Do you ever feel like you need to take a break from your blog but you feel like you’ve created a monster that just needs to keep being fed and fear that stepping away from the blog could mark the beginning of the end for it?
If so – you’re not alone.
We all need to take a break from our blogs at one point or another – whether that be to have a break and get away on a vacation, or because there’s something going on in our family that we need to give our attention to, or because we get sick or have some kind of emergency.
It’s important to have these kinds of breaks, but the question bloggers who are building a business face is – what should I do with my blog?
This is a question we’ve had a bit over in our Facebook Group lately so I decided this week to do a Facebook Live teaching session on the topic and came up with 7 options for bloggers who need a break.
Here’s the video. The first five minutes are me greeting those watching but at the 5 minute mark I switch into teaching mode and give my 7 tips with some pros and cons of each option (so you may wish to skip to there) and then I finish up with some Q&A.
To summarise my 7 teaching tips:
- Take a complete break – (it gives your readers a break too).
- Work harder before you take a break and schedule your content and social.
- Run a ‘best of’ retrospective series where you highlight content in your archives.
- Use a Guest Blogger or group of bloggers
- Blog from the Road
- Use some ‘Lighter Posts’ (like polls, discussions, curated embedded content, link posts)
- Do a combination of the above
If you’d like a little further reading or some examples:
- 10 Types of Killer Filler Content for Your Blog (this will help with point #6)
- How to Lift the Quality of Your Blog Posts with Embeddable Content (this will help with #6 too)
- Example of a ‘best of’ retrospective post from Digital Photography School
- How to Take a Blog Break Without Losing Momentum
What do you do to take a break from blogging? Is it one of the above tips or something else? I’m keen to hear in comments what your approach is.
Hi Darren,
Excellent points. For me, blogging mainly for fun helped me see when I needed to take a break, and when I could keep going.
The only reason I worked myself to the bone blogging-wise was because I was mainly blogging to get. Getting traffic or money or whatever, that difficult, attached driver was the motivator behind me being blind to your insights above. But as I shifted my intent to blog mainly for fun, with love, that intent helped me see both warning signs of burnout and fueled me for greater blogging responsibilities, that I followed up with increased, extended breaks.
It’s like the more successful you become and the greater workload that flows in the more you need to pull back, shed certainly responsibilities, take more, extended breaks and reassess what you can hand off or let go entirely. Uncomfortable process at times but oh so necessary when you want to do blogging right AND enjoy the ride.
Thanks for sharing :)
Ryan
An amazing podcast. Learn so may new things.
If done in the right way, blogging does not take much time. It depends on the mindset.
A great video podcast for sure.
Thanks
Regards
Bhanu (http://www.thetechswag.COM)
Hi Darren.
Reading your first paragraph, has made me shiver. Fortunately, I have not got that way yet. And I hope not to get that way. I want to keep arguing, because my blog is one of my adventurous places. Lucky
me! Coz I live in Bali, … and when I am saturated, then Kuta Beach is my
favorite place to be with my wife and my beloved daughter.
One
time, I wish I could tell more in my blogging activity, while relaxing
on the beautiful beaches of Bali Island, while being friends with my
little family. So I do not have to assume, blogging is so binding the owner .. :) ..
However, thank you Darren. I really enjoy your article.
Greetings.
Richard Daris
(http: //www.blogginggurupro.COM)
I started blogging in 2008, switched to WordPress in 2010 and was completely burnt out and running away somewhere between 2014-2015. I took a step back and my life swallowed me whole.
I’m just now getting serious about blogging again, and I’ve taken a number of steps to ensure I temper my expectations with organization and hopefully steady progress. I’m excited again for the first time in a long time, but I can’t help but worry that I’ll run into the overwhelm again.
But I don’t think just having ideas on how to deal with the articles is quite the same as planning on balancing the different responsibilities and making sure to find real relationships and connections in the real world, not just online. Seeing this article reminds me how important it is to consider all the different possibilities, honestly.
HI Darren,
Great timing, I am actually taking an unplanned semi-break right now. I’ve been on my mini-vacation since Saturday.
I actually purchased a new MacBook Pro so I could go on the road. When I am at home, I work on my desktop, and didn’t have access to a laptop.
While I haven’t taken a complete break, I have worked very little. The great thing is that I didn’t feel any regret as I had several articles queued up and ready to post. This took care of my content writing while I was out enjoying the sunshine.
Now I can definitely see the benefit of writing content in advance. The cool thing is that I even had a guest post go live today. This was one that I had submitted a week before I went on my unplanned my mini-vacation.
So yes, I realize that it’s definitely easy to take a break while trying to grow a blog. As long as your blog is prepared, then it will be find. If not, then you can always open up for guest posters.
It’s nice to know that bloggers have so many options that allow them to take a break. The cool thing is that there is wi-fi pretty much everywhere. So if you don’t want to walk away completely, you can still work a little bit while taking a break.
Thanks for sharing these tips, have a great one.
Susan
Hi! Wow, this is super timely.
My fledgling blog is on a strong upswing but I’m taking off on vacation next week. Because I’m so new to it, I’m both invigorated and exhausted. I can’t decide whether to indulge in my new blog obsession or pull a full shutdown. I had planned on getting ahead but I didn’t. Oh well.
Since I’ll be with my best friends in the world, I’ll likely take option 1: a full break….well, maybe I’ll pop on Twitter.
Hey, thanks for the chat. Totally helped!
I take 2 publishing breaks, one in the summer (July and August, sometimes even June) and another in the beginning of the New Year (January). Also from social. I use this time to catch up, do some relaxation, learning, planning..etc etc
Hey Darren,
I really need a break from my blog. I publish every single day which is overwhelming sometimes. I have scheduled my posts for the social media platforms. It will help me maintaining my social presence.
Taking a road trip is always an amazing idea.
~Ravi
I agree that we as a whole need a break from time to time. A great many people remove excursion time from work yet as a blogger you don’t always think that is possible because your readers are expecting to hear from you. If you plan on taking a break, let your readers know.
Hello there,
Its really a great post. It has been documented well. The tricks which you have mentioned will surely help every blogger. I must say taking trips in a while is surely a great idea as it recharges our body and mind in order to focus more. Happy Blogging.
I only post once a week in order to keep me from getting burnt out. I also take the entire month of December off from blogging because I just want to enjoy the Christmas season. During that time I just have some lighter posts, some “best of” posts, some “top whatever” posts, and have them pre-scheduled. It’s important to not become a slave to your readers.
Dear Sir,
Thanks Sharing information for break blog make some awesome ideas and tips are used to many time some usefull.
Thank You.
Its really a great post. It has been documented well.
Blogging career gives us freedom to choose our own working time. We can work any time we want. I usually schedule posts on my blog on frequent intervals. So the readers won’t feel that I am away from the system. Meanwhile we can recharge our mind with awesome trips. It will help us to get new writing ideas and relax ourself.
Really great post
Darren,
This was a very interesting read. While I have not been blogging for a long time, I am already finding it difficult to come up with meaningful and interesting things to blog about on a consistent basis. Maybe taking a step back every now and again will help to recharge the batteries and inspire some more creative thinking. Great Read!
Evan Speight
This is really great post for me, Thanks for sharing valuable info
The “best of” suggestion is great. There’s always space for a collection of older content, just organize it in such a way that your audience will enjoy the content regardless of it’s age.
Who wouldn’t want breaks right? I definitely agree with number 2 right there. Taking a break halfway through your tasks just feels…off. You wouldn’t be able to enjoy your break if there’s that nagging feeling at the back of your head telling you that you were not able to complete your goal. It definitely would be better to have that sense of accomplishment before taking that most awaited break.
Awesome tips for me. I have doing this blogging for 4 years and now I guess I need to do something different. Starting a Question answer will be grate!
Hey Buddy you are a great hard worker these figures surely tell us people that. Thanks for sharing these kind of things which are really personal to you but to motivate people you do so.
nice information teaching tips
this really good tips keep share as like teaching tips daily please sir
nice article..great tips by problogger team….thank you
Really like your post. We need to take breaks time to time. Internet sucks life from us in long run.