While I wait for my ISP to transfer my broadband connection from our old home to our new one I’ve been relying upon a mobile broadband connection (with limited monthly bandwidth) and dialup (my goodness how I’ve come to take broadband for granted).
While this initially seemed like a problem it’s actually made me a more productive blogger as it has forced me to become more focused and to prioritize my tasks each day.
Here’s what I’m doing less of:
- Checking stats less – checking blog metrics can be useful – but it can also be a waste of time when you do it all day.
- Reading other blogs less – the unread items in my RSS feed have mounted up this week – but I’ve continued to read those blogs that I truly value and it’s the less useful ones that I’ve seen less of.
- Checking email less often – instead of checking email every 15 minutes I’m now doing it every 5 or so hours. This means less interruptions during other work.
- Less time on IM – similarly there have been less interruptions with IM (although this has been challenging in connecting with b5 work mates).
The lesson that I’ve learned is that while I normally spend a lot of time on these activities – the world hasn’t come crashing down when I’ve done them less. In fact my world has probably improved as I’ve made room for other things.
Here’s what I’m doing more of:
- More time off line writing – with less interruptions and time wasted doing tasks that are not as important – I’ve freed up more time to actually write content. I also suspect it’s a higher quality content as I’m more focused.
- More strategic thinking – it’s amazing how little I’d been thinking about my blog’s directions and strategy as a result of the ‘busyness’ I’d created for myself with a lot of ultimately unimportant things. This week has enabled me to step back a little and think about 2008 and beyond.
- More time with family – this has been the big winner this week – and it needed to be. With moving house, a sick wife and an unsettled little one there have been a few more personal demands in the last few weeks than normal and I’m glad to be able to spend more time focusing upon them.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m looking forward to getting a permanent broadband connection – but this out of the ordinary week has taught me a thing or two (or at least has helped me to relearn a lesson or two that I’ve already been taught) which I hope will help when life returns a little more to normal.
Image by Shadphotos
