If achieving or maintaining balance is your answer, please elaborate in comments.
Is it a source of tension for you? Are you cultivating more relationships online or off? How has social media (specifically Facebook and Twitter) affected your time online? Has it added to or detracted from posting to your blog? Do you have tips/suggestions for helping others find/maintain balance? Do you have any stories to tell about balance gone WRONG??
One of the panels I'll be speaking on this week at Type-A Mom Conference is on balance…as I've contemplated the subject, it occurred to me I'd really like to know YOUR thoughts.
Please share here or drop me an email at pensieve(dot)me(at)gmail(dot)com and write "BALANCE" in the subject line.
THANKS!
Overcoming blogger’s block
Getting the audience to engage (comment)
Consistency
Improving writing quality
How to define “success”
Maintaining my voice
I think my greatest challenge is finding time to invest in blogging/writing without doing it at the expense of my family. The only time I have to write is during nap time and after the kids go to bed. (I’ve tried getting up before they do, but they are such early risers, I’ve given up!). Anyway, once the kids are in bed, that’s really the only time I have to connect with my husband (assuming he’s not working), and I find that it easier to disappear into the computer with my introverted self than to engage and invest in the most important relationship I have apart from God.
And because I like blogging and writing more than cleaning,gardening, cooking, doing household stuff, I know I’ve let some of those tasks slide way out of balance (OH MY THE WEEDS!!) in favor of blogging.
In terms of balancing it all, I just have to keep choosing to live life outside of my own head, to savor the stage I’m in, and to never take my family for granted. They MUST come first.
I should also add that I don’t have the stress of having lots of commenters/readers, so there’s no souped-up pressure to engage with everyone and to keep up with a million other blogs. One of the benefits of being a blogger cloaked in obscurity. 🙂
My biggest PROBLEM is getting on the computer while meal is still cooking. Tonight I made beef jerky of the steaks I put on the grill b/c I got on the laptop right in the kitchen.
Balance is tough. You want to produce interesting, grammar correct, witty, engaging content, That takes time to write and edit. If you have anything else going on, you are filled with constant guilt over either not giving your family or other pursuits enough attention or not providing content people will actually read. I also feel guilty about not getting around to read my friends more often! (like you!!)
Have a GREAT time!!
For me blogging isn’t a source of tension, but rather it’s a tension reliever. Blogging provides me with my ‘down’ time. I’m not a television watcher, so it relaxes me to blog. I enjoy writing and I just have fun with blogging. Although I think I have cultivated a lot of online friendships, I’m still living my life normally. I have to keep living in the real world or there won’t be anything to blog about. 🙂
I guess balance is a problem at times, but I’m learning to just shut the computer off and walk away. I guess you need to learn that balance in life with anything we do for pleasure.
-FringeGirl
As I develop as schedule for my posts, I have more controlled balance. Writer’s block? My posts allow me to get those ideas out of my mind instead of keeping them all bottled up without any place to share them. I am much better in writing than in speaking–ask my sons. My MIL has told people–I didn’t know she had all these great ideas–the same ideas I’ve been talking about for 26 years. It’s amazing the different way people “listen” to you via the written word verses the spoken word.
I’m going to do a post on the history of blogging, but I can’t find the one book I want to cite (we just moved). I see a lot of people struggling with the balance. I think a lot of that deals with the “mission statement” of the blog.
Like some of the others, I have a tough time finding the time to write quality posts, network, and answer reader and PR emails. I have always blogged during my two year old daughter’s nap time, but now with a newborn baby as well, I can’t guarantee he’ll sleep at the same time each day. I do blog some at night after the kids go to sleep, but I try not to because that’s time my husband and I spend together. If I don’t get a good chunk of time in the afternoon during nap time, then I don’t get to blog much that day.
I feel a bit guilty at times too because I have trouble managing it all, and some days things like housecleaning fall to the wayside. That’s not the way I want to manage my household, but I just can’t do it all. My husband is incredibly encouraging of my blogging and thinks its wonderful its become a small business, so he is fine with the occasional household chaos as a result of the kids’ naptime spent blogging. But I still don’t feel quite right about it.
I will be at Type A this week and look forward to hearing your thoughts balance!
Well, now…I think your list is one just about all of us can identify with! I’ve waded through all those things at some point or another….
You’re admitting what a lot of **us** don’t wanna face; that something DOES have to give because time IS limited. The pervasiveness of blogging & other online stuff can sneak up on ya…so if you aren’t on guard and protective of the most important relationships in your life…I think it’s much easier to follow the path or least resistance.
What “gave” for me? Keeping up with the sweet people who read and comment to my blog! I hate this, really and struggle with it every day (I’m not in close community with many these days…). BUT…it’s a choice that serves my family best…and yet STILL I can blow it!
🙂
Is it real or false guilt with regard to our online friends? Again, for ME, engaging with people online (via Twitter mostly these days…) can be a tremendous time suck! It’s why I keep the “busy” sign up in gmail if I have it pulled up (or remain INVISIBLE!! LOL) so I’m not tempted to talk with friends there :).
There are SO MANY CHOICES these days where we can engage online, while it used to be just our blog (for me, IM was reserved ONLY for people I knew IRL, friends from my hometown, not my “imaginary” friends 🙂 ). Now? Well…it’s an effort to not engage that way.
Bottom line, my new job has curtailed a LOT of my online stuff anyway, adding a whole new dimension to it…!
🙂
{{wish you were coming, girlieQ!!}}
“I have to keep living in the real world or there won’t be anything to blog about.”
Agreed.
Interesting, though…in the past year I’ve noticed an increase in the frequency some bloggers’ “real lives” revolve around what they’re doing as a result of their blog. Less so their family, world at large, thoughts and more about the latest company that “gets it”.
I dunno…I’m with you. If you aren’t LIVING very real, unattached-to-the-internet lives…content simply falls flat over time :/.
Maybe that’s because a lot of *us* don’t have mission statements? Which are a VERY GOOD tool to have (i.e. “if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived?” kinda thing).
That’s a post I’ve seen written in various forms (Scribbit & Maggie Dammit wrote posts a few weeks ago dealing with this) and I’ve contemplated sharing my own evolution.
Let me know when yours is done, k? 🙂
Ohhh, Dana–make sure we meet!! I’ll be on the lookout!
It’s so crucial to have a supportive husband if you’re married. I know there have been times mine has probably felt like a blog widower 🙁 and I’m not proud about that. It is something I’m aware of, which I guess is the first step in maintaining balance: realizing the see-saw can go up and down!!
Honestly? Not becoming a narcissist.
My greatest challenge is finding topics of interest for my readers.
Some times I’ll work on a blog for what seems like hours, believe it’s great…and nobody reads it! So finding the balance of writing what’s truly important to me, and what’s interesting or entertaining for my readers is my greatest challenge.
Twitter & Facebook have definitely changed my blogging experience. The biggest change (and the saddest, IMO) is that I do not read blogs as often as I used to. Days, even weeks go by without me opening Google Reader. I follow links that people on Twitter & Facebook post to their blogs and read posts that way more often than actually sitting down and going through Reader.
The other big change is I spend less time writing on my own blog. Following people and interacting with them on Twitter and Facebook has been taking up the time I used to spend crafting posts. Now, I try to do both and it increases my online time. Many aspects of home life suffer because of this.
I try to at least once a week, usually on the weekends, go 24 hours without Twitter, Facebook or blogging. And I only check e-mail a few times during that time period since e-mail is the main communication tool for kids’ sports, church activities, etc. I log out of all the programs and close the laptop.
I keep toying with the idea of getting on a posting schedule and being on the computer only during certain times of the day. That is going to take A LOT of self-control!
All of the above!
I have a hard time writing. I love to read and comment but that takes away from writing. Oh yeah, and there is my real life, too. Laundry? What’s that?
I use twitter less since facebook. Odd thing is, though, I don’t really like facebook as much as I like twitter. Go figure?!
Good luck and have fun at the conference!
I definitely feel that my biggest challenge is balancing time between taking care of my family and investing time in my blog.
One thing that helps me is writing posts ahead of time. I generally write about a week’s worth of posts and save them until it’s time to post. That way I’m not spending my entire life in front of the computer screen. Not to mention, I can write at times when I’m most inspired so when I’m not inspired I already have a post ready to go
I don’t have nearly as much time to visit other blogs as I’d like, but I purpose to make sure real life comes first. Today is an exception when I’ve set aside time to read blogs.
As for the other social networking sites, I mostly find them time consuming and annoying. I’ve never done Twitter and I deactivated my facebook account. I may go back at some point because it is a way to keep up with out of state family and friends, but I found most of it to be annoying and borderline middle schoolish. I’d much rather read a well thought out blog post as opposed to a bunch of little status updates. I’m probably in the minority.
Also, I like to make a to do list for each day. I find that if I know how my time will be spent I’m much less likely to aimlessly wander around the computer. It’s easier to get on and get back off having accomplished the item on my list. That doesn’t always hold true, but it helps.
My biggest challenge is definitely balance. Since school started (I homeschool), I have struggled to post consistently. If I have to choose between blogging and my family, of course family comes first. Hopefully I can get in a better rhythm of writing more consistently, while maintaining my other responsibilities too!
Have a great time at the conference! Wish I could be there to hear you!
As a young blogger, I need to find balance. I need to let my foot off the pedal and stop driving me so HARD.
This started out as fun, as an outlet and a way to share my thoughts, my food, my photos and my blessings…(and disasters). I need to constantly keep that at the fore so I don’t overdo it. I need to sift out the wheat from the chaff and say – not all ‘posts’ are meant to be shared!
With a loving man and 3 young kids…I try to work it out. But I also work fulltime! I thought it would get easier but 3 months into my blog, I still feel like I’m settling down. Same way I feel in the Netherlands where i live as an expat – Very familiar with a lot, yet still more to discover.
My sleep SUFFERS – I try to restrict my getting on the internet to when the kids are in bed. I try, I don’t always succeed.
Balance is what I need. Do me a favour Robin. Compile the tips on finding balance and send to me! Stay blessed
the greatest challenge is not to abandon my creative space and follow the hordes to the social networks.
I so needed to be at Type A to learn more about balance. As a newly serious blogger (casual blogger for a good while), I am finding it difficult to grow my traffic, read and comment on the blogs I love (and the new found blogger friends), write interesting posts, keep up with my freelance writing, and kids, home, husband.
I feel like if I let go even a little, I’ll lose steam. And I really do love all of it!
So, any advice for me?