InkyBlots

I was cruising around the internet the other day (yes, the other day – despite the date you see on the post I’m going to link) and I found this post from Get Paid to Write Online. Although brief, I identified with what Sharon said about overwhelming yourself with blogs and how it’s sometimes hard to say when it’s too much.

I started writing here in 2006 (that long ago?) after having a love/hate relationship with blogging for two years. Excited about having work to do while I couldn’t actually work in Australia, I dove in head first and didn’t look back. Not too long after that, I began looking at other blogs and planning taking them over.

I honestly can’t remember the order and dates of when I took over other blogs, but my list grew to two, three, four, and so on. I expanded out from the 451 network and took on work elsewhere as well.

Then I reached my limit.

With seven blogs requiring regular (if not daily) updates, one requiring daily updates, and others still requiring a slightly looser updating schedule and other freelancing work on top of that, I almost completely burned out. Overwhelmed, I had taken on a workload I couldn’t maintain.

I wasn’t writing creatively, I wasn’t working on my novel and I certainly wasn’t happy about any of it. My stress levels skyrocketed and I felt overworked more often than not. Add on feeling depressed about having no energy and nearly no time to work on my novel, and I wasn’t a great person to be around. (My poor husband.)

So I began to step back. Small steps at first, which was about all I could do with commitments I’d made. Then came the bigger steps: ‘retiring’ from a blog or two, not making any new commitments, learning to tell people ‘no’.

I began writing creatively again.

Don’t let your eagerness to pay off bills or become a social networking guru take you away from your true passions. Don’t forget the writer, the author, in you in favor of spending yet more time on the internet. Learn when to step back and how to balance the various areas of your life.

Always make time for the things that make you happy – even if it involves taking a bit of a pay cut.