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Right now, I’m sure I’m not the only blogger struggling to balance homeschooling, staying active, keeping the kids active and entertained, staying connected to friends and family virtually, doing the regular chores, and of course sticking to a regular blogging schedule.
I’m also sure I am not the only one wondering, “should I take a blogging break?”.
The first week of this social distancing wasn’t so bad. My kids were on March break, so I just stuck to the working from home with kids’ strategies I had used in the summer (minus having Grandma babysit weekly).
By week two I had developed a homeschooling and working from home plan, and that first week things went pretty well. Sure, some adjustments had to be made (and we quit math on day one) but we made it through the week without much stress.
Week three was when things started to get tough. In all honesty, it probably wasn’t a good time to work on a post that was as time-consuming as “100+ Virtual Tours for Your Virtual Vacation”.
By the time the post was up Wednesday night, I was exhausted and feeling overwhelmed.
The next day, instead of starting to research this week’s blog post topic, I found myself researching how to take a break from blogging.
It can be difficult enough to maintain a healthy work-life balance when you work at home, but adding homeschool teacher to my work duties was making it impossible. There were nights I was working until midnight just to reach my deadlines.
Right now I know that I need to be prioritizing my mental wellness. But does that mean I should take a break from blogging?
What Is A Blogging Break?
When I started searching to see what other bloggers said about taking breaks from blogging, I expected to read that it was a bad idea. Instead, I found that blogging breaks are pretty common.
I also realized that taking a blogging break doesn’t necessarily mean you have take a break from everything blog related.
For some bloggers, a break may mean not doing any blog related work. For others, a blogging break is just a break from writing or posting new content, while they focus on other blog related work tasks.
For example, this post on katemckibbin.com talks about how she takes annual blogging breaks from writing new posts, social media and answering emails, but uses the time to get around to all the other tasks that always get pushed off.
This got me thinking about the different ways I could take a break from the pressure of deadlines and shorten my to-do list, without giving up all blog-related work.
How To Take A Blogging Break
Option 1- Full Blogging Break
If you’re starting to feel like a “frazzled blogger” (see this post from Bloom & Clementine for the signs and symptoms), then you may need to take a full break from all things blog-related.
No writing or posting new content, no social media, no answering emails or responding to comments, no editing photos, no website maintenance, updates or any other small tasks.
Option 2- Writing Break
If you’re having some writers block, or just don’t have time to write new content, take a break from the writing while continuing to maintain your blog and social media.
Stick with your regular social media posting schedule by highlighting older posts. This would be a great way to bring some new traffic to those older posts too.
Option 3- Posting Break
If you find that sticking to a consistent posting schedule is what’s causing you stress, just take a break from posting anything new.
Use the break to write some extra content to post the next time you need a blogging break, or get ahead of schedule so you have your posts finished a week or two before you need them to take the pressure off.
Option 4- Guest Posts
Take a break from writing new posts, without taking a break from publishing new content, by having someone else write for you. Connect with other bloggers in your niche, or put an invite out on social media to see if any of your readers have something they could write about.
Option 5- Write Easier Posts
Instead of taking a break from writing, write posts that aren’t as time-consuming. Here are a few ideas I have come up with for content that wouldn’t take me as long to write as my usual posts.
- List posts (tips from Copyblogger)
- Product reviews (tips from Authority Hacker)
- Roundup posts (tips from Practical Mommy)
- Sneeze pages (learn what this is from ProBlogger)
- Revise and republish older posts that aren’t getting much traffic
My Blog Break Plan
While I need to give myself a break, I realized that taking a full blog break for a week or two was not the best option for me. While I am overwhelmed with my current to-do list, when I do get the time to sit and just write, it relaxes me. Writing is an outlet that I need right now.
What I don’t need is the pressure of reaching my deadlines.
So, my plan is to just take a posting break.
For the next week or two I will be focusing on getting the kids adjusted to a new routine, doing some of these free online activities with them, finding more fun stuff for us to do during the day and spending some family time together in the evenings.
And, of course, getting in some more self-care time to help me cope with the stress of all of this.
When I have free time I will work on some writing, but I’m not going to worry about how much I get done.
I may post to social media if I have the time, but I won’t be worrying about keeping to a consistent schedule with that either.
When I do start posting again, I plan to stick to writing easier content for a while. I have a couple of older posts I have been wanting to revise and republish and I also have some keto recipe roundups planned to keep it simple.
Knowing that I have a plan to take a break for the next couple of weeks, and to take the pressure off for the weeks after that, has already made this week easier on me.
The Husband and I also sat down and organized our evening schedule so we can get the basic cleaning done every night and still spend some time having fun with the kids (plus some time together just the two of us too).
I worked on this blog post when I had the time, without any stress about getting it up in time. Instead of being a source of stress, working on my blog was once again the outlet that I needed for myself.
Right now, with everything changing so fast, we all need to go easy on ourselves and take breaks if we need to. There is nothing wrong with going offline for a week or two, to take care of yourself.
Have you ever taken a break from blogging? Was it a full break or did you still find yourself doing some blog work? Was it easy to get back to your blogging schedule?
Let me know on my Facebook post, and follow me if you want to see what else I learn on my journey live a happier and healthier life.
