I’m concerned you all don’t actually know what you’re doing.
Please don’t take that the wrong way….
I’m just saying that *maybe* spending 3 hours a day looking at fashion accessories on Pinterest is not the best use of your time – unless of course you are an accessories designer doing market research.
And *maybe* subscribing to 400+ blogs and trying to read them all on a daily basis is a bigger time-suck than you are admitting.
Oh, wait. That second one is me!
As I mentioned a week or so ago, I’ve discontinued the DIY link round-up posts for the time being. I also hinted that I had started un-subscribing from a few of the blogs. Long story short, in the last month or so I’ve gone from about 500+ unread blog posts in my Google Reader every day, to hovering around 60 or so unread every day.
The difference is INCREDIBLE.
And actually a little ridiculous. I absolutely should have realized this before.
I NEVER wanted to be a curator. I never wanted to have the kind of site that just re-hashed material found elsewhere. I always wanted my blog content to be original and quality.
I really should have recognized that the DIY link roundup posts should not have been a priority – as they don’t really fit into the vision I have for this site. And yet every week for 2 years I spent time (hours?) finding the DIY posts on other sites, and formatting the link-posts for your enjoyment.
I am absolutely proud of any exposure or traffic I was able to send to those other blogs, and I’ve already discussed having those posts start up again as guest posts, but for my own time and work I really should have honored my priorities and discontinued that series awhile ago.
NOW, especially with far fewer unread blog posts to manage, I have far more time to work on that WORK that actually is a priority. I have the time to craft guest posts for other blogs, or work on future resources for you all, or maybe even start that novel I’ve been talking about writing for 5 years.
I encourage you to reexamine your priorities and just do a quick check and see if you have anything in your day-to-day life actively pulling you away from those priorities.
My next plan is to work on fitting more house-cleaning into my life. Not because I like it, but because I want it to be a priority to do as much housework as possible so my husband (who works 100 hours/week sometimes) doesn’t feel like he has to.
This fall I’ll be running another round of the Onward and Upward online workshop. Details still to be announced, but I’m looking forward to having you be part of the community!.
Great points! Way to take control and make sure you’re spending your time towards the things you really value.
I don’t let Pinterest and reading blogs become a giant time suck for me. I use Pinterest to organize things I know I want to look at again. I think of it as a big, visual bookmarking tool. I don’t spend a lot of time looking for new things on there. Sometimes, if I’m blocked or overwhelmed, I might go on for the eye candy. But then I set the “egg timer” widget on my computer to make sure I”m only wasting time for five minutes. It works for me.
As for reading blogs, I really love using Bloglovin’… mostly for the “mark all as read” feature. I know I’ll want to read every post written by friends, but I might only read 1/5 of the posts for other blogs I subscribe to (I skip right over the outfit posts, for sure and am only in the mood for serious political or sociological stuff sometimes). A few times a day I search through my feed, open the posts I want to read in new tabs, and mark the ones that I don’t want to read as read. I usually do this while I’m waiting on something (like photos uploading to Flickr). I might read the quick posts right then and leave more lengthy posts hanging out in a tab until I have time to delve into them. Because my days are so quiet during the week, I really like taking a few breaks a day to read other’s words. It takes the place of the water-cooler I don’t have
I think I need an “egg timer” widget!
I admire your courage to evaluate what you are doing and be willing to change what you find not to be in line with your goals. There are few people who are willing to do so. I will miss your link posts, but thinking back I usually have already seen about half of them. Possibly because I started following the blog after seeing a link you posted!
As for housework. I have decided to hire someone to clean our house. Like you, we work loads of hours. We also often bring work home. I don’t want to spend my weekends cleaning. At least during the school year, I’m going to have someone come in and vacuum, dust, and clean the bathrooms.
Thanks Anna …. it’s like ‘constant vigilance’ guarding my time sometimes
P.S. I am fully committed to hiring cleaning help someday when we can afford it! Good for you !
I hear ya on the housework. I am pretty guarded of my time (although, I do spend more time than I should on the internets), but somehow, the housework always falls by the wayside, until I’m rushing to clean to have people over. I want to maintain a decent amount of clutter free cleanliness so people can drop by at anytime and so we can enjoy a relaxing evening at home without tripping over stuff (or cat hair…)
I’m working on finalizing a cleaning schedule and sticking to it! If you have any good tips, I would love to read about them