Blog 2.0 - Kick off post
Welcome back - why I stopped posting and my new outlook.
Hi everyone,
I hope you’re all well. It has certainly been a while. In fact, it's been about a year and a half since my last post and about a year since I took my original website offline. I know this was disappointing for some of you, and I apologize. But, I’m back, I think, in a slightly different and, hopefully, better way. Let me explain.
What happened?
When I first started my blog, everything was going well. I had a lot of free time due to having finished school, and I was basically just waiting around for my new job and the first module of the CPA program to begin in September. I was reading at a reasonably impressive rate of about 2 books per week. I was learning a lot and easily achieving my goal of publishing a post every week. In fact, with my free time and pace of reading, I was able to develop a significant backlog of posts which, at the current rate of publishing, would last me a few months. At first, I enjoyed this. It made me feel comfortable that I could slow down at any time and still meet my goal of putting out a post every week.
However, once September rolled around, everything changed. My work was initially much more difficult and time-consuming than I had expected. Balancing that with a new schooling format was outright overwhelming. I now found myself struggling to find the time and energy to read at all, let alone finish a book each week and write a review. The whole model became wildly unsustainable.
Furthermore, I made a significant mistake in being uncompromising in terms of quality. I didn’t want to put out a piece that I didn’t feel was good enough or didn’t capture everything I was feeling about a book. Previously, I would spend hours meticulously evaluating and rewriting my posts to ensure they communicated what I wanted. But now, I simply didn’t have the time for such an in-depth review, which made me feel unmotivated to continue.
As weeks passed without me finishing a book, my backlog slowly emptied, and the tank hit zero right as my first busy season began.
For those of you who are unaware, “busy season” is the euphemistic term we use in audit for the months of January to April. Since most businesses have Dec. 31 fiscal year-ends, this is when they require audits to take place. Fortunately, my peers and I are not enrolled in school at this time, but our working hours jump significantly. It’s not uncommon to work anywhere between 50-90 hours a week. So, without a backlog of posts and the time or energy to create more, I fell out of the habit of both reading and writing, and with that, the blog came to a standstill.
The Current Situation
Generally, at this point, I don’t feel too bad about the situation. It was a tough year, and getting through it simply required my full attention. However, writing and curating the blog was really enjoyable to me and I still feel some disappointment that I wasn’t able to continue with it. Now, though, with some experience under my belt, I want to try to start again but incorporate some of the lessons learned from last time to hopefully create a better, more sustainable outcome.
Changing Strategies and Setting Expectations
Content
The first significant change I will be implementing is that I will no longer write only about books or things I’ve read. It’s still impossible for me to read so many books and write reviews about them so frequently. Going forward, I will write my book reviews, but only once I naturally finish the books given my varying time constraints.
You’ll now see posts about other things on this blog. I may just provide general updates if things are busy. I may also write about a podcast or idea I’ve been thinking about. Most exciting to me is that I am also going to try to share updates on side projects I am working on. My attention is often pulled towards learning new skills or towards creative pursuits, so I will be trying to share updates on my progression with those.
I am also going to try to keep posts shorter. Brevity is an asset, especially in today’s social media-driven world, and keeping posts concise should allow me to finish them faster.
On that note, I’m also going to refrain from creating content on Instagram or any other social media. Firstly, I just dislike all those platforms and would rather stay away. Secondly, creating content for those is surprisingly time-consuming, and I would like to focus my efforts on making this website as good as I can make it.
Frequency
I’m still hesitant to commit to any given time frame for posting frequency. I would love to post to this blog once or twice a week, but I’m concerned that I won’t be able to follow through when things get busy. I’m toying with the idea of committing to once a week in slower periods and less often - once every 2-4 weeks - in busier periods, however, I’m not sure if I like this either. I’m very much a creature of habit. I find that I’m usually pretty poor at sticking with something if I am not doing it very regularly.
For now, I’m going to refrain from setting any goals around posting frequency. I think I just need to experiment for a while before I can find a schedule that works. I’m going to loosely aim for a post every couple of weeks but also grant myself the freedom to post more often if my muses are calling. This should ultimately serve two purposes:
I’ll be able to put out more frequent content in periods of my life that are slower, and in busier periods, I will hopefully feel less guilty and demotivated if I’m unable to find a few hours to write something I judge high enough quality.
Allowing myself to post extra content when I have it will prevent me from creating too large of a post-backlog. As I mentioned above, last time, my backlog gave me comfort that I could miss a post and still hit my target posting frequency. However, when the backlog gets too long and I have a safety net of multiple months, I just don’t have enough pressure to sit down and write something which can lead to the falling out of habits. Sometimes you just have to have a commitment hanging over your head to get stuff done.
Leveraging technology
Since I stopped writing on my last blog, AI has burst onto the scene with an unbelievable force. I genuinely think this is both the most impressive and terrifying technological advancement in my lifetime. That being said, I have been using tools like ChatGPT and Mid-journey extensively since their release and I feel like I’ve got a pretty good grasp on their current capabilities.
So, in order to create a more sustainable writing system for myself, I plan on using these technologies, and being open about it.
This post, for example, was reviewed and edited by ChatGPT. I wrote the content. But to finalize the product, all I had to do was import it into ChatGPT and ask it to edit it for spelling, grammar, and readability. Then, all I needed to do was give it a final review, make some final changes, and post. AI probably saved me 2-3 hours. While it’s a bit scary to think about where this technology is going to go, I also think it’s going to be a lifesaver.
Conclusion
In summary, life got in the way and my original blog came to a standstill. Now, with some lessons learned and a fresh perspective, I'm planning to revive my blog with a different approach. Content will be more varied and reflective of my broader interests and I'll leverage AI to help ensure the quality and consistency of my posts. I understand this is a different direction, and I hope you'll continue to join me on this journey.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I appreciate your understanding, and I'm excited to share my thoughts, experiences, and the lessons I've learned with you all. Have a fantastic day, and stay tuned for more posts to come!