I failed at blogging and know why - What I've learned since 2017

In March 2017 I started this blog site with my first post. I had the goal of documenting my journey and progress to becoming a professional artist. I wrote 8 blogs over that year. I did not commit fully. I failed. My first blog was about the importance of making a decision, referring to my decision of pursuing art as a profession (click here to read). It was an important decision and I am so very grateful to have had the courage to do it. As important making decisions is, planning well is just as vital. Failing is most often a result of the lack of planning. I know what I could have done better with my blogging. I could have planned better. I could have planned out blog topics beforehand, scheduled writing time, written them in advance and published on schedule and made sure I had time to do them.

I did not realize how important this kind of planning was four years ago, but I am realizing now. I am planning. As well for planning my blog writing I'm also planning for my personal time as an artist. I mean really planning, with decided time slots each week, not just post its and mental notes! I want to plan weekly skill building sessions, plan what personal projects I am going to work on and schedule the time set aside to work on them. I even am planning my social media postings in advance.

For a fast thinking, easily distracted butterfly mind like mine, helper tools are a must when embarking on something like this. I just started using Todoist for tasks and list making, I use Contentcal for social media scheduling and I want to look into Rescuetime for time management. Also documenting all this in my blog helps me keep this official and me accountable. Todoist and Rescuetime are planning tools I saw recommended by Colleen Doran in the196 issue of Imagine FX magazine (my favorite magazine and a very cool artist)

PS. The illustration is totally unrelated to the topic except it is from 2017, and one of the first ones I made that year. It was inspired by the artwork in Farm heroes saga, by the Swedish developer King.

I’ll make retrospective post in one month, and yes, I’ve added a task for that and a reminder in my Todoist!

Thank you again for visiting and reading

Heida

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