To Blog or not to Blog
In an ideal world I’d be blogging every week, several times a week but to be honest, I simply don’t have time. Who has time to sit and write about stuff that annoys us, fascinates us, inspires us? Lots of people, so it would seem, so what am I doing wrong? I’m guessing I may not be the only one who vows to keep a blog on a regular basis, but never finds the time to do so. I’m also guessing that many of you out there who do manage to do this will be screaming at me, ‘just do it’!
What I may be doing wrong is not allowing myself time to be creative with words. I know I can be, I just find excuses not to be. I dream of creating that blog that becomes the next big thing, but again, I’m sure I’m not alone with that. So what makes those famous bloggers famous in the first place?
I’m off to find out, research the do’s and don’t’s and hopefully come back very soon with a whole new outlook, new design for my page and something worth reading. See you soon!
New Year’s Resolutions – Tick (not!)
My first New Year’s Resolution (NYR) for this year was to simply not make any, yet for some ridiculous reason I found myself in the lead up to 31st December 2011, inadvertently making promises about things I would do in 2012. They are resolutions arent’ they? (Is it too weird that Firefox this very minute just sent me an email entitled “Keep your Resolutions with Firefox.”? The cyber spies are watching me!)
The list kept growing, to the point that I really don’t think I can call it a NYR list anymore, it’s just a rather enormous ‘To Do’ list. Adding to this blog at least once a week was up there at the top – already broken that one as this is the first blog for 2012 – rubbish start. Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself and just attempt to write something at least once a month, or maybe I should try to stick to that and actually make the effort to be creative in a wordy way more often. This is supposed to be my design blog after all and I should really just add little bits like I would a diary. Must try harder!
Of course there are the usual obligatory promises like exercising more. I probably should delete the ‘more’ bit and just say exercise, full stop. I bought some very sturdy walking boots before the end of 2011, with all good intentions of doing what they were built for, walking. This has happened twice so far, but not just any old walking – through the woods (otherwise known as Narnia or more commonly, Ashridge) for at least a couple of hours and with the knowledge that there was a pub at the end of the trek. A girl has to have a reward for her efforts. Fortunately I have a few younger friends (you know who you are!) who generally instigate such activities and being much younger, they haven’t got to the age where one feels guilty about rewarding oneself with a glass of wine/beer/cider in the middle of the afternoon or at lunchtime on a weekend. (Why we feel guilty is another blog, another time.)
Work! Work harder, learn more and find a niche. I’m loving the work I’m doing, but I’d really like to find something that doesn’t take a lot of space to create so that I don’t have to convert my garage into a studio (as much as I’d love to, but that requires getting more work to pay for it – can you see the vicious circle, can’t you?). It has to something that calls on the skills that I already have, something that I can do from home and something that has very little overheads. Ho hum! Any ideas greatly appreciated please… (Saying that, I do have one idea that sprang to mind while working on a project for a client recently – I’ve just got to get around to doing something about it.)
Sort out my in-tray. Making a start on this job is a task in itself. I made a reasonable effort to get into it, then stupidly left it for a bit and am now struggling to pick up where I left off and as a consequence, my desk is once again covered with little [organised] piles of paper. Paperwork must be one of the most brain numbing, tedious but necessary evil of life. I must keep on top of it all otherwise life just becomes too stressful – as chaotic as life is, I do like to know where something is. If it’s in the in-tray then I know where it is, then when it’s filed away, I still know where it is and am happy that it is now in its own little paperwork home. There’s something sadly satisfying about that. As tedious a task as it is and as much as I hate doing it, it’s so so so nice to see the bottom of an empty in-tray. Shame it doesn’t last long, only as long as the next post filled with bank statements & bills.
Another brain wave had been to start writing letters again. Inspired by my ‘love letter writing’ day at Homemade London last year, I thought it would be nice to surprise a few people and actually write a few letters. Not sure how likely this one will be as I’m struggling to even find the motivation to write this blog, but it’s a nice idea. Maybe I’ll try it one wet weekend. I wouldn’t suggest watching the post too closely, this might be a resolution that is a mere pipe dream.
Whatever happens this year, I’m promising myself that I will work hard even when I don’t have a lot of work to do. Learn more about my new career and find ways to improve my skills. But, above all, I’m going to enjoy my wonderful children, partner and friends like the end of life as we know really is going to end on the 21st December 2012. Enjoy 2012 everyone! I’m certainly going to.
