Living consciously, blogging consciously
I found myself thinking about an article I read a month ago on Zen Habits today, called “Wake Up: Are You Living Consciously?” The memory was prompted by a feeling of regret I had about pouring many hours of my time into a role at my university’s magazine — something I ended up getting very little out of in return.
About half-way through my commitment to the magazine I’d decided that I didn’t like the kind of writing I was doing, and that I no longer wanted to be a journalist. Yet I stayed on, wasting more time and energy on the project. It wouldn’t have been hard to find someone else to fill the role. My mistake was running on autopilot. I never took the time to evaluate what I was doing, so I continued to pour my time down the drain on something that contributed little to my life and what I want to do with it.
What does living consciously really mean?
Living consciously is about analyzing and evaluating your actions, habits and behaviors, rather than simply doing. In other words, asking why rather than doing without really thinking.
I think it’s vital to remember the importance of this is a counter-balance to all of the ideas on productivity being pushed around. We can get so caught up in being productive that we don’t take the time to evaluate whether the task we want to hone down to a fine art is actually worth doing!
And what does blogging conscioulsy mean, then?
Adapting this idea, it’s also worth considering whether you’re blogging consciously. Are you so caught up in doing everything, all the time, that you’ve forgotten to ask whether something is really worth doing?
If you feel like you might be blogging on autopilot, here are some important questions to ask yourself. The answers might help jolt you into consciousness.
Question to ask yourself about your blogging habits
- Evaluate why you started your blog in the first place. Are you getting what you wanted out of it?
- Ask yourself where you want your blog to be in one year. Are you moving it in that direction, or keeping it in one place? If your blog is stagnating, it’s time to shake up your strategy.
- Are the types of content you’re producing getting the results you hoped? If not, change them.
- Are you spending ‘blogging time’ on tasks that don’t really help your blog? Could you change the way you use ‘blogging time’?
- Is your blogging strategy working for you? If not, sit down and re-evaluate it.
- Is blogging enjoyable for its own sake, or a chore? If your blogging feels like a chore, it’s time to re-focus on the things that made it exciting in the first place.
