Not blogging today

A little over a month ago I decided to start blogging daily, in large part to get back in shape writing-wise. I haven’t written daily since late 2009 when I was finishing my last book and had baby #2. After working at a fairly minimal level since then, in the last few months I’ve really felt the need to get my writing chops back up to speed.

But today, a couple other high-value things seem like a better use of my time than writing a new post: 1) strategically promoting some of the blog posts that I’ve already written in the past few weeks, and 2) finishing up the super cool worksheet download that I’m prepping for y’all. (The download will be available imminently so keep your eyes peeled.)

I have to say, though, I struggle with the idea of taking today off. There’s something about posting at least once every day that helps keep me motivated and on track. The sense of necessity definitely helps motivate me — and even better it helps generate ideas. I worry that if I start taking a day off here and there it’ll be a slippery slope to blog stagnation.

Successful blogs do need to be updated regularly, but not necessarily daily. Most in the blogging field say that 2 to 3 posts a week is probably ideal. So eventually I’ll shoot for that but for the moment, I feel that I need the discipline of writing something every day. Compared to many writer friends of mine, I really am weak when it comes to writing regularity and discipline.

One thing I’ve gotten pretty good at over the years is how to trick myself into doing things — for example, announcing last week (and above) that I’d have a free downloadable worksheet this week. Setting deadlines for myself and announcing them publicly, or to my colleagues, is one of my favorite ways to keep my feet to the fire.

Or, tricking myself into writing a blog post about not blogging. Damn I’m good.