It happens to us all – you feel a little exhausted by the whole blogger scene and feel, well, burnt out. So how can you avoid it, and how can you get reinspired if it does happen?
Blogging is more fun and less of a chore if you have a bit of a routine going – either in terms of blog posts on certain days (which we’ve covered previously) or by how you blog. Got a spare hour when you get home? Sit down and get bashing that keyboard. There’s a popular writing technique called Morning Pages which says that when you wake up, you should sit and write down all your thoughts for three pages. It’s not intended to be read by anyone, but it’s a way of getting your brain working and thinking about things to write.
Another way to try and avoid burn out is to identify what’s making you fall out of love with blogging, and then think of ways to avoid them or improve the situation.
Socialising with your fellow bloggers can give you the inspirational kick up the bum you need. Don’t just wait for an event to happen near you – hop on the UK Bloggers Map and email a few bloggers local to you for a drink after work. A casual get together without the stress of any brand involvement can be a lot more fun – you’re not feeling like you have to take all the photos to document it for a blog post, just having a chat really does help!
If you do feel like you need a break from it all – then take one. You are not Superman or Wonder Woman. You need time to relax! If you’re working a full time job, then coming home and getting posts written, dealing with all the house stuff, etc, sooner or later, your quality in one – or more – of the areas is going to fall or you’re going to break. Take time off! Watch rubbish TV (current favourites around here: Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen, Extreme Couponing and Gravity Falls. Variety is good!) or bake a new type of cake. These sort of things will help to reinspire you.
Get some friends in to help keep your blog ticking over – it’s a great way for your readers to find new awesome blogs to follow, and it will mean your blog isn’t just sitting around waiting for you to come back.
While you’re on a break, think about why you started your blog in the first place – and think about the amazing things you’ve done and people you’ve met because of it. Try not to take too long away from your blog though – it can be difficult returning after a few weeks.
Take a little time on your break to plan out some ideas for posts – carry around a little notebook and scribble things down as you need to. As we discussed last week, writing things down on paper can be much better! Less distractions, easier to get out of your head – we talk about losing the skill of handwriting as computer use becomes more and more popular, so get writing! (Like you need an excuse to buy another pretty notebook)
Give your blog a bit of a makeover – having a tired old design can sometimes put a bit of a dampener on your blogging ideas, so get reinspired with a beautiful new look! We’ve put together three posts so far about beautiful blog designers – find them here: one, two, three!
How do you get reinspired?
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