What To Do When You’re Bored Of Blogging
Post by Blog Manager Robbi Hess
If you’re a new blogger this headline might make you gasp and shout, “I will never get bored of blogging!” Seasoned aka long-term bloggers (myself included) know that there comes a time when you ask yourself, “Haven’t I already written this?” and, “Gack! I am so very bored of blogging!”
Perhaps it won’t happen to you, but if it does, just ride it out, you’ll soon fall back in love with it again. You just might need to take a step away for a day or two, or maybe even a week. What happens to cause this boredom? This feeling of, “I’ll be happy if I never have to write again?” It’s because, like any job, you will face times when writing feels like just that — a job. The idea of poising your fingers over the keyboard and churning out a few hundred words on your chosen blog niche could feel like torture.
How can you reclaim your love of blogging and of words? Here are my tips:
- Reach out to a friend. Picking up the phone and talking out your feelings with a fellow blogger may help you uncover a root cause to your blogging boredom. Or you may just find you’re bored of the niche in which you’ve been writing. Brainstorming and talking and sharing your innermost feelings with a friend might just help you uncover why you’re not as passionate as you once were.
- Take a break. Turn the computer off and walk away. If you feel you owe it to your readers to let them know why there’s no new blog post, put up a blog post that reads, “Office closed while I regain my love of blogging!” or “I’m stepping away from the computer for a few days/week. Thank you for stopping by. Please spend some time reading my older posts while I am gone.”
- Read blogs that are outside of your niche. Reignite your passion by reading the blog of someone else who hasn’t lost his or her passion. Read something you’d never have read before. Take your time away from blogging to open yourself to new experiences and new writers. Your creativity will thank you when you next sit down to write a post.
- Give yourself a writing mantra or a self-esteem talk. Remember Stuart Smalley? “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough and gosh darn it, people like me.”? Do that for yourself. It could be as simple as, “Today I will write the best post I can” or “This too shall pass” or any other writing mantra or quote that you love that inspires you.
- Make time to celebrate your small wins. It could be that your traffic has increased. That you received more comments on a post than you anticipated. Maybe your post was shared on Facebook and Twitter by individuals you admire. You don’t have to wait until your blog traffic reaches 1,000,000 views in order to celebrate. If you receive 10 more views than you did last week, celebrate that small win!
- If you feel that your blog has gotten stale, do something small to breathe new life into it. It could be talking to your web designer and changing the fonts or the colors or even the layout. Maybe you need to shake up the photos you use on your blog to better reflect you and the posts you’re writing. A small facelift might just reignite your blogging passion.
- Don’t give up. If anyone ever told you that writing and blogging are easy, frankly they may have lead you astray. When I first started out, there were many times I just wanted to throw in the dictionary and start selling widgets. I knew though, that I had loved words since I could hold a crayon and that I was suffering a bit of burnout. It happens!
Why do I stick with it even though there are days I may think I am bored of blogging? I love it and I revel in the ability to put words to paper (figuratively) and share my thoughts, insights and experience, but there are days the words just don’t flow. Because I earn my living with my words though, I need to write whether the muse is with me or not. Bottom line, give yourself permission to take a breather. If you love words the way I love words, you’ll be back at it before you know it!
Do you ever feel boredom or burnout creeping up? What do you do to combat it?
(Photo: Shutterstock Writing)
