What are the reasons preventing me from blogging? That’s something I’ve often asked myself since I purchased this domain. I keep promising myself that I’ll sit down, come up with a content plan and finally stick to it. At the end of the day, though, I never get to do it… and I’m starting to resent myself for not doing it.
Will 2023 be the year when my blogging career takes off? Just joking! Of course, I’m not planning on becoming a blogger out of nowhere. I’ve decided to stop blaming myself. That can’t be healthy. Instead, I’ve decided to analyse if procrastination is putting me off blogging, as I suspect. Stay with me while I ramble examine it.
Is my perfectionism preventing me from blogging?
I always considered myself to be a professional procrastinator. I assume it. I always leave the hardest and most tedious tasks for the end… just the opposite of what you should do to be productive. Yes, I was that student typing last-minute my reports and, of course, fighting the printer to get the assignment printed just a few hours before it was due.
Then, I always thought it was laziness. However, talking about this matter with my workmate Rachael, she suggested that perfectionist people often see themselves as lazy or prone to procrastinate when it’s actually their fear of failure that’s preventing them from doing what they should be doing.
This idea resonated with me
Soon after our conversation, I came across an episode of the podcast “I shouldn’t say this but…” and my mind exploded. Katy Leeson, the author of this (rest-in-peace) podcast and self-confessed procrastinator, examined all the major reasons for purposely delaying or avoiding certain tasks.
There it was, once again, the combo of perfectionism + fear of failure was number one on the list.
It turns out I am a procrastinator because I care too much about what I do, and consequently, I don’t start something when I’m not sure the results will be good enough for my standards.
It turns out I am a procrastinator because I care too much about what I do, and consequently, I don’t start something when I’m not sure the results will be good enough for my standards. I mean, it’s nothing new that I’ve got a thing for things well done (I drive my husband crazy, LOL), but it never occurred to me that the reason why I do it is that I care too much. Damn it!
If you want to listen to this podcast, you can find the episode here: Spotify / Apple Podcasts, and I can’t recommend it enough. I loved listening to it while I walked around the park or the local cemetery. Yes, I walk a lot around Macclesfield cemetery, but that’s a topic for another post.
Where was I? Ah, I know.
So, it turns out I’m not a lazy person after all.
This got me thinking…
Do I no longer enjoy blogging?
I used to think that I didn’t take the leap and create content for my blog because I was too busy. Being a new mum, though, I laugh at myself thinking about this because, let’s assume it. I’ve had plenty of time.
Was it a lack of motivation, then?
Sometimes you like the idea of something, but then you don’t like doing it. I have often felt like I needed to create content to prove that I could do it. But since I was never in the right mood for doing it the right way, with the right mixture of good content and smart-placed keywords, with perfect SEO and readability scores on Yoast, with good quality but optimised images, alt text, the right internal and external links, the right anchor text… should I keep going?
I even wondered if travelling and food were something I no longer felt passionate about. If you talk to me for more than five minutes, you realise this is nonsense. I would take my one-year-old around the world if I had the money/days off to do so. He’s the best travel companion, although you need to be overprepared with extra clothes and snakes. You can’t have everything.
Can I overcome blogging procrastination?
So, how do I fix it? Do I force myself to write with the hope that I’ll create a habit out of it and find my lost love for blogging? Do I let it flow? I don’t know if I’ll be able to overcome this issue or if my procrastination will keep putting me off from becoming the blogger I once dreamed about.
I started this article in 2022. That’s how bad procrastination hit me. So, this time I’ll start by forgiving myself for all the times in the past when I felt guilty for updating my blog. I’ll start small, too, posting this unoptimised blog article. It might not be perfect, but it’s mine.
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