Beat Blogger Burnout: 8 Incredible Tips To Feel Better
Blogger burnout is an all too common problem. It starts like this: You decide you want to learn how to start a blog, and you jump right into it with excitement.
Then, the sheer volume of tasks start to pile up, and you start to feel overwhelmed with the work and time blogging demands.
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Pretty soon, you are frustrated, exhausted and considering giving up on your blog completely. Welcome to blogger burnout. But, you have options! You could sell your blog.
Whether you intend to keep your site or sell it, read these awesome tips from bloggers just like you who worked through these same issues.
Beat Blogger Burnout – 8 Bloggers Share Incredible Tips To Feel Better
These 8 bloggers share their useful tips for how they beat blogger burnout.
1. Don’t Force It
I have had blogger burnout before and let me tell you it wasn’t a good feeling but I got through it but simply doing nothing.
That burnout was a sign that I was going too hard for my blog site which was starting to have a negative effect on my mental health.
Burnouts are a sign and signal from your body that it is time to stop what you’re doing and take some time out for yourself to rest.
To build inspiration, during my burnout periods, I often go on Facebook and engage in groups that I haven’t in a while. Or I’ll visit the blogs that I am already subscribed to, and pitch guest posts.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
My advice for other bloggers going through burnout is to not force anything.
When you can’t think of a topic to blog about don’t just post things just to be posting them.
That brings down the quality of your blog site. Just take that time out to rest and then get back on track.
Keara Douglas, Deluxds.com
2. Allow Yourself To Pull Back
I work outside the home 32 hours a week, I have 2 daughters in school, and who dance 8 hours a week, plus a husband who also works – and often does over time.
We’re very busy and sometimes I just can’t keep up with all the blog tasks.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
Recently I’ve slowed my posting frequency (to once a week from twice) and I find that helps relieve some of the pressure I feel to try to stay on top of everything. And you know, what? My stats have not dropped and my social media follows are still going up!
Taking a break – entirely, or just pulling back for a while – is a great strategy. I think sometimes we forget that our already published content has life of it’s own, and we don’t NEED to be constantly creating something new.
Resharing older content on social media is a great way to stay relevant without having to be constantly creating!
– Jessica Foley, A Modern Mom’s Life
3. Manage Your Focus & Time
Blogger burnout, for me, came with working on my blog too much each day, to the point where I tipped the balance scale.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
To avoid burnout, I had to limit the amount of time I dedicated to working on my blog. Once that time was over, I need to move on and do something else (i.e. spend time with family).
I find that when you get started, you’re ultra excited about growing your blog, but sometimes you need to take a step back and understand that it takes time.
So do what you have to do, but don’t overspend time on it.
– Hedy Zhou, designer, Happily, Hedy
4. Revisit & Revive Old Content
Periodically I’ll find myself in a rut where I just don’t feel like researching/writing, or can’t find a topic I want to write about so I typically browse through old posts to see if anything can be given an easy refresh/update.
This happened often enough that I actually worked these kinds of “will need to be updated regularly” posts into my strategy so that when I’m feeling burnt out I have a couple of go-to articles to tweak!
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
The best thing is to plan for getting stuck: create a list of go-to things you can do when you feel stuck (i.e. update an old post, create a round-up of your own posts or articles from other people).
And above all, give yourself some grace and don’t feel too bad if you have to skip creating content now and then.
– Brandi Good, BlgBusinessSolutions.com
5. Ease Up On Yourself
When I was in the process of getting my blog up and running I felt burnt out on a daily basis. I would stay up until 3am most nights working on my blog.
I couldn’t sleep because all I could think about were the blogging-related tasks that needed to get done.
Yet, I felt like I was getting nowhere. The whole process was exciting and exhilarating, but it was also rough.
I read so many pieces of advice online saying that if you wanted success you needed to put in the work and the long hours.
I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before: wake up ridiculously early, stay up ridiculously late, throw your social life out the window. I agree with this advice to an extent, but I also believe that it’s important to give yourself a break sometimes.
Honestly, I got to the point where I knew that I would start hating my blog and just give up, so I stepped away from it temporarily.
Instead of working on my blog for a couple of days, I spent time with family and friends.
Once I felt ready to come back to it, I felt re-energized and ready to tackle all of the tasks that I had felt stuck with.
This is when I hit some of my biggest blogging breakthroughs!
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
My best advice for anyone feeling burnt out or stuck with their blog would be to shift focus. Find something else to work on temporarily.
Sometimes just stepping away for a couple of days and focusing on something else can help reignite your creativity and passion for your blog.
Don’t be afraid to give yourself a break when you need it!
– Chelsea Maxwell, SproutedTaste.com
6. Write For Yourself First
Finding blogging content is sometimes harder than writing the post itself. My personal blog, MeetRhey, is all about discovering inspirational people, places and things that make a social impact.
Before typing about my latest find, I wait to get a response from the subject in question.
Sometimes I never get a response. This process, as you can probably imagine, is quite tedious. It is a negative feedback cycle. What motivates me to keep blogging is reflecting on what value I get from all this.
I know that… eventually… I will get a reply from someone who is or a part of creating positive change.
Whatever I gain from having that conversation, is something that I believe enriches my life and those who read all about it at my blog.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
Write for yourself first. If you do not find any personal value in what you do, you may have a harder time doing it when things are not going the way you want them to.
– Rhey De Castro, MeetRhey
7. Focus On Smaller Tasks
Last year, I was dealing with being a mom to a quickly growing toddler, I was doing freelance PR work and trying to blog.
I was running out of steam and my ideas for posts were just not exciting or inspired.
So, I took a step back, didn’t overthink things and decided to focus instead on improving what already was there:
- Getting rid of old posts that weren’t generating any interest.
- Reworked decent posts that could be beefier, with better content, photos and SEO.
- Focused on a redesign and restructuring that would be better suited for my changing brand identity.
- I barely posted any new posts. Instead, I recycled and upcycled old ones.
This helped me take a moment to get my mind off of coming up with new ideas.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
My tip to other bloggers dealing with blogger burnout is this: take a moment to breathe.
Take a step back and see what you can do – from small things to ongoing updates and upgrades that will help you love your blog and your blogging routine again.
And remember to enjoy life outside of your blog too. Take a break! You will find clarity.
– Margaret Bourne, SuburbanTourist.ca
How to beat blogger burnout! #productivitytips #blogtips8. Don’t Waste Time On Work That Isn’t Getting You Closer To Your Goals
When you first launch a blog, you’re not sure what strategies will work for your niche and audience.
For me, it felt like I needed to be a bit everywhere online and on social media in order to hustle and grow my community of readers.
At a certain point, it felt overwhelming to be creating so much content on so many different platforms.
I felt at a loss. I’d had hit a major roadblock and felt like I needed to take a big pause from it.
So, I decided to allow myself to take a few weeks off to regroup and decide what I should focus on.
I thought about what my specific goals are, and what was going to help me get there.
Then I allowed myself to drop the rest.
How To Beat Blogger Burnout
My advice is to make sure you’re not wasting time and energy on creating content that is not helping you achieve your goals.
If it doesn’t help you, don’t let it bring you down!
– Rebecca Chant Blog, MaybeThisWay.com
How To Beat Blogger Burnout – Conclusion
From these amazing blogger burnout tips, one of the stand-out takeaways is to step back and allow yourself to refocus on other things.
Your blog will still grow, your followers will stay around, and that money will still be made.
Truthfully, stop putting so much pressure on yourself to constantly create new content. You likely have a ton of valuable older content that could benefit from being reshared again.
I recommend that you fill your SmarterQueue up with content so it can recycle your social media posts, and Tailwind can repin your pins on autopilot.
Automation tools such as these are a blogger’s best friend and the ultimate blogger burnout repellant!
By using automation tools, your blog is still generating interest, traffic and income, without you having to personally be at the wheel at all. Even if you were to take several weeks off!
Keep Reading
- SEO Basics – Free SEO Cheat Sheet For Bloggers
- 6 Most Profitable Blog Niches
- 21 Blogging Tips For New Bloggers, From 21 Pro Bloggers
- 6 Productivity Hacks For Bloggers
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