Getting Back Into Blogging

Writing is hard. Writing consistently is even harder. Here’s a list of things I’m doing to motivate myself to get back into writing and posting regularly. Time will tell if it works.

Perfect is the enemy of good

A post doesn’t have to be perfect to be published. Finding out that my most viewed post is one I put very little effort into helped a lot.

Breaking things into manageable pieces

The projects I do usually span weeks or months. Sometimes I shelve them because of lack of interest, missing parts/knowledge, etc. Breaking posts into smaller pieces means I can keep the writing momentum going without waiting until the whole thing is done - or worse “ready”, whatever that means.

Making this place my own

Sometimes I need to remind myself that this is my site. I can write about whatever I want. It also means I can go back and edit a post if I feel like it. Make myself the primary audience takes a lot of the writing anxiety away.

Seeing page view stats

Even though I’m writing for myself, it’s nice to see people reading what I wrote. I debated for a long time if I should use google analytics. It’s surprisingly motivating to see the views come in and I regret not doing it sooner. If google analytics bothers you, I encourage you to block it. I do.

Make a list of things I want write about

I keep a little list on my phone and jot down post ideas as they come to me. When I’m ready to start writing, I can take something from the list if I can’t think of anything to write about. I also keep a drafts folder pushed to git. As I’m working on a project, I throw things in the draft file. It makes it much easier to start a post when the page isn’t blank.