Guest post: How I achieved blog/life balance

We’ve all been there: woken up one day and discovered that blogging has taken over our lives and that we spend more time writing about things we do than actually doing them. Insomniac Mummy perfectly captures the experience in this post about reacquiring perspective.

I stumbled upon the world of mummy blogging quite by accident.

At a low ebb, and feeling a little stir crazy at home with a newborn and toddler, I created a blog on a whim, in the summer of 2009. I’d never heard of British Mummy Bloggers, but a simple Google search led me there, and I was hooked.

Intoxicated by the writing, embraced by the mummy blogging community, and seduced by improving stats, everyday I ate, lived and breathed my blog. I relished being ‘popular’ online, felt emancipated from my four walls, and was excited by the small amount of success my virtual reality afforded me.

But with every high, comes the inevitable low. After the initial rush, I began to obsess over my stats. I became despondent if my daily visitors dropped, worried if my RSS subscribers fluctuated, and fretted over blog comments. Did I have enough readers? Was I posting the ‘right’ material? How could I increase my readership?

I began spending less and less time living my ‘real’ life and increasingly more time online. Blog fatigue set in and posting became a chore. Being a slave to the numbers was ruining blogging for me.

When I returned to work from maternity leave I got the perfect opportunity to get my blog/life balance in check. With my time split in half and the need to prioritise quality time with my children, something had to give. I could no longer sit and write until 3am. I had to be up and out by 8am with the children and in a fit state to earn a living.

So somewhat reluctantly at first, I let the blog slide. Gone was the posting schedule, along with the self-imposed pressure. I stopped religiously checking my stats and cut myself some slack. Yes, my ‘rankings’ suffered, but in the scheme of things, that had become far less important.

These days I blog more for myself, when I choose. If I want to write emotional waffle, I do. If I want to write a sponsored post, I un-ashamedly will, and if I want to disappear from the face of the blogosphere for a week then, hell! So what? I was probably busy enjoying life elsewhere!

Make no mistake, blogging is certainly important to me. I’ll gladly admit I still enjoy seeing small successes. I’m proud to have been involved with projects like Hadrian’s Walk. But where before I would’ve worried over not blogging for 24 hours, these days I know the real world that I can touch, hear, see, and feel is far more important than my virtual online presence ever will be.

If you’re struggling with your blog/life balance these are my top tips on how I began to re-dress mine:

* Spend less time infront of your computer. Live your life in the ‘real’ world.
* Reduce your posting schedule. Self-imposed pressure saps your inspiration.
* Prioritise your time. When my children are with me I very rarely post. Instead I have two or 3 nights a week where I blast through ideas.
* Don’t over think your posts. Sometimes, if I’m suddenly inspired, I’ll write a quick post from my iPhone. Often those are the ones that get the biggest response!
* Take a break! Have a bit of a blogoliday, go on, I dare you!
* Find a new hobby or re-acquaint yourself with an old one. It’ll refresh you and maybe even inspire you when you do have time to blog.
* Remember your blog stats are not the measure of your self worth. Delete the sitemeter and breathe a sigh of relief!

How do you maintain your Blog/Life balance?

What motivates you to blog?

— Insomniac Mummy

Photo credit: Luminis Kanto

About Jennifer Howze

Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.

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