Not Blogging In Favour Of Real Life.
My blog schedule is very erratic - I don't have a set posting regime, I tend to post most days but nothing is scheduled, it's written there and then and published (like this one). But what I do have is a Bando Planner and a bullet journal in which I loosely plan what content I want to go out when.
I have a month on view, I note down my regular content like my posts on the first and last day of the month, my Friday Favourites, my advertisers posts and my social media stat report. After that I pencil in any seasonal post ideas so like this month it'll be some Easter based content and after that - well after that I leave my schedule empty. That generally leaves around 4 posts a week free and I might choose 3 or 4 ideas from my standing 'blog post ideas' list but the majority of the rest of my monthly schedule is content I think up on the spot.
At the moment my content for the next week focuses on my trip to London and some thoughts on blogging and the blogging community. It allows for stuff to happen, for opinions to form, for things to trend and me to react to the news.
What this does mean though, is when I'm too busy to write, I either stay up late writing, don't post my best content.
Or just don't write at all.
Last week I didn't publish for 3 days straight, something unheard of over here since January when I got super ill and laptop screens made me want to vomit. And ya know what, I didn't have a good excuse for not posting - I was just busy living life.
On Thursday I didn't blog in the morning because I had a lot to get ready for London. I thought I'll get everything done that I need to do and then this evening when all the jobs are done and I'm stress free before my trip, then I'll blog for today and schedule something for tomorrow.
What actually happened was my car needed 2 new tyres and tracking and I had to spend 3 unplanned hours in my grandparents house waiting for it to be done. That knocked my day out and suddenly it was 5pm and I only had the evening to get ready. That's ok I thought, I'll get ready for London, forget today's blog and schedule something for tomorrow - one day off won't kill me.
And then my brother text me asking if me and Joss wanted to join him and his fiancé at a local pub quiz. In and hour and a half. And then I realised I'd left my camera (quite an essential element to an Instagram walk in London) in my Mum's house. Suddenly it's 11pm and I have my camera, we came 2nd to last in the pub quiz and I've got no blog scheduled and a late night getting ready ahead of me.
Friday I got up a 6am, spent 10 hours of the day in the car (with a cute day in Richmond in between) and got home at 11.30pm and fell into bed. Saturday we had family round so did a hurried clean up of the house, saw Joss' family in the afternoon and then went out to a cocktail bar to celebrate my brother's fiancé's birthday in the evening. Cue 2 rounds of lifts cos designated driver and wahoo it's 1am and hey look I didn't blog for 3 straight days.
And I felt guilty.
I spent a lot of the time in between thinking 'do I have enough time to post something' or 'can I squeeze in 45 minutes to schedule something for tomorrow'.
I kept thinking of my advertisers and feeling like I NEEDED to find time to post even when literally didn't have 5 minutes I wasn't doing something or moving onto the next thing.
I felt guilty because I wasn't doing anything like work or babysitting - I was at a pub quiz, I was out for cocktails, I was out actually having fun and the sacrifice of that was my blog.
And then I realised how insane I was being.
There's no epiphany ending to this post, there's no revelation and some advice and guidance over the blogging and real life balance.
I just literally realised the world didn't end when I didn't blog and I had a bloody lovely weekend NOT worrying about it when I was out with my family and friends. It's NOT my business, it DOESN'T pay all my bills........who gives a flying you know what if I take 3 days off to have some fun in the sun and some impromptu plans? I'm sure you guys didn't.
Plus, having fun IRL means I get to write about it on the blog when I come back so who's the real winner here?
