We’re not exactly sure how it’s already the 6th but we’re super excited for an upcoming month of resources for bloggers nonetheless. (Ever since we posted our reader survey, we’ve had so many ideas!). It’s so easy to get behind and become overwhelmed with blogging though. That’s why it’s important for us to kick off the month relaxed and ready to take charge. The truth is, a lot of the stress can be self-induced (I think I’ve mentioned that I have that issue!). Here’s what we’re making an *actual* effort to not stress ourselves out about this month:
A perfect Instagram feed
June got a bit stressful for me on Instagram. I love a curated feed, so I got a little carried away with what other bloggers are doing and how I want mine to look. The good: I landed on a filter to use every time, learned more hashtags, and got in a rhythm of commenting and liking back. The bad: I got caught in the numbers game and found myself slightly panicky when things didn’t look as intended.
I know what it takes to grow an instagram, but for MY feed (which involves my blog too) – I just want to be happy. I don’t want to be one of those people who goes a little crazy when they don’t reach x likes. It’s not that serious in the grand scheme of things. I just want it to be a place I can take and share nice photos that I’m proud of. We actually don’t stress too much when it comes to TBM’s Instagram – and it’s growing steadily, so I have to translate that approach to mine a bit more.
The future of the blog
Whaaaat? Yes, I know. But just for a month. I’m one of those people who are awesome at planning but can fall short on the execution. That’s not to stay I don’t get stuff done—I do—but I have SO many more plans than I’ve even started; when it comes to getting started I freeze. If you have this problem at all, I think it’s important that we stop stressing over the distant future for a sec and just dive in. Once you start posting regularly and growing your social media, the future of your project becomes much more clear anyway. Along with that, don’t stress over stats too much. Sometimes stats aren’t the best reflection of how a post has performed. We have a variety of content here on TBM and some bring in the pageviews immediately and some have great engagement. There are even some posts that didn’t seem like they did well until a few days later. So when you’re tracking performance, you can go a bit crazy if you think strictly stats. Stats matter big time for the future, but in the interest of getting stuff done, we think we’ll be a lot more productive if we forget about them every now and then!
Impossible deadlines
Sometimes we’ll tell someone a deadline and then everything ever will happen to make that date impossible. Of course, we do anything in our power to make it anyway, which leads to totally abandoning all other projects and getting burnt out quickly. We all need to realize that things take longer than it seems. It can take me an hour to write an article – but on some occasions, it takes four – or more. When you’re coding a site, even more things can go wrong and they’ll NEED to be fixed before moving on. If we actually communicate these issues to clients or whoever we’re collaborating with, they’d probably understand. It’s just so easy to put all the pressure on yourself alone. Even if they don’t understand, you’ll do higher quality work when you have the time anyway, so it’s most likely still better to break an impossible deadline and have that awkward conversation than to finish before you’re really finished.
In other words, let’s not lose sleep over this stuff. Are there things you want to make a real life effort to have a more healthy/productive/relaxed attitude toward this month? How will you do it? Do tell.
Lexi Smith says
I totally feel you on stressing about a perfect instagram feed! I always stress that it doesn’t look as cohesive as i’ve seen some other instagrammers..but I realized I just need to post what I like and not worry so much about it!
Angela says
You’re so right, usually posting consistently helps to grow a following just as well or better than having the aesthetic down 100% anyway.
Kerstin says
Oh I know what you mean. I’m obsessed with Instagram too and sometimes find myself being a tad too conscious of the numbers of likes/follows.
However, this isn’t what IG is about – we should enjoy uploading pictures and not obsess about them.
Have a wonderful month of July.
Love, Kerstin
http://www.missgetaway.com