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Find—and Use—Your Blogging Freedom

Posted By Guest Blogger 14th of October 2012 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

This guest post is by Jon Rhodes of Affiliate Marketing Tips.

Isn’t the idea of being a full-time blogger great?! You control your own time, and answer to nobody. You don’t have to ask someone for permission if you want to take some time off, or go and pursue a new idea you’ve had.

There are many perks to being a full-time blogger. However you must make sure that you are actually enjoying these perks.

The problems

What I see some new full-time bloggers doing is being equally as hard on themselves as their former bosses were.

Sure, you need to work hard to be successful, but you must also enjoy some of the benefits that attracted you to this type of work in the first place—at least occasionally. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Many people seem to stay cooped up at work in their own homes for much of the day. This is similar to being stuck in the office all day, accept with an office at least you can leave and go home to a different environment at the end of your working day.

Others seem to squander their at-home time on low-quality perks, such as surfing the Web, watching TV, or eating too much. These things are okay for a while, but shouldn’t you be going beyond this if you wish to maximise the position you worked so hard to get yourself into?

The solutions

Think to yourself for a few moments about the reasons why you decided to become a blogger.

Now question yourself: are you really fulfilling those reasons, or have you simply got yourself into a loop of bad habits?

If you’re in the second category, right now is the time to change this! Not only will it let you enjoy your blogging lifestyle, getting creative with your time will also improve your creativity and productivity. It’s good for you and your blog.

Take a break

Plan something for about a week’s time—a trip for the day, or even a few days if your circumstances allow it. Something that you have wanted to do but never got round to because you’ve had no time. This activity doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated—unless you want it to be.

I have always wanted to go up Mount Snowdon (in North Wales) on the train, but never got round to it. So recently I did the 250-mile round trip during a weekday while everyone else was at work.

I did something that gave me full reward for the position I’ve worked so hard to get myself into.

So make your plan. Once you’ve thought of an activity that will utilise your freedom, schedule it into your diary, and stick to your plan.

Take this appointment seriously. Your health and wellbeing is the most important thing in the world. You cannot look after your blog, your business, or your loved ones if you are not healthy and vibrant yourself.

The benefits aren’t just in the activity itself—they’re also in the build-up, knowing you have some liberating activity planned in the near future. It can put a spring in your step and help you feel good about the world. It can also help boost your productivity in the meantime, and afterward, as you feel refreshed and rejuvenated.

Once you have executed this, you should plan another soon after. This will help you actually experience the feelings of freedom that your lifestyle now permits, and ensure that you get a chance to recharge the batteries as often as you need to.

A break on a smaller scale

Can’t take a full day off in the near future? Need to refresh yourself in between breaks?

You can also utilise your liberty by finding different places to work. Many businesses now offer free wireless internet. So if you have a laptop you can get a change of scenery and find nice cafés, parks, libraries and other places to work from.

Most employers won’t let you do this, but now you’re a full-time blogger, you can! This is likely to help your creativity when writing and making business decisions, as well as getting you out of the house.

Joining a gym is another great idea. I go early in the morning, at about 9am, three times a week. Rather than going in the evening after work when I’m tired and have had enough, I can go early, to wake myself up and get the blood flowing.

I come home, shower and eat, and feel refreshed, happy, positive, and ready to work. I must admit that I find it much easier to stick with going to the gym now that I work my own hours from home—I’ve been going consistently for more than two years now. Back when I was employed, I would last about six months and usually stop when things got a bit stressful with work and commitments. But blogging full-time lets you manage your life as you like.

Making the most of it

Even if you are currently working full-time, or part-time, as well as blogging, you can still make time for yourself and utilize what freedom you do have. Maybe plan something for the evening after work, or the weekend, or book a day or two off. We all have limits on our freedoms, but most people fall well short of utilising what it is they have got.

Many people get stuck in the rut of living to work. We want stability for ourselves and our families, and we can easily become obsessed with this. However we must sometimes take time out to smell the roses.

You will probably work better and more efficiently—on your blog, and in your job if you have one—if you look after yourself more in this way.

Final thoughts

So go, get your thinking cap on and plan something for the near future. If money is an issue, it could even be a picnic or a walk somewhere nice.

The important thing is how you spend your time. Life is for living, and we only get one shot at it.

Jon Rhodes is a successful blogger and affiliate marketer from the UK. He strongly advocates ethical affiliate marketing, which he firmly believes is the best strategy for long term success. Learn his secrets to making money online at his blog Affiliate Marketing Tips.

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. Hi Jon,

    Agreed with your view points but I guess at times it’s hard to have a 100% break from the blogging world as the blog ideas might just hit anytime, anywhere! Once a blogger, constantly a blogger (at least in the mind).

    Cheers!

  2. If I ever get to the full time blogging realm I’ll need to make sure I take a walk to the beach once a day… that is a long way off though!

  3. One thought i remembered after reading this post is Change of work is a rest..as a full time bloggers we should follow this thought

  4. I have been really hard on myself about working all day every day, especially since I’m just starting to blog professionally and all of the conventional wisdom says that it takes more effort to get something moving than it does to keep it moving. But the unlike prior jobs, this doesn’t feel like work. I think that’s why it’s so easy to work all the time.

    But you’re right. The sustainable thing, if we want to blog for years to come, is to rest and enjoy life so that we maintain our sanity and resist burnout.

    • Hi Sarah,

      I definitely agree with you. I work all day because I absolutely love what I do. Blogging doesn’t feel like work at all. It’s like my favorite past time, lol.

      I must admit though that I’ve gotten in a bad routine of staying up late and not getting enough rest. I definitely need to adjust and exercise some discipline in that area.

      I’ve experienced burnout several times before and it’s not fun. I’ll be taking Jon’s advice and start taking better care of myself.

  5. Any full time blogger who wish to be successful, first thing he needs is to be PASSIONATE about the thing which he wants to blog. If you want to be a professional blogger, that means you should be very very much PASSIONATE. It is only than your blog would be having quality content with regular updates.

  6. You are absolutely right it is dam difficult to manage a balance between blogging and living. Some people live to blog and some other blog to live; this is the main difference in approaches in blogging. Usually our younger lot is crazy in blogging and they enjoy blogging, they eat blogging and even they sleep blogging while people like me the middle-aged ones try to allocated a fixed amount of time for blogging and situtation goes hellish if someone middle-aged do part time blogging with a full-time job and it goest more hellish if he or she has a family and at the end the situation gets worst if the blogger is a man and he has a beatufiul wife. How come he would manage all this in twenty four hours.

  7. All bloggers need freedom for blogging and that sound the most amazing chance for success! One thing I came to realize is that without a freedom, you can’t have the CONFIDENCE! We need full time to make things in an extreme fascinating way to readers. Thanks a lot you helped. Sounds very encouraging to me!

  8. You are right Joh! Blogging isn’t something with a limit of time; I think a freedom of having it at full time sounds the better for improvement and knowledge of learning more new things! The more the time you will have, the more you will gather quality tips and being more creative and innovative in your blogging! It is much working to those who know the reason why they became bloggers and that is what we all need. Thanks a lot for sharing. I find this so much inspiring and encouraging, keep up!

  9. Blogging ideas hit my mind everytime. When I am on my computer playing games, chatting with friends or away from my PC, i always manage to get something different to try with my blog.

    Blogging has become my life. Can’t live without logging in to my blog. I love writing and do it a lot. Maybe because it enhances my personality and I have become more confident than before with blogging. :)

  10. Jon,

    Thanks so much for this post. Taking time to myself is really what I need to incorporate more into my daily routine. I’ve always had that ‘workaholic’ trait in me, and now that I blog full-time it’s much more apparent.

    I will be taking your advice, at least to get out of my office and go walk around my neighborhood for about 30/mins a day. My back will definitely thank me for it, lol.

    Thanks for sharing this with us!

    Ti

  11. Jon, congrats on your guest post! I agree that self-care is incredibly important for our personal health and well-being, but also for our productivity and creativity.

  12. So true, Jon. My partner and I both work from home and find that a short break every month gives us some much-needed inspiration. As you suggest, we start to plan the next as soon as we return so we always have something to look forward to. It’s amazing how ideas start to flow once you’re out of your normal environment, and how problems get put into perspective.
    As for spending some time out during the day, Jelly coworking events have been multiplying around the world over the last couple of years. They offer free workspace and wifi and some company to work with, and are a great, laidback way to share help and experiences with other freelancers and small business owners. Also a good way to try out coworking before committing yourself!

  13. What a timely post! I took a week off with my wife so we could bond with the little one. We initially were going on a vacation, but we opted to just catch up on rest and hit events and seminars that we couldn’t if we were at work. Thanks for the reminder!

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