and I am happy you are figuring out your own schedule. I finally posted and shared with our readers that I was feeling tapped out and just needed permission to take it easy. It worked well and now I am sharing tips for mommy time management through a book I found at the library, “How Did I Get So Busy” by Valorie Burton. It is helping me and I am hoping it will help others out there too. I found it at my library.
You know, I’m a relatively new blogger and I’m not sure about blogging. It has been really interesting to see visitors to the site, and to write posts. It’s been a lot of fun. At the same time, I’m not sure why I blog, or if I can identify what value it brings to my life. I consider it a recreational activity, like surfing the internet or watching TV, a hobby. Yet while I love preparing posts to share, and thinking about topics to write about, etc (it keeps my brain going), I can seriously be close to computer addicted at times. So I don’t know.
I’ve made the decision that I will only blog when I want to and when I feel I can take time for it. I’m not going to put any pressure on myself to write because I don’t want or need a job. Of course that means I’ll never be part of a blog network or have advertising. I do fantasize about making a series of blogs and using it as a path to becoming one of Oprah’s staff. 🙂
I didn’t blog for the whole month of March and I seriously didn’t know if I would come back to it or not. Even though I’m not a huge blogger to begin with, I think taking a vacation from the blog was very healthy for me.
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