Blogging is a lot of work. At the beginning, it comes with lots of learning of new skills and technical things you don’t really understand, leaving you feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, confused, and just totally burnout with a distorted work-life balance!
When I started I had an unrealistic urgency to make success which put a lot of pressure on my life, and I soon experienced burnout. I jumped at every new strategy to increase traffic, SEO, social media, email marketing… Wherever there was something new to learn I was there.
This was not sustainable. I became fatigued both mentally and physically. More so with a busy lifestyle to add to it.
You’d think when you’re neck deep in blogging and you have the experience to speak for you, managing a work-life balance and avoiding burnout will be a breeze.
Surprisingly, the opposite is the case if not well managed. With growth comes higher responsibilities. And most likely, your blog has now become a business to you, and so it demands greater attention. You may find yourself juggling creating product, managing your social media following, keeping up with speaking appointments, making videos and doing a lot of public relations for your blog business.
This can lead to being stressed out, sick, tired, overwhelmed, and feeling like a complete failure.
I work at home and most bloggers I know do too. I have found out it’s tough maintaining a good work life balance working from home: with the children, husband, household chores, and trying to grow a blog spreading us to too thin. Sometimes, I just keep working till I can no longer take it for the day, and the result is burnout.
The important thing, though, is that burnout is something that doesn’t happen overnight. It’s something that comes about through long periods of stress, and if you can learn to recognize the signs of burnout and manage your work life balance, you can avoid it.
Signs of burnout
Anxious
Out of control
Mild resentment towards your work
Feeling like a failure
Being stressed out
Depressed
Sick
Tired
Overwhelmed
You may not have experience burn out yet, but you’ll find it unavoidable if you’re constantly working, trying to keep your blog rolling, getting things up, and not taking out time for rest and fun.
It’s common to find yourself at different times in blogging – the good times and the bad times. Good times are when we get a reward for your efforts, this pumps you up to forge ahead with our blogging work. I’m certain you know this!
However, the bad times can lead to stress. Such as, discovering your traffic is so low even after long hours and months of hard work. This situation can get you so drained and discouraged that you’re at that moment ready to give it all up since no one is reading anyway.
So, how do you get yourself out of this situation?
Let figure out,
How to keep a balance between blogging and life so you can enjoy life better.
#1. Block some amount of time to work on your blog each day.
it’s better to be super concentrated for few hours than to multitask for many unfruitful hours.
#2. Don’t compare someone else peak with your beginning.
Are you driving yourself too hard because you’re reading the success stories of other bloggers and feeling behind and left out? … this has to stop.
Stop measuring your achievement by other people’s success. Learn to celebrate every little win you have. And remember, your blog is a long-term endeavour, not something that has to be concluded and forgotten in a few months.
#3. Set realistic goals for your blog and work life.
Don’t allow the pressure of other people’s success (especially the sceptical ones that claim to make 6 figure earnings few weeks into blogging) make you set false expectations for your blog.
It’s not uncommon in the bid to seek inspiration from experienced bloggers to get caught up in the stories of other people’s success and decide that’s what you want to do. Blogging is not a sprint, it takes a while to grow and become successful. Therefore, stop looking for overnight success. It’s the cumulative effort over time that gives you breakthrough.
#4. Don’t run after influencer only, follow bloggers 2 or 3 steps ahead of you.
If you find it too overwhelming and it’s leading to burnout for you to follow influencers, I’d advise you to follow a blogger that’s just 2 or 3 steps ahead of you, as it’s easier to learn from him as he grows. You just kind of grow along with him as he grows.
You may erroneously be thinking of successful bloggers as having their life together and being productive in every way. Remember that all of those people who have successfully created a business out of blogging all started out where you are today.
It’s easy to forget that they passed through all of the same struggles that you are going through because the ways they get things done are now advanced! This is why I suggest going with somebody that’s just a few steps ahead of you, so you get a clear picture of what it takes to climb the ropes from his experience.
#5. Create a long term plan and break it up into shorter achievable terms.
By doing this you are not mindlessly drifting into other things and getting distracted by what others are doing. Read more on goal setting
#6. Find a routine that works for you.
Do this by blocking time for everything you want to do. As for me, I complete my house chores in the morning including taking my breakfast by 8;30 am. Start work on my blog at 9 am. Take time out for lunch, continue work till dinner time…..Create your own routine that gives you a good work balance in life.
#7. Stop getting too many tabs open on your computer.
It encourages you to multitask which can drain of your energy and time fast. Talking about opening so many tabs at once. I was guilty of it too until I learnt to overcome it.
When you open too many tabs you get less done. I find out when I’m focused on a specific task, it becomes easier for me and the result is better. For example, I open wp-admin, analytics, Pinterest, Facebook and writing my post at the same time.
This leads to distractions and confusion. Getting disorganized and not knowing what to do could be a reason for burnout. The best advice I’ll give you is to plan a strict schedule, and a simple to do list. Complete things one step at a time… and stop having 10 tabs opened.
If you do what you don’t have passion for you’ll easily experience burn out. Have passion for your work until it doesn’t seem like work anymore. Write about what you know and you’ ‘re passionate about.
#9. Identify the area that’s tiring you out in blogging and outsource it.
You’ll find you want to do everything, your head is thinking it all. You have to tone this down by delegating your work or outsourcing it. We sometimes feel we can do it all. It’s not realistic. To avoid burnout and have a work-life balance outsource some of your tasks.
There are many tasks you can outsource in blogging such as content writing, graphic designing, social media management… at a reasonable cost.
#10. Take your blogging journey a step at a time.
Blogging requires a learning curve especially if you’re a new blogger, and this can be so overwhelming and lead to burn out if not properly handled. Go slowly, don’t try to learn and do everything at once.
For instance, creating a course when you blog is still pretty new, simply because you were advised it’s a great way to monetize your blog. Get content on your blog first and get loyal readers before doing this. You have a lot to learn; SEO, email marketing, affiliate marketing… Take it a step at a time or you may end up messing up everything.
#11. Stop analyzing your statistics.
This is one advice I’ll give a thousand times again. I have learned my lessons from not removing my eyes from statistics. Trust me, I know how it can weigh you down and get you so unmotivated to move on.
The thought of checking my statistics so consume me at a time that I find myself running from Pinterest to Twitter and to google analytics every now and then to check growth.
Analysis paralysis is probably one of the reasons why most bloggers give up blogging in the first few weeks of blogging. I recommend you leave the figures and keep your eyes on your goals by creating quality content, developing a strong marketing strategy and interact more with your followers. When you do this you’ll definitely see growth if you don’t give up.
#12. Stop feeling guilty about what you have not accomplished.
Set your mind to enjoy your life by Prioritising what you need to do. Remember if you break down you are no good to your family, yourself, or your blog.
#13. Adopt the 24/7 self-care.
It’s amazing to see that most bloggers can barely squeeze in self-care into their plan of the day. As a blogger self-care should be 24/7. Bloggers seat long hours behind the computer. And your body is at the receiving end of all this.
As such, it must be given the pampering it deserves to make it work for you. it’s either you live your life feeling crazy and totally burnout or you learn to make your body work for you. That’s where you have to strike a work-life balance. Know how to take off from work at intervals, set a time for your nap and eat well-balanced meals.
#14. Stop tweaking and tweaking your blog design with every blog you analyze.
Practice makes perfect, just keep working and stop feeling the need to retweak every time you come across someone else blog. When will your blog be good enough? Let me tell you the truth, blog work is a long game. So stop fretting and getting stressed.
#15. Now do the most sensible thing to overcome burnout.
Take time off and return to it when you’re motivated and refreshed again.
Conclusion
You’re only successful when you’re able to achieve a balance between your work and life. Many people allow burnout to go uncategorized until it explodes and become dire. If you find yourself dealing with burnout apply the above tips. And most importantly make out quality time to take a good rest.
Since starting your blog, have you crashed from overworking?
Big fan of work blocks Eki. When it hits a set time at night I drop everything and begin watching Netflix, or if it is a bit later that day I do my yoga. Awesome way to keep energized and to avoid burnout. Pretty easy to stick with it too when you feel the energy-sapping nature of burnout and feel fed up with being exhausted. Loving these tips.
Yes, Ryan, burnout can really be energy sapping indeed. Just a few days ago I experience a burnout from working on my blog. At a point, I felt I was going to have a blackout. What I did was to park up the work, deliberately blanked out from any thought of blogging, and decided to sleep where I could get fresh air and avoid disturbance. After a sound sleep for more than 7 hours during the day, I woke up inspired to do greater works. Most bloggers do experience burnout one time or the other, the tips above will definitely help to manage it.
Big fan of work blocks Eki. When it hits a set time at night I drop everything and begin watching Netflix, or if it is a bit later that day I do my yoga. Awesome way to keep energized and to avoid burnout. Pretty easy to stick with it too when you feel the energy-sapping nature of burnout and feel fed up with being exhausted. Loving these tips.
Yes, Ryan, burnout can really be energy sapping indeed. Just a few days ago I experience a burnout from working on my blog. At a point, I felt I was going to have a blackout. What I did was to park up the work, deliberately blanked out from any thought of blogging, and decided to sleep where I could get fresh air and avoid disturbance. After a sound sleep for more than 7 hours during the day, I woke up inspired to do greater works. Most bloggers do experience burnout one time or the other, the tips above will definitely help to manage it.