Let’s Talk: Blogging Burn Out?

You may have noticed that I haven’t been around much this month. Well, that’s because I experienced the dreaded Blogging Burn Out. I love blogging, starting this adventure has been one of the best decisions of my life. So why on earth have I not wanted to even think about doing it this month? I’m not entire surely, but I have some vague ideas as to why.

Overwhelmed by My Reader and Comments

When I first started blogging I never expected it to go anywhere. When someone followed me I immediatedly followed them back. Eventually it was just getting too much for me to keep up with. I didn’t want to unfollow anyone because I know how awesome it is seeing that you gained a follower.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful or discourage interaction, but I also started getting overwhelmed by the number of comments I’d get on some posts. I want to reply to everyone, but sometimes I’d have 30 or 40 comments to reply to. Believe me, I know how this sounds but I really like giving genuine comment replies and I just didn’t have the energy.

I would put off commenting and reading posts because I needed a break and then they’d just keep building up and building up to the point where it actually made me anxious. I have severe social anxiety that extensed to interactions online.

It takes hours to reply to posts and comments and again, don’t get me wrong – I love reading everyone’s posts an comments, but  I was starting to feel physically drained looking at my inbox.

Putting Too Much Pressure On Myself

It’s hard not to compare yourself to others. I’m definitely better at it now, but I still have moments were I feel like I’m not good enough. My blog lacks original content and I’m trying so hard to change that. I’m not the best at thinking of things though. It’s taken me ages to come up with the few original posts I have on here.  I rarely, if at all, schedule posts because I don’t have the attention span to sit there and write up several posts a day. I see people who are extremely organised and it just makes me feel like I’m not doing a good enough job. In my mind it was just easier to not post at all.

No Time To Read

I felt like I was blogging so much that I actually had no time to read which kind of defeats the purpose of having a book blog.

My Attention Span or Lack Thereof

I have a non-existent attention span. It affects just about every aspect of my life. My anxiety really messes with my ability to focus. It’s impossible for me to just sit here and write a post. I’ve honestly been distracted from this current one for like nearly 2 weeks. I’ve been trying to write a post about being a distracted mood reader and have been to distracted to finish it.

I Opened Up a Society6 and RedBubble Store

I was really focused on getting those up and running this month. It takes a lot of time to create a design. Sometimes I’d be on Photoshop and Illustrator all day trying to get things to look how I wanted them to, which of course put blogging on hold. I suppose this is the same for bloggers who are writers. When inspiration strikes you just have to roll with it and everything else gets put in the backseat.

Real Life

Yep. Real life decided to be really inconvientent this month. I’ve either been sick or not at home. It’s not always easy to blog on the go.

So….. What to do about it?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Even now I’m still feeling a little burnt out. I keep telling myself that I need to blog hop, but I just don’t have the energy. I did however find a few things that helped.

• Take a break runaway with us for the Summer, let’s go upstate, we can all go stay with my father, there’s a lake I know. I gaurantee your followers will understand. Taking a break is a much better option than burning yourself out to the point where you don’t want to ever blog again.
• Go through your following list and unfollow some blogs. It’s not easy and I felt guilty, but sometimes you just have to. There’s no point following someone who posts nothing you’re interested in or who you’ve never interacted with. Instead of immediatly following someone back take a look at their blog and see if it interests you.
• BINGE NETFLIX. I haven’t been able to watch a TV show for ages, but this month I binge watched 4 shows on Netflix. It was really nice changing things up.
• Write up some posts that don’t take a whole lot of effort. Is this lazy? Probably. But again, it’s better than burning yourself out completely. Do some tags. Make a list.
• If you’re stressed about how many reviews you need to write, post some mini ones. Make a GIF reaction review. Or just write bullet points.
• SERIOUSLY TAKE A BREAK!!!

At the end of the day, even though I want to take my blogging as far as I can, I do this for fun. It’s a hobby. I don’t want blogging to feel like a job. I just keep reminding myself of this and it helps a lot.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been so great at this whole thing lately, but November is a new month and I’m hoping to get back into a routine. Thanks for sticking by my and my blog ♥

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Have you experienced a Blogging Burnout? What did you do to help get over it?

I hope you’re all having a fantastic day xx