Some of us are workaholics, and like to spend hours working on our blog. Some people can do it, they can sit around for a long period of time and be alright putting in that amount of work for free. I know that when it comes to writing and designing, I will have sessions where I’m focused on them for a few hours at a time.
I’m somewhat of a perfectionist and often take extra time to make sure everything is as good as it possibly can be. It’s a good and bad thing to think the way I do about the “minor details.” But all is fine when it’s just one thing. What about when I have multiple things going on, and I want everything to be perfect?
With a blog, you never just have one thing happening at a time. There are a lot of things you need to do and a lot of time to spend. You can’t just can’t get everything done in a single sitting, or work on multiple things at one time. If you try to do that, you will not produce the best work you can. And the perfectionist in you will not stand for that.
So, are you doing too much?
It’s a desirable thing to get as much done as possible; to have the highest level of productivity possible in just one day. I know today I want to get two articles written, work on some WordPress development, reply to emails/comments, and market some things. That’s a lot to do, and I’m usually drained after writing those articles.
The problem is that the idea of blogging success will be achieved…one day is hurting many of us. We want that day to be today, right? How great would it be to just open your blog, find hundreds of new comments, dozens of new guest post submissions and thousands of dollars earned from affiliate links. These are all achievable things, and they have all been done before.
I want to do all of those things I mentioned today, but I know I won’t. And it should kill me, because I want that success now. But guess what I have learned?
There’s a tomorrow.
Some of us work like there isn’t a tomorrow and we have to be successful today. Is it really necessary to do all of the things on my todo list if just accomplishing one of them harms the rest of my workflow? No, it’s not. So I should save it for tomorrow.
Less is OK
I do believe that doing less work in a day is better than doing more. Why so crazy sounding you ask? Think of it like this:
- If you focus on just one, or a few things a day – time becomes less of an issue.
- Since you have that time, you can actually focus on one thing at a time, and not worry about other things.
- If you’re focusing on just one thing, you will produce better results as you will not be rushing through it to get to other things on your blog schedule.
- The better work you produce, the more you will understand the importance of working easier and you will be less stressful.
So really, if you want to succeed in blogging, you actually have to work less. The more work you do, the more harm you will do and the more time you will waste. Being the best blogger in your niche is all about having the most quality blog, and the fewer things you do, the higher the quality will be.
Success will be achieved faster by doing less
Sounds a little ironic, doesn’t it? It would make sense that if you get 10 things done in a day rather than 3, you will be creeping closer and closer to your success. But if you follow the principles I have talked about in this article, getting 3 things done rather than 10 will actually be a lot more beneficial.
Since you only did 3 things in your entire work day, which hopefully you spent plenty of time and attention on – you have the best work you can achieve. When you’re working on less, you aren’t worrying about running out of time, or wondering if you worked at your best. Because you did have time, and your focus was only on one thing at a time.
Or you can just do all 10 of those things you originally intended to do all in a single day. Rush it all into one day so you can get to your list of other crazy things for the next day. When you rush, you make mistakes. As a blogger trying to beat others out of “the top authoritative spot,” plenty of mistakes are already made; don’t make any more for yourself. Take your time.
So I ask you again: Are you doing too much?
There are so many things that we need to get done in order to accomplish our goals. But, the more we work to try to get all of these things done in just one sitting at the computer is the worst way to accomplish anything.
If you find that you have trouble figuring out where you want to start working on your blog, or feel like you are spending too much time working and seeing weak results – you’re doing too much. Cut back, do less, and I promise you will become a better blogger.
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?I am going to call this a well deserved piece of reminder. I think I was doing too much just 2-3 weeks ago – I was burning holes in my brains which is not good.
Whatever you said here totally makes sense. So we have two new blogging mantras: “Less is OK” and “There’s a tomorrow.” – isn’t that Ironic? Just last weekend we were talking about blogging not being easy and suddenly it seems so much more easier.
I hope you will share more tips on what not to worry about in posts to come. We need those. I really think I need to give up checking my stats – I’ve almost given up on that habit but let’s see what more can be take off from my list of to-dos.
That sounds like blogging ~ Do Less.
Damn! you sounds like Leo Babauta. haha
.-= King Sidharth´s last blog ..Meditation Weekend: What does your Meditation Corner Look Like? =-.
You are completely right about “Doing less is some times better than doing more”, I am actually from those guys who can work on more than one project in the same time using a pen and a paper for planing my day and setting priorities of projects I work on, but at the end the time is not enough or I am just finishing what ever I can and forget about eh small details which are in most cases important! (small doesn’t mean less important)
Time is changing, before … I remember that the quality was the most important thing when you do any job or work, these days (and this is the policy of some big companies) the time is he main factor (because they are investing big money) and then quality! which means if you can deliver the task on time and losing some of the quality is OK! and that was giving me so many problems, because I love to do my work in the best form and this takes time!
I hope that so many people out there read your post and learn something useful from it for their lives!
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..ComLuv new Theme, Traffic and more Exposure for CommentLuv Enabled Blogs =-.
I’m not a fan of multi-tasking. You can’t drive while talking on the phone (4 times more likely to get into an accident) or texting (8 times more likely), so I don’t think you can sustain this
“doing a lot of tasks at once in a day” thing.
I’ve actually tried it. It worked for a couple of weeks. Then, I just got so sick at my blog and doing all the article, forum, and other marketing that I stopped blogging for 3 months. So, I basically accomplished nothing.
So, if you ask me, I’ll say, FOCUS on your one freakin’ task before moving on. You can’t be a president before becoming a senator! (don’t even know if this is true…^-^)
.-= Andi | WebMarketerDepot´s last blog ..The Secret Formula to a Winning Blog =-.
A lot of great points made here! I am very guilty of pouring hours and hours into my blog and not always when needed, so much so that other parts of my life can begin to suffer.
Like you said, I need to remember that yes there is a tomorrow… Thanks for reminding me!
.-= Shannon O | Confessions of a Loving Wife´s last blog ..Our Love Story- Part 3: The First Date =-.
Sometimes I fall back into my dad’s way of thinking.”Working hard is what matters” Usually I am working hard but working smart to get more done.
There are days where I am in it and I like working on 3-5 lil projects at once, then there are days I don’t even want to look at my blog..lol
I work great under pressure and there are times I let that pressure build on purpose.
But I am big believer in if the task seems to be harder then usual then it is time to take a break or put it out, since good chance it is fine,,,we are all our own worst critics.
.-= John Paul Aguiar´s last blog ..SEO Tips For Your Twitter and Facebook Page To Rank You Higher On Google =-.
Focusing on fewer tasks and spending much time and effort on them is really better than doing many tasks and trying to finish them in 8 to 10 hours. Yes, there is always tomorrow to work on the next tasks. I personally work during weekends whenever I’m mentally and physically ready, so I am able to at least do less tasks during weekdays
.-= Julius´s last blog ..>When Sound is not an Option: A review of Vibrating Devices for Deaf People =-.
Work hard and play hard. Dedication to work doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to pour your time on your work and forgetting to enjoy. We must admit that there are also times in our life that we feel dull and burned out. So we need to take a break and reap the good harvest of our hard work.
Instead of doing every thing by yourself you should hire or outsource your work to someone.
You like designing and you enjoy it as well but if you have less time and more important work to do than I would suggest you to outsource such work to other people who are good in them.
.-= ZK @ Web Marketing Blog´s last blog ..MSM Video Series: How to find out what your members want before you launch =-.
I also believe that doing less is better but I think that it would not be a botehrsome that once you have established your blog to create anotehr one.
.-= Palabuzz´s last blog ..Arnel Pineda says sorry to National History Institute =-.
Yes i do encounter taking productivity in a wrong way. There are a lot of things we need to do and spend more time.We will not produce the best work as we can the perfectionist person will not will not stand for it. Eventhough were not perfect but we try our best to be close to perfect and to have a excellent output. I believe in the saying’s that practice makes perfect. Thanks for the tips that you’ve shared to us more power to your site! G_d bless
DEFINITELY some great points here. I have found that the best way to remain consistent with blogging is to only dedicate a small amount of time each day. Otherwise you can push yourself to hard and give up.
.-= Chris | best blogging sites´s last blog ..Five tips to avoid writer’s block for bloggers =-.
Timely; I’m going through this as I write this. In my brain at this very moment I have…
A backlog of blogs to read/comment
Several posts to write/publish
Comments to respond to
Email a must
SEO to do starting with post 1
Blog building since I’m in the middle of it.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED: Theme Customization Part 3 – Banner Advertising NOT for Sale! =-.
When you’re working on less, you aren’t worrying about running out of time, or wondering if you worked at your best. Because you did have time, and your focus was only on one thing at a time.
Australian Detox
.-= Australian Dtx´s last blog ..Silver Edition AGi =-.
Hey Alex, nice job man.
I agree that when we stop focusing on doing everything at one sitting we become more productive. I think this is a big point for Entrepreneurs in general because we always want to do everything all the time.
My philosophy is to F.O.C.U.S
Follow
One
Course
Until
Successful
Make a list of your top 10 tasks for the next day and number them in order of importance then focus on completing each task – one at a time. This is what I learnt from Brian Tracy and it works so well!
.-= Aaron Darko´s last blog ..Why I Became A Young Entrepreneur =-.
Yes, I am doing to much, sometimes it is unmanagable. If I did less I could focus more on quality.
I like the idea of looking at your categories and blogging the most about that – it’s good inspiration. I have been torn between the direction of what my newest site should be focused on and after reading this and a little steve palina yesterday, i think personal is how i want to go next.
I would actually agree that doing less is more to a point. I think you’re only considering a one person blog though. The purpose of our business isn’t blogging and doesn’t have anything to do with blogging, other than content creation and SEO, but we have up to 5 people running different aspects of it. Some people post, some edit the blog site itself, some come up with ideas, etc. The point is that no one really overworks themselves or gets caught up in too many things at once. The combined forces of 5 people doing a little bit at a time has huge impact on the blog and subsequently, our traffic.
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