My Phone Number is Unlisted
As a blogger, do you ever feel sort of odd that anyone and everyone from your past and present can find you, learn all about your current life, and figure out how to contact you easily, with just a click of their mouse?
I do a little. My phone number really is unlisted. I have one family member who I’d like to avoid, so I’m unlisted. I’d rather she not know how to contact me, and I especially don’t want her knowing where I live. However, recently, someone from my past did contact me, and it made me realize that as a blogger, an unlisted phone number is small change; I’m just not that hard to find.
The person who contacted me was not some good pal I had back in the day either, or some cute story like a cool ex boyfriend looking me up, it was someone I hadn’t seen since the age of maybe 12, and I could have gone the rest of my life with it that way.
The person who contacted me knew a lot about me, which is not that hard a task if you know how to use Google. At this point, I’ve been blogging and doing web copy for so long, that I’m running pages and pages long on search engines. Obviously I’m not as popular a search as some folks are, but I’m around enough that you can learn a lot about me with one search. It felt weird to know this person knew all about me, but that I knew nothing about her.
So, how do you deal with being all over the web? Here’s what I will and won’t do online:
I will:
- Use my full name.
- Say the state I live in.
- Share pictures or videos of my world - so long as they don’t give away my street sign or the front of my house or something.
- Talk about my life pretty honestly (see below for what I won’t discuss).
- Share my opinions, even if I think others might not agree. That’s blogging folks; also, I’m like that in the real offline world too so…
I won’t:
- Give my phone number anywhere online.
- Give my address.
- Give random personal info - bank accounts, social security, etc.
- Name exact places I’m going - i.e. I’ll say, “My son and I are taking off to the park” but not, “My son and I are taking off to Bush Park in downtown Salem, Oregon.”
- Use full names of other people I know in my offline world - either past or present. That’s not cool. For example, I might say, “I used to have this friend named Bob, he was awesome…” but not, “I have this friend Bob Brown in Albuquerque who works at…” That’s not my info to give. I know some bloggers do share info like this, but it makes me uncomfortable.
- Share everything: For example, I won’t blog major family issues. I’ll say, “I don’t like this person” or “I try to avoid so and so” but I’d never say, “My son’s dad cheated on me with ten girls and spent three years addicted to the sauce” - he didn’t, by the way, but you see what I mean. Why get so personal? Yeah, I get miffed with the ex, but being all vindictive online is sort of petty and lame in my opinion. Again, I know bloggers who will give everything away, but talking serious smack about people (ex evil mother-in-law excluded) is just not something I do.
What it all comes down to:
I don’t have many past demons. If I did, it’s very likely I wouldn’t be working online. I’ve been pretty lucky in that I don’t have a bunch of ex mates I parted badly with. Except for one early overly dramatic high school boyfriend, I always got along pretty well with an ex after a break up. I don’t have any weird old friend dramas to deal with or enemy co-workers from past jobs. All in all, I can only think of one or two people from my past who I’d rather not hear from, and there’s nothing I’m trying to keep hidden in my past (like say, illegal activity).
If you’re considering blogging full-time, it might be smart to consider your past and future contacts and behaviors. If your past is littered with oodles of people you’d rather not hear from, or you’ve done super shady stuff; stuff that you don’t want broadcast online, then blogging might not be for you. If you’re uncomfortable being easy to find, then blogging is absolutely not for you.
What do you think? Are you uncomfortable with the thought of being all over the Internet and easy to find? AND how do you keep your life somewhat your own, even if you have an online presence?
Repeat To Self: Food, Sleep, & Exercise Are Not Time Wasters
We’ve got two major time wasters leftover from last week. I’m saving my worst sin, “Getting side tracked while posting” for last. Today let’s talk about work breaks and everyday life stuff, like sleep, meals, and exercise.
Breaks, sleeping, eating, and exercise are things I don’t have a lot of time for when I’m in full work mode, so I tend to consider them time wasters. However, they’re not really time wasters, are they? If I avoid them, my work suffers. Obviously we can function on very little sleep, food, and exercise when we want, but it’s just not healthy. Sometimes I’ll work so hard on the weekends, I’ll skip two mealtimes and not even realize it. Or at least I used to. Here’s how I’ve been running things for the last few weeks.
Rules I made for myself:
Never eat at the computer. Never. I don’t care if I have a deadline or not, if you’re going to eat, take a break and eat, then get back to work. Then you get to eat and take a break - double them up.
Set the timer for meals. Because I’m bad about eating on the weekends, I started setting my cell phone timer to go off at dinner and lunch. This has worked pretty well. Twice I turned it off, and since I was in the middle of something, went back to work, and forgot it went off, so I had to add in a new rule; when it goes off, I save what I’m doing and get up from the chair.
Exercise like it’s a normal day. On weekdays (when I don’t work full-time) I exercise in the mornings, plus my son and I usually go for a long walk each day, and in the evenings play soccer or Frisbee at the park. I never used to exercise on the weekends because there’s just no time. However, I realized that I feel more energized on the weekdays, and thought, hey, maybe it’s the darn exercise. That said, I decided to keep my regular exercise routines somewhat on the weekends. I cut out the long walk, but I do still ride my bike, and although my son is with his dad on the weekends, the ex lives next door, so I just go borrow Cedar for some evening park play on at least one weekend day.
Take normal breaks: It’s not smart to sit at your desk for hours on end. I will though, so I made up a rule that every four posts I get up and walk around for at least five minutes, but I aim for ten minutes. During my little breaks I’ll do boring stuff like throw in laundry or wash some dishes; dull but a good break from sitting. I also do some desk stretches.
Sleep: I don’t tend to sleep much on the weekends, and I haven’t been exactly successful at finding a way to make me go to bed. Really, I’d rather work than sleep on the weekends. Bad; I know. It’s also not productive, once you’re too tired, you’re just hitting the keyboard all helter skelter style. I’m one of those who can function well on very little sleep. Even when I’m super tired, I only sleep about five hours a stretch (at most). My current goal is simply to go to bed when I’m tired. Once I stay up past the point of tired I hit a new stride and end up staying up.
What’s working. Since I implemented my new eat, sleep, exercise, and break goals, I’ve been doing ok. Except for on the sleep issue. Since I’m not perfect, I have to take what I can get, and hopefully formulate a new sleep plan. Do you skip sleep when you’re in full-time work mode, or are you worse about skipping out on something else, like exercise?
What are your goals for a healthy lifestyle when you’re blogging full-time?
Actual time wasting activities you might be interested in:
- Not knowing what to blog about first
- EMAIL!
- Moderating and responding to blog comments
- Forums
Wasting Time While Blogging
We all waste time at work sometimes, and usually a little time wasted does no harm. However, I literally have no time to waste. I get two full days to work, period, each week. I’m a single work-at-home mama, who homeschools, so time is tight. My son’s dad has our son Friday evenings through Sunday evenings which is when I do the bulk of my work – that by the way means; I try to get everything done for the upcoming week (currently about 3 articles and enough posts for around 10 blogs). It’s near impossible. Actually it is impossible. I’ve never, not once, had a week where I get it all done on the weekend.
Partly, this is because I’m working with a small amount of time, but also I waste some of my time. Last week I made a list of all the ways I waste time.
- Not knowing what to blog about first.
- Email, or should I say EMAIL!
- Moderating and responding to blog comments.
- Breaks during work hours.
- Getting side tracked while posting.
- Forums.
- Sleep, meals, and exercise.
- Twitter.
Some of these problems are larger than others. I also jotted down some solutions, including some solutions directly related me only having two days to work in the first place.
Over the next couple of days I’ll be posting my solutions – and how they’re working. I put some into motion this weekend. If you’re wasting time in the same ways that I do, or if you’re a single work-at-home parent maybe my solutions will help you to improve your productivity too.
What ways are you wasting time during work hours?
How to Take a Break from Your Blog
It doesn’t hurt to take a break from your blog every now and then, especially if you’re in a blogging rut. I know sometimes I’m not sure what I want to say some days, or I have blogger’s block. After blogging about the same topic for months, even years, you might want to step back or take a break from your blog. What follows are some tips for doing just that:
- Bring in some guest bloggers - One thing I learned is how other bloggers are more than willing to step in for you. The good thing about guest bloggers is how they give you a break, but they also bring in a fresh perspective. Read their posts for new ideas.
- Take a day off - Yeah I know. We’re supposed to blog every day or we’ll lose traffic. While I agree with that to some extent, I also believe that one day with no post won’t scare anyone away permanently.
- Post a week’s worth of posts ahead of time and take a week off. It’s difficult to take a week off when blogging, but if you schedule a week’s worth of posts ahead of time, you can take some time off.
- If you’re having blogger’s block offer up a link love post. Visit your favorite blogs in your niche and discuss what’s going on there. Don’t forget links!
- Post a fun video or funny cartoon - Who says blogging has to be nothing but words. If you can’t think of anything to say, find something else that will do!
There’s nothing wrong with needed to step away from your blog, even for a day or two. You talk about the same thing day in and day out, it’s easy to see how one can suffer from burnout. Don’t be afraid to ask a guest blogger to step in or even blog off topic for a day. It might do a world of good.
What do you do when you need a break from your blog?
Is Blogging Really This Dangerous?
My pal Kori sent me this piece from the New York Times a couple of hours ago. Scary stuff - go read it, then come back and we’ll chat.
Honestly, this article sort of freaked me out. While I do love blogging, this article covered a lot of the negatives. Long hours, the constant story hunt, links, networking, no time to eat when I’m in full on work mode, and more. Some of this stuff is scarily true.
It’s worse when you’re on someone else’s dime too. I remember blogging just for me, back in the day. The big difference was that if I felt like stopping, taking a break, I could. I did. I do remember blog breaks. Now, blogging for others, supporting my son with blogging, I rarely have time to breathe when it’s work time. I just don’t stop.
Recently (last month) I realized that something had to give. I sat down with my schedule to think things over. Among other things I went down to part-time at one position and dropped another gig altogether. We’ll have less money immediately, but in the long run, I’ll be more productive at the blogs I’m keeping.
I have some other ideas as well. If you’re a frazzled blogger here are some things that may work:
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