Beginner Blogger

I resigned from full-time employment last week. The desire to work on some personal projects (this site is one of them) create a better lifestyle for myself and to continue my studies and practice in blogging, online marketing and social media outweighed being employed full-time any longer.

Blogs are a solo venture most of the time and with all this time and freedom now within my hands it can sometimes be hard to keep myself under pressure and get things done 100% of the time like most jobs where you work under someone barking instructions at you.

So the question begs – How do you keep yourself under pressure and perform with your blog?

In the corporate 9-5 world there was always pressure applied. It wasn’t intense, but it was there. You have to show up on time and you couldn’t just not do any work. If you did poorly or under-performed based on your expectations you would run the risk of being warned or potentially being fired.

This doesn’t happen when you run a blog. You rule, you’re the boss. So how do you keep yourself under pressure and motivated so you get that feeling of ‘this must get done’?

Here are my top ways of keeping myself under pressure and performing:

1. Setting myself goals

Every month I set myself end of month goals. This lays out a clear plan of exactly what needs to get done for the month. No second guessing, it’s there black and white – I just have to DO it!

2. The fear of being a sloth

I can remember when I was studying at university a few years ago – as soon as holidays came around I would pretty much hibernate till uni started again. Maybe it was a lack of interests or I was partying too much but I never really did anything constructive during the breaks.

I can’t afford to do that now – I’ve given myself a year to make something happen since leaving my job and give myself the lifestyle I desire. If I don’t do ANYTHING during this time I will have just wasted a whole year and have a massive gap in my resume with nothing to prove when, and if, I need to go back in search for another corporate 9-5 job ‘working for the man’.

My body is still in 9-5 mode so I’m still getting up at 6.30am automatically, even without my alarm. I’ve decided I’m going to keep getting up early and not sleep in just because I don’t HAVE to be anywhere. That’s not entirely true though – I have many things I want to get done and sleeping in and wasting the day away isn’t going to help. As soon as I get 7-8 hours sleep I get up and start my working day!

3. Proving to others I can do this

Maybe it’s a bad trait of mine, but I like proving others wrong when they doubt me. It’s improving but I don’t think many people, especially the older folk (my parents for example) really understand blogging, its potential and power it currently has and will have in the future. It’s already proven that blogs make the best websites in terms of SEO and rank higher in google than say a company website.

Not only that, blogs are being referred to as ‘new media’ where TV, newspapers etc are being referred to as ‘old media’ and blogs will be the main place where everyone will get their news (linking from social media resources like facebook and twitter).

In my situation it’s also hard to let others know what I’m doing. I usually just say ‘online marketing’ just to simplify things but even that gets funny looks. Maybe I should say ‘I’m becoming a teacher and writer’ might sound more impressive.

It doesn’t bother me what others THINK of me, but I look forward to be able to show others what I have done with my time when they have been thinking I’m doing nothing and have been ‘chilling out’. Which isn’t the case at all

4. Not letting readers down

I’ve got a following now, people actually visit my blog and some wonder what’s going on when I haven’t posted for a while. I don’t want to let these people down by not posting for a long period of time. I want to help others, not let them down so this is a big driving force for me.

5. I need to eat

I’ve left work in search for a better lifestyle and to pursue a career online. If I don’t work at it, and work HARD in order to make a bit of money to get by – I won’t be able eat and I will have to go back in search for another full time job which right now I really don’t want to do. I left work to pursue a lifestyle change and an online career and that’s what I’m going to do. No-one is going to stop me!

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I realise a lot of my motivation factors have to do with my current situation of being unemployed now – however, blogging is still a solo mission where you work for yourself. You need to motivate and sometimes get yourself under pressure in order to perform.

So how do you keep yourself under pressure in the blogging world to make sure you get things done?

Are you currently working ‘for the man’?

How much time do you get to spend on your blog?

Write them in the comments below – I would love to know and I’m sure others would too

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