Month: June 2009

Nasty little bugger

I have managed, after much fighting and arguing, invited the flu in for a visit – as per usual the chap is going to stick around for a week (or two), then leave without so much as leaving a thank you note.

I do not normally get sick – I may get a sniffle for a day (during which time I am the worst person to be near because I am a ‘carrier’ of said sickness) the next day I am healthy and well but every other soul within a 5km radius has the full blown flu.

For me to get properly sick (as I am now) I must have completely ruined my immune system by doing something stupid, and in this case it was overworking the brain – behind the computer screen – without rest for the past 5 weeks.

Busy Worker: The Office

The office work: ACG World

A work in progress that is almost two years in the making was finally released in March this year – Two months later when the company is finally ready to go live with our system and bugs appear out of the wood work. A few stressful days later all the problems are resolved.

The office work: Investec
It has been a while since I stood in front of a bunch of people and attempted to teach them important stuff. In the case of Investec I was contracted out to train the new staff in their current Anti-Money laundering product (SIDE SafeWatch). I made way too big a mountain out of this training molehill.

Busy Worker: Freelance

Taking on website work on the side for some spare cash sounds like a great idea, until you try and do it.

Freelance: Sandbox Holdings

Originally Sandbox Technologies, this company has grown much since it put up its first website. One afternoon last year (in passing) I offered to redesign their website . A couple of interesting weeks later their website is ready – a few months later I get word to finally make it live. What do you know, a few new bugs to fix.

The Gateway Academy

A project that has been testing (and is still stretching) my PHP abilities. A real fun project that has come to fore with deadlines over the past weeks. This project is unique in that it is my first attempt at doing a job for someone I have never met (client is based in the UK).

New Freelance: Poken South Africa
Currently I am throwing together some ideas for Tim Lunn and the team at Poken South Africa. Helping them get a great and functional website for selling their wonderful Poken to the African markets.

(I own a Panda Poken for anyone that is interested)

New Freelance: Body Thrills
ExMi, the beautiful lady and author of Expensive Mistakes Cheap Thrills needs to take her ‘coming soon’ online store into the live ‘I am open for business’ state, I am lending a helping hand.

Not a lot of work / A whole bunch of work

Most of the work above falls under short term projects, smaller projects that shouldn’t take too long to complete. But when I have limited time for some (the freelance work can only be done outside of office hours), normal household work, and a small dose of emotional unrest at the home into the mix – all my wonderful, well laid out, plans go for a ball of rubbish.

All of the small projects deadlines hit at the same time, and with the already existent stress, my body failed me and flu popped in for a visit.

Some projects have passed, some are still here, and some are only just starting – Thank goodness I made all those TO DO lists last week, else this little bite of flu that I am kicking out by Friday could have been full blown bronchitis (or even that nasty Pig Flu everyone is talking about)

I am learning through experience (you know, the hard way!)

In a different way, but with the same result, I, like Blondore have learnt my lesson – Listen to your body when it tells you enough is enough.

I may not have ever avoided the flu this year, even if I did get down and re-work my time management lists and get down to business; unforeseen circumstance may still have screwed me over.

If it be lots of ‘little bits’ of work incorrectly managed – hitting you all at one, emotional stress from a particular incident, or just plain over worked and under paid, ask yourself: Am I listening to what my body is telling me? Is my body telling me to relax?

The difficulty of blog writing

Maintaining a blog does not usually come easy, most of us in the blog space need to work really hard to maintain our blogs outside of our regular work, and with the need for regular and interesting content updates, the odd blog/website design change, replying to comments, and managing your online persona in general – all while attempting to win one of the categories in the next Blog awards – Suddenly having a blog may seem more work than it is worth.

For some (including me) blog writing is not our main talent, words do not seem to flow as easily as it does for those that place beautiful prose on the web with little to no effort.

Suggested writing inabilities aside, even if you have the most wonderful and interesting stories to share; should you forget to post on your blog one too many times (the biggest bloggers sin I am guilty of) you will watch it die a slow and often painful Internet interest withdrawal death. Should you allow this this fatal blog sickness to pass, reviving your blog to its former glory will be one of the most difficult online things you may ever do.

What I am doing to repent my blogging sins

The final result? Unsuccessful blog that will remain obscurity or Successful blog revival – I will investigate, and hopefully find, the root cause within myself and my daily/general habits that lead me down the path of the “once every three month post” blogging style my own blog is now following. A studied choice which will offer me one of the following result options:

1. Should I keep this blog and maintain it properly (an all round improvement) OR
2. Permanently archive my blog (maintaining my current “Odd occasion and blue moon posting” habits) OR
3. Remove my blog entirely – let Twitter be my blog

Looking to self

My investigation, actually a personal review, is focused on how I operate online and the reasons why I have difficulty keeping up this blog. I mention other blogs that have helped me understand where i have gone wrong and those that have provided inspiration going forward. If you as a new blogger getting started or an old one wondering if it is still worth it can find similar inspiration from the post, I wish you well in reaching your goals.

Digging deep

The reasons (yes, excuses would also work) for my lack of regular blog updates:

1. I have never made this blog personal
2. Having this blog has always been an afterthought
3. I never attempted to form a ‘blogging habit’
4. Allowed self doubt about blog/website design to affect my writing

1. I have never made this blog personal
When i registered darwinshome.co.za I had the intention of using the website as my personal business front-end or an online resume of the work I had done – a place where I could send my (hopefully) future employers to, to gauge my skills in the field I professed to be an expert in. So when I added a blog, I kept most of the posts related to technology news (usually re-hashing stories I had seen on the BBC News website or heard about on the Buzz Out Loud podcast)

With the exception of these three posts, my real opinions, thoughts or original ideas and work remained in my head and off the blog.

Even when I obtained a LiveJournal blog to separate the “personal” posts from any “work” posts, I seldom blogged anything substantial (I have since decommissioned my LiveJournal blog and imported all reasonably original posts into this blog)

2. Having this blog has always been an afterthought
This website started out as a PHP project, then became a resume of sorts, at the time adding a blog was the thing to do if you had your own website. My priority then was to have a working website, with a recent copy of my curriculum vitae for download. Having this blog on my website was more a navigation space filler than an actual attempt at flexing my writing muscles.

This website has come a long way since 2003, the habit of website first, blog second has remained.

3. I never attempted to form a ‘blogging habit’
A blog is not a hobby that can be put down and forgotten, to be easily dusted off and shined when the mood takes you. If you forget about your blog for any extended period, anyone that has an interest in your ramblings will move on to more interesting blogs (or blogs that are updated) neglect your blog often enough and even those people will not return.

I have never made the conscious decisions to write a blog post regularly. I have never forced myself to put in the required time to write something meaningful (even if it is just meaningful to me) at least once every week.

This lack of ‘blogging habit’ has been my biggest downfall (and until recently it was also the reason I was not a true user of my gym contract: no gym habit = no real gym use).

4. Allowed self doubt about blog/website design to affect my writing
When I redesign my website (which is a task I perform far to rarely) I am all excited about the look and feel, and for a few weeks (or even months) I will put a little more effort into my blogging.

As time passes, my grey, rather flat website, with its outdated layout starts to really bug me; this self doubt and self deprecation turns me away from my website, and rather than turning me to designing a new layout it just turns me away from blogging on it.

What is a guy to do?

After having a few weeks of emotional strain (in almost every facet of my life) I started to make lists; To do lists of everykind – shopping lists, daily routine lists, workout lists, gym timetable lists, and even a blog list.

I realized that I wanted to spend enough time on my blog to maintain it, and keep it regularly updated – without limiting the rest of my life – and it is possible. So I guess my decision is made, out of the options I listed above for the outcome of my internal reviews, the only one that makes sense to me personally is;

• I should keep this blog and maintain it properly

Where the hope was found OR “That light at the end of the tunnel is not a train, but a friend (holding a flashlight) on their way to help“

Reaching this epiphany did not come without assistance; for one, Twitter, and the wonderful community of people I follow there has placed me in a different mind set – having conversations with people there has actually changed the way I view business and people interaction. This could also be one of the few documented cases of Twitter turning someone towards blogging an not away from it.

The other assistance I got was in the form of a solid kick in the pants I received from Heidi and Sheena, both told me to “buck up and just write” in their own special ways, on separate occasions. I took it to heart.

A big thank you to you both.

Where to from here?

I believe this is one of the Lengthiest posts I have written, and it should remain the exception – I remain a fan of the slightly shorter – more to the point style of blogging. This posts topic required a long internal process, and I thought I would make up for lost writing time in the process.

The first step goal for this blog – get a post (even a small post) of meaningful content out at least once a week.

Lets see how that goes for a month.

To the rest of you

What are your feelings on your own bloggers block? Do you get it? How do you get over it?
To those just moaning that it is too difficult to maintain a blog: Buck up and write what you feel. If you want your blog to work, PUT IN THE EFFORT!