Hi guys! I say this every time that I don’t write for a while, but I MISSED Y’ALL! I may or may not have noticed that I took about a 2 week hiatus from posting on the blog. To be totally honest, I’ve had a pretty bad case of blogging rut. For the past month or so, I haven’t been able to find inspiration to motivate me to create content. I think maybe it’s just because the past month or so has been jam packed with things outside of the blog- a new job, school, and at the same time trying really hard to pour into my friendships while I’m still in college. I haven’t had time to remember what it really is that I love about blogging. So here I am being real with y’all about it!
I know a lot of my readers are bloggers themselves, so hopefully someone else feels the same way as I do on this!
When social media becomes a job, it can be extremely hard to figure out learn when to turn it off. My boyfriend has pointed this out to me countless times- often when it’s 11pm at night and we’re just hanging out watching TV, I’ll still be on my phone engaging or planning posts for the coming week. When I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone and read through emails + respond to messages & comments. Before I knew it, I’ve developed a habit of essentially being on my phone for 75% of my time awake every day.
It can also get exhausting figuring out how to write blog posts 3x a week. I obviously only want to post content that’s helpful in one way or another, so having to brainstorm new ideas all the time can get to be a lot. Long story short… I’d thought that I had a pretty good idea of what it means to have good time management, but this semester I’ve had to learn that all over again. I would obviously love to take this blog full time at one point in my life, but in this moment it seems near impossible. Every day, I spend countless hours engaging on other bloggers’ posts, working to make my blog better & easier to navigate, and reading articles to keep up with where the industry’s going, and yet I still feel such small growth on a day-to-day basis.
Don’t get me wrong- it feels incredible seeing that people actually read my blog posts & actually keep up with all my shenanigans on Instagram, but sometimes I can get so pigeon-holed that all I see is where I’m falling behind.
A goal of mine that I’ve had for almost a year now was to hit 10k on Instagram, but it’s almost like every time I take one step forward I take two steps back. I can’t say that I haven’t seen results- it’s been such an amazing journey working with some incredible brands I’ve loved for years and years. But… sometimes I can’t help but feel like I’m working so hard but it ends up leading to nowhere. Also, when I put out a post that I’ve spent hours on and it doesn’t perform as well as I’d hoped, I feel so defeated! Is anyone else the same way, or is this just me?
It’s funny because right now I feel like I don’t even have it the worst. There are some boss babes out there who have full time jobs, kids, and can keep up with the blog. If that’s one of you- mad props, girlfriend!!! I guess all of this is to say that I’ve finally learned it’s okay to take a breather. This past week I put zero pressure on myself to post on the blog, and let myself post on Instagram only when I wanted. Believe me when I say it was life changing! With all the extra time I had, I spent it hanging out with my friends and my boyfriend, calling my mom, and just getting outside and enjoying the amazing weather Texas has been blessed with this week.
Do you want to know the funniest part? This past week, I have seen the biggest spike in engagement on Instagram than I ever have before. (Side note: I don’t want to get into Insta algorithm specifics… I honestly don’t know how that all works, but I’m not concerning myself with all of that stuff.) Since I’ve been spending less time on Instagram just mindlessly scrolling through my feed, the time I do spend on Instagram and in my stories has been so much more intentional.
This actually all kind of sprouted a little from a chat that I had with my dear friend Rachel from All Things Blush– while she did my hair a few weeks ago, we chatted for 2 hours straight about some struggles being a blogger in today’s day. She’s been doing this for a lot longer than I have, and she advised me to switch things up from time to time.
Basically long story short… if you’re struggling with a blogging rut, try it for yourself- take a week off. Stop and smell the roses, if you will. I promise, you’ll come back and thank me. 😉
Now that I’ve rambled for a year, I just want to wish you all a wonderful week. As we head into the holidays & the chaos that comes with, I hope you all know you are so treasured & so loved!
I also will be starting to roll out holiday content this week, so keep an eye out for that. Also let me know what all y’all want to see on the blog!
