It’s very easy to lose confidence in your blog and start feeling overwhelmed. As much as we try not to, it’s impossible not to compare yourself and your blog to other people out there.
This blogger has a much better design than me. This blogger is making way more money than me. This blogger writes so much more often than me.
Sound familiar?
Trust me, I’ve been there. Many times. I wish I could say I’ve found a way to beat it and prevent blogger burnout from coming back, but I know that’s impossible. Luckily, I’ve tried some techniques you, too, can use to regain confidence with your blog and bounce back from blogger burnout.
1 | Take a Break from Your Blog
I know, I know. This one is scary. And it comes with its own load of doubt. But trust me on this.
It’s 100% okay to take a break from your blog. I promise. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, uninspired, or otherwise uninterested in your blog, just stop doing it for a while.
After my launch of my very first ecourse, the InDesign Adventure Guide, I was exhausted. I had spent a ton of time creating lessons, writing blog posts, hosting webinars, and otherwise promoting the course (in addition to my blog content), and I just couldn’t do it any more.
So, after some discussion with other blog friends, I decided to put my blog on a hiatus. For about a month and a half, I stopped writing blog posts, stopped reading other blogs, and in general did non-blogging things.
I spent time with my fiance and our dog and cat. I read a few books. I watched way too much Netflix.
And you know what? It was so good for me.
I ended up coming back way more energized, and my blog has actually improved since the hiatus. I’ve had more time and energy to grow my email list, curate better content for my blog, and plan exciting projects for the future.
So, if you think a hiatus is your answer (even if it scares you), here are my tips:
Stay away from any and all blog stuff if you can.
I mean it. Delete the Bloglovin app from your phone. Unfollow blog pages and blog groups on Facebook. Move newsletters to a “To Read After Hiatus” folder without even looking at them.
I knew that if I was still reading blogs during my hiatus, I wouldn’t really get my energy back. It’s such a consuming industry (which can be good and bad), so it was time for a clean break.
It took me a while to catch up after my hiatus ended, but it was fun to have so much content to read and explore to ease me back into blogging.
Have an end date in mind.
One of my biggest fears was that I wouldn’t actually want to return to my blog after taking a few weeks off. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
To ease my fears, I told myself that I would come back from the hiatus at the beginning of May. It gave me something to look forward to, as well as a deadline for my relaxation time.
However, it’s important to be flexible with your end date. If you’re approaching your end date and still aren’t quite feeling it, then move it back! Or, if you’re really excited to blog but your end date is still three weeks away, move it up!
I started getting pumped about blogging again about a week and a half before the beginning of May. Rather than forcing myself to wait until an arbitrary day, I decided to use that extra week and a half to do some much-needed maintenance on my blog’s back end. I knew that once I started writing again, that time would be hard to come by, so I might as well use it while I have it.
It's okay to take a break from your blog!Click To Tweet2 | Remember Why You Started
If you’re not feeling up for a break, this step is super important: Remember why you started.
A while back, I remember getting really frustrated because I wanted to make more money with my blog, but I didn’t have enough time to get all of my goals done.
Luckily, my fiance reminded me that making money isn’t actually why I started blogging. I started because I love to write, I wanted to improve my web design skills, and I love helping people.
In order to regain confidence with your blog, it’s important to get excited about your topic again. If you’re going through the motions feeling very meh about your blog, it’s going to show. Remind yourself why you love blogging, especially the topics you write about.
In addition, all of the other parts of blogging can easily distract you. There are so many resources out there and so many options for side hustles that it gets incredibly overwhelming rather quickly. Reminding yourself why you started makes it easier to ground yourself and keep you focused on your main priorities.
3 | Focus on One Thing at a Time
On a similar note, try to keep yourself on track by only focusing on one thing at a time.
Creating an ecourse, selling ebooks, growing your email list, writing blog posts, growing your social media following, investing money in other people’s courses… they’re all important parts of growing your blog and business, but holy cow. If you try to do all of these (or even just a few!) at once, you’re not going to get anywhere.
There’s only so much time in the day, and you’re going to burn out quickly if you sacrifice your “me time” for massive projects on your blog.
It’s much easier to focus on one project at a time and really knock it out of the park, and then move onto the next one.
Trying to grow your social media following? Focus on one social media site at a time, and once you get your process down, add another one into the mix. I, for example, am working on revamping my Instagram right now. I also want to create a new strategy for Twitter, but I know I can’t do both at the same time. I’m prioritizing Instagram, and once I’m really comfortable with my new look, I’ll come back to my Twitter.
Trying to monetize your blog? Focus on one major project at a time. Don’t start writing an ebook if you haven’t finished your ecourse yet. Sure, one can inspire the other, but get one finished and launched before you start working on the next. Keep a list, though, of all of your ideas so you don’t end up forgetting about them by the time your current project is launched.
4 | Mind Map Ideas for the Future
One of my absolute favorite ways to brainstorm is through mind mapping. You start with one major topic in the middle, and then branch out subtopics from that, and have subtopics branching off of those, and so on.
When I’m feeling stuck and uninspired, I whip out my Passion Planner and start a mind map. It could be something rather menial like website updates that I need to do, or it could be something super broad like where I see myself in three years. Then, I use these as a sort of to do list for long-term projects with my blog.
I recently created a mind map of blog updates I needed to do. Off of that main topic, I had six sub-topics: add a link to my courses to the menu, remove non-niche blog posts, update my About page, create a Start Here page, take new photos, and update images. Off of each of these sub-topics, I had tasks like “create a specific redirect page,” “take stock imagery photos,” and “remove Etsy from sidebar.” I use this as a major To Do list, and cross off each box as I complete that task.
Getting all of these ideas for your blog on paper can really help you get excited about the possibilities for your blog. Sure, it might seem overwhelming at first, but that’s why you’re breaking everything down into sub-topics. Get as specific as you can, so each task doesn’t seem nearly as overwhelming. You also don’t want to come back to it and not remember what the heck you meant!
5 | Set Realistic Expectations for Yourself
One common cause of blogger burnout is unrealistic expectations. It’s important to know how much time you have to devote to different projects so you don’t get overwhelmed and run out of time.
At the beginning of 2015, I was convinced that posting 5x per week equaled success. So, I made it a New Years Resolution to end the year posting 5 days a week. I thought this was a realistic goal, because I was giving myself time to adjust to the increased workload.
However, I got really burnt out near the end of the year, because 5 posts per week is a lot. Like… holy crap.
But I was super stubborn and didn’t want to give up on my resolution, so I kept trying. Thankfully I was convinced otherwise.
Oh, and guess what? Most of those blog posts have been deleted anyway. They weren’t written well and no longer fit within my niche, so you can’t even find them on my blog. I totally wasted all of that time.
It simply wasn’t realistic for me to post that often. So ask yourself if your expectations are realistic, and adjust if they aren’t. It’s 100% okay (in fact, it’s encouraged) to reflect on your goals and adjust if they simply aren’t working for you any more.
6 | Give Yourself Office Hours
This one has been huge for me as of late. If you’re getting burnt out because you’re doing blogging tasks at random times throughout the week, regain your confidence by giving yourself office hours.
Pick out a time when you can spend a few hours on your blog each week. It’s important to have a large chunk of time (or two, if you can afford it), because you can really focus on one or two things and knock them out from start to finish. Constantly having to start and stop means you’re actually taking more time, so get it all done at once!
Make sure you talk it over with the people it will affect, like roommates and significant others. If you and your boyfriend go out to breakfast every Saturday morning (jealous!), you’re not going to want to schedule office hours for Saturday mornings.
Plus, you’re going to want to make sure they respect your time. Constant interruptions aren’t going to help you stay on top of your blogging tasks! Set your expectations from the beginning so they know how important these office hours are to you.
7 | Re-Purpose Old Content
And finally, if you’re just not feeling your content any more, re-purpose it!
If you’re sending out unique newsletters to your email list every week, re-purpose them as blog posts! And if you’ve written blog posts a long time ago that are still super helpful, rewrite them as a newsletter!
You’ll want to change it up a little bit to keep it fresh, but don’t be afraid to use the same content more than once. It’s unlikely that anyone has read your blog cover to cover, so they won’t even notice.
I, for example, will go back through newsletters I sent out when I only had 50 people on my list. I’ll update it so it’s relevant to the topic at hand, but it’s way less content that I have to write. Yes, please!
We all get burnt out every once in awhile as we work to grow our blogs. It’s 100% normal! At the end of the day, do what’s best for you and your mental health. Don’t do something because you stubbornly believe that you should. Do it because you want to.
What tips do you have for regaining confidence as a blogger? Leave me a comment!
