What’s blogging without chaos and stress?
Chapterlings, it’s time for another discussion post. Honestly, this has been a blog post idea I’ve had saved in so many places. Notion? In all capital letters! A sticky note? You betcha! Several different drafts and saves on pre-typing this post? Oh heck yes! Needless to say, this is something I wanted to talk about for a while now. So today we’re going to do just that. We’re going to talk about some of my blogging pressures and how I manage the stress that comes along with being a book blogger.
For starters, I’m a naturally stressed out and anxious person. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t stressed, worried, or anxious. Maybe when I’m sleeping? It’s a mystery the world may never know! However, I like to think I’m a person to who has high-functioning stress. I feel like I’m my most productive when I’m stressed. And this includes blogging.
Despite the stress and the pressure that comes along with blogging, I still love to do it. I enjoy planning posts and working on content for my blog or even just in general. But I noticed that over the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve developed some unhealthy habits and in recognizing those habits, I’ve developed ways to lessen the stress and feel lighter when blogging.
1 – Feeling like you have to read all the books and request all the arcs
My #1 stress of all time when it comes to blogging is the fact that there’s a huge pressure to read all the books, request all the upcoming releases, constantly hauling books, keeping up on upcoming releases… the list just goes on and on. Along with all of this, there’s also a huge pressure to read all of the popular books that have or are being released. If for some reason you don’t read them, review them, post or talk about them then you’re not relevant. It sucks, but it’s the truth.
I’ve talked about how hyped books impact me and how I usually don’t touch them with a 10-foot-pole. And if I do, most times they don’t make it over a 3 star rating for me. So I get very hesitant about hyped upcoming releases and even writing reviews for them make me nervous because I’ve seen people get attacked over their reviews for those type of books, and I’ve received that kind of hate just from receiving arcs. It’s freaking scary out there friends!
2 – Consistency and delivering perfect content
It’s no secret that consistency is key to success. If you’re posting consistently, on a regular basis, readers are going to see your content and that’s going to encourage them to come visit your posts and your blog. This results in comments from your readers, new readers who are discovering your content for the first time, and so on.
However, if you’re like me, this can come with a heavy weight to carry. I’m a workaholic at heart and any time I take a single day off from blogging, anytime I decide on a self-care or mental health day, just anything in general that puts me first feels like I’m failing. I talk a lot about how much I love content creation, but the dark side to that is I take it seriously and sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself for making sure I’m delivering lengthy reviews, making sure my posts are the way I want it, if I make a grammar error it feels like the whole world is shattering.
3 – Having to be everywhere all the time
I love multitasking as much as the next person, but that’s just it… I’m one person. It can be the sweetest dreams or the more terrifying nightmare. I love to comment on blog posts, engage with people, sharing in topics that resonate with me… Sometimes I just can’t do it.
Keeping up with things is incredibly hard especially when fellow bloggers put out more than one blog post a day or perhaps you don’t want to miss a single comment and you want to engage with your community. It is a struggle. It can be the most rewarding, but it can destroy the spoons you have. This is a double-edge sword and where there is good, there is always the bad.
4 – I need to take better care of myself
Recently, in some of my latest posts, you may have seen me airing out the closet about some of my dark truths. Consider this post almost as an extension of all of that. The truth is a lot darker than you think. That wasn’t supposed to be as ominous as it sounded.
I became so obsessed with devoting large amounts of time to blogging and poured ungodly hours of hard work into the blog posts that I was creating. Again, I am a workaholic and sometimes I don’t know when to quit. My physical and mental health hit a peak of just deteriorating, and I got really, really sick. Here’s the thing, when you have chronic illnesses, getting sick is the last thing you want to have happened to you. And it took me a while to fully recover from that and feel 100% again.
How to lessen the pressure
Look, I’m not an expert and these tips aren’t going to be a cure all to the problems you may be facing. If I had all the answers and solutions, do you think I’d be the gremlin the hoodie, hunched over their laptop, trying to get things done? No, the answers is no and I definitely wouldn’t look like that.
However, these have been things that have helped me come back to blogging stronger, has helped preserved my love and happiness for blogging, and just breathe easier at the end of the day.
➼ Make schedules!
Truly, scheduling things and pre-planning things have helped a lot with the pressure of blogging for me. Also, setting cutoff times with your scheduling makes a huge difference! All those hours I’d spend into the dawn of next day has been thrown out the window.
Scheduling can take on many forms. Maybe it looks like planning posts or perhaps this means organizing when you need certain posts to go up and you’re checking when you can devote time to that particular post. Scheduling can even take on the form of when you devote time to respond to comments or even looking at blog posts, engaging with other bloggers.
➼ Take the break!
Sshh ssshhh sssshhhhh! I know this is going to be the thing you hear the most from other bloggers or even those in your personal life. Listen. LISTEN. It really can help. I think this advice gets such a bad rep due to seeing the time constrictions. Maybe you’re thinking I’m going to tell you to take a short break or I’m going to tell you to take a month off from blogging.
Well, you’re wrong. I’m not going to tell you any time restrictions because I don’t think breaks are something that should have time restraints on. If you need to take a break, you take that break, but you come back when you’re ready. And I’m telling you this because this is what happened to me. A lot of people told me to take a month hiatus or just take a short two week break and those time restrictions stressed me out. Before I knew it, I vanished from the book community and blogging for almost an entire you. Only occasionally popping in to fill in some of the gaps. This is one of those gaps. If you take a break, you are the wielder of your time and return to blogging, no one else.
➼ Do things that bring you joy!
This is a really obvious tip. Like, really freaking obvious. However, I think this is one of the most powerful tips I can give you.
Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Enjoy the little things in life for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” And I firmly believe that. Those little things bring us joy, make a moment more special, make something memorable, and I believe they have the power to calm even the stormiest mind when under pressure.
➼ Read & comment of posts that genuinely interest you!
It took me a long time to realize I didn’t have to comment on every single blog post and that I could respond to the posts that particularly caught my interest. I used to fill myself with so much guilt about not commenting on every single post my favorite bloggers would put out and I would get really twisted up inside.
Making yourself stressed out, filling yourself with guilt for not commenting all the time, or forcing myself to reading all the posts isn’t healthy for you. You don’t have to do this. There are plenty of ways to support your favorite bloggers or interacting with your favorite bloggers without putting yourself in a state of internal guilt or stress.
So… that was a lot to unpack. These may or may not be the pressures you’re dealing with and these tips may not be the cure all to your stresses. Everyone is their own unique self and experience things differently. My experiences are my own experiences and some of these may be normal or even something you don’t have to worry about. A lot of this post is me saying to myself, “You can breathe again.” And in a way, making peace with the old and putting some skeletons to rest. I do hope that some of these tips do help you and maybe make things a little easier for you. Maybe you just needed someone to tell you to breathe and try these tips. ♥
What things stress you out as a blogger? What kind of things do you do to lessen the pressure? Come chat about it with me in the comments! ♥
Chapter Malliumpkin 
This is such a good discussion topic! We don’t talk enough about how many people work themselves into a burn out or worse with blogging. There was a solid year or more, a few years back, where I was staying up late every single night to work on my blog past my family going to bed. They would go to bed at their normal time, and I would stay up until dawn writing blog posts, reading ARCs, blog hopping, etc., because I thought it was what I “needed” to do. I regret it so much. Not only did I burn myself out to the point that I almost left blogging altogether, but I also lost a lot of valuable family time I can never have back. I have to very strictly limit myself on when I’m allowed to work on blog stuff now, and how much time I can spend on it, with the constant reminder in the back of my head that once that time limit is up, even if it means not posting the content on time or at all, I HAVE to walk away!
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We definitely don’t talk about it enough. I 100% agree with you. I almost want to say there’s a stigma around burnout and how much we’re suppose to talk about it or not talk about it. I totally understand that whole late night, staying up super late working on reading or posting, etc… In a recent post I think I just talked about my toxic habit of staying up really late reading and you mentioning your late night working on book content creation just hit, like oof!
I’m glad you have a limit and you’re not in that place anymore. I feel like when we’re in that dark place of unhealthy habits, it’s very hard to crawl out of that place. So I’m proud of you and I love you bunches! ♥
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Really great topic! I’ve been struggling with these things a lot, too. Organization definitely helps me, but I’ve discovered it’s really hard for me to organize things when I’m stressed, so I def have to get ahead of the stress if I want to use that tool to help me. 100% agree with you about breaks. It’s sometimes hard for me to take them, but it’s so much better to do it before I’m completely drained. 🙂
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Awe, I’m sorry organization can be hard if you’re too stressed, but I hope despite that you can take little breathers or breaks if you’re able. I definitely feel you on how hard it is to take breaks especially if you’re determined to get something completed or finished up before a certain day, hour, or whatever it may be.
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I’ve been getting so burnt out with blogging this year. I need to take breaks but never actually get around to doing it.
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Awe, I’m sorry friend! Is there anything I can do to help or anything you need? Putting off breaks or hiatuses is understandable, but please remember to take care of yourself and put yourself first especially if you’re getting burn out. ♥
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Thanks for asking, but I’m trying to handle it! I love you!
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You got this and I’m always a message away if you ever need anything!
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