I spent some of the weekend reflecting on my blog and the amount of time I spend on it.
Actually I spent time this weekend doing a lot of reflecting on a lot of things!
But back to the blog... for now!
I have been spending a lot of time with reading and creating blogs.
I love to read. I love to make things. I love to journal ~ but the time all of this has been taking from my life is ... taking its toll!
I began to feel overwhelmed lately
and
I needed to get back to the reason I began to blog ~ to journal our adoption journey.
Our adoption journey is at a standstill right now so there is not much to tell
(still moving up the list though)
I love to craft too and friends and family always wanted to see what we were up to so that is why I began to add other things and then eventually combined my adoption blog with my crafting blog and so began
In My Free Time
I then began getting hooked on a lot blogs thinking that if I was not up to date with what was going all the time with them I was missing out and not part of "the crowd"
Dear me... this is becoming high school for me again!
Right now I follow... 435 blogs!!
Now that is way too much!
I realize this!
I am actually ashamed of this to be honest!
I am reading more about strangers than I am about my friends and family
After reading all of the wonderful responses from you all I decided to take some of the advice and make some changes to my schedule
- I am going to cut down my reading schedule to the top 200 blogs I thoroughly enjoy ( this will eventually be paired down to 100). I will do this by taking into account this week the blogs that I REALLY enjoy. This is going to be hard because I enjoy a variety of blogs crafting and cooking and adoption and relationships and inspirational
- I am NOT going to join a blog... just to win a prize.
- I am going to ONLY blog when I actually want to blog and not when I feel obligated to be part of a blog party
- I am only going to join parties that I can FULLY participate in ... link up to and visit at least half of the participants
- I am limiting my blog reading to 30 minutes in the AM and 30 min in the PM per day with an actual timer! (this is going to be so hard too)
I want to thank everyone for responding
I am not looking for blogging to be a job ~ I have one of those
I am not looking to become popular
I am looking to read what I enjoy
To share when I have something to say
To have fellowship with those I choose
Thank you all again for your help... I will be back again with an update soon!
Patricia
Patricia believe me I understand about blogging taking up so much time. I follow way too many as well. I must admit I don't have time to visit every single blogger on my list and every post. I really enjoy making new friends in blog land so it's a hard decision to cut back. ~Whew! What to do...:)
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog very much and I do hope you will continue to read mine. I appreciate your kind visits and encouragement. I'm feeling healthy and blessed these days and I am truly grateful.
My prayers are with you all on your adoption journey.
~Blessings, ~Melissa :)
I completely understand where you are coming from Patricia. I too, have had to re-evaluate my blogging. I have felt pressured to "perform" since I was featured and that takes away from the real reason I blog! Thanks for inspiring me to step back and take a second look.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment--I appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteBlogging priorities are good to have--good luck on sticking with 30min. in the AM and 30 min. in the PM--gosh wish I could do that!
I think what you are saying makes a lot of sense! I don't know how many blogs I follow, but I know it is a lot more than I can realistically keep up with! :) I smiled at the part you wrote about not needing blogging to be a job, that you already had one of those!
ReplyDeleteI saw that you are waiting to adopt, and am hoping this happens for you and your husband very soon. I am saying a little prayer for that right now. :)
Blessings,
Jenni
Good for you. Don't be hard on yourself. Like I said, do this for fun. It's great that you recognize that you've joined a lot of blogs and parties, etc. and need to cut back. I know some people use a timer and if this is what you think you need, do it, but personally, I would just stick to scrolling through what looks interesting, scanning the pics, reading a little etc. and moving on. This is what I do a couple of times a day and I find that I'm only blogging about 30 minutes at a time...usually about an hour a day, and some days less or none. I just check my sahmbie blog and saw that there were 3 comments that I needed to add...I hadn't even checked it in a couple of days! So, just don't beat yourself up. You're doing great just recognizing the problem.
ReplyDeleteSmooches : )
Absolutely, Patricia! Totally understandable, especially when time can just get away from you when you are reading or commenting on blogs. The timer is probably a good idea, too. You need to do what works for you and real life!
ReplyDelete