Tag: Blogging

What To Do When You’re Having Blog Burn Out
You know, I personally think that starting a blog isn’t so hard.
I mean, sure, you get jitters and you’ve been thinking about having one and you’re probably going to overthink everything. And I mean every. Single. Thing. But when you get past all the necessary blanks to fill, get that first post live and start interacting with fellow bloggers, you realize, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad!”
It’s kinda like learning how to swim. You’d think you’ll surely drown but the moment you cross one point to another without a rubber tube, you realize it’s so freaking easy.
The difficult part in blogging, at least in my case, is the maintaining and growing.
Maintaining a blog means writing, taking pictures, editing, and virtually mingling with other blogging peeps. And when you’re busy as heck with other stuff in your life (e.g., school, work) the maintaining part could get really tedious.
It’ll be like crossing the English Channel when you are only a novice swimmer.
End of story? Blog burn out.
I’ve had more than a couple of blogging burnouts in nearly two years, most of which I’ve thought of quitting altogether. Just recently, I’ve had two a few months past. But I’m getting the hang of this and I’ve learned a thing or two.
So today I want to share what I do when I’m having a blog burn out.
1 | Identifying the Problem
Burn outs don’t happen all of a sudden. You think they do but they don’t. It’s like the flu. So you want to recall what you’ve done recently that could have caused it. Were you working too much? Were you drowning in self-doubt?
I obsess myself with a lot of things blogging-wise (because, you know, overthinker) but particularly in my blogging schedule. I started posting spontaneously then I decided posting more “regularly”, which means almost every-freaking-day. It was at that point when I felt squeezed out of ideas to write about and I just can’t take it anymore. (Okay I feel like that’s a lyrics to something. But whaaat?) Now I know my limits and try to be mindful about it.
Knowing what the problem is can be helpful, not only to remedy yourself from the burn out but also to avoid it in the future. Because no one wants to feel bad by the same thing twice, amiright?
2 | Refueling My Motivation
I’m the kind of person who has unlimited source of inspiration but that gets clogged up inside me because I’m lazy and my motivation is limited. I usually end up just daydreaming about awesome things but I’ll be like, “Ehh, I’ll do it later.”
I know me. Which is why I find inspiration whenever I’m having a burn out. This could be going to Pinterest or visit my #goals blogs (aka: bloggers I want to be like in the future) and just scroll through the many awesome things I expose myself to.
I’d get super pumped up and inspired that I’ll start writing.
3 | Creating an Idea Dump
Blog burn out usually means having your creative juices frozen or worse dried up. So to me, it’s extremely important to take the time to simply sit down, have a notebook and pen on the table and just stare at them.
No kidding, I really just stare.
It usually gets me bored and I let my thoughts roam free. Going from this imaginary world that I hope I could make into a novel to random musings like, “Will little chicks ever learn to shut up?” (I was sitting in our backyard) And sometime later an idea will pop up.
Boredom does that, you know. Help you out creatively. And science has proven it!
Now this is just my ideal method for coming up with topics to write about. And it works great for me. If you want more, the amazing Allison from Wonderlass (one of my #goals blogs) has shared more ways to avoid running out of awesome content ideas.
4 | When All Else Fails, Take a Break
Sometimes a blog burn out just gets too overwhelming that nothing works anymore. So take a break!
No one will arrest you for taking a break from blogging. In fact, because most of the blogosphere denizens are super nice, you’ll be missed but they’ll understand.
And anyway, it’ll be good to you–mentally, emotionally and creatively. You’ll be free from that claustrophobic feeling that you get from the burn out and when you go back, you’ll be refreshed and so full of ideas!
I would know, I took a break last month. Went to Patrick’s rock. 😄
Burn outs are a pain in the backside but it’s not the end of the world! There are always gonna be ways to remedy them and avoid them in the future. Speaking of avoiding burnouts, I found this really awesome post from Melissa Hebbe where she shares some tips on avoiding blog burn out. I really like the bit about allowing yourself to fail.
Have you ever had a blog burn out? Do you do something about it that I haven’t mentioned? Share it in the comments below or tweet me!
Happy blogging, awesome peeps! 💃
November 5, 2016
What To Do If You Accidentally Press The Send Button
We have an overcast sky here and the rain just stopped. It’s so cozy and I don’t want to do anything today. But I got this crazy idea for a blog post and it cannot wait a day more.
Has your thumb ever had its own consciousness and suddenly you pressed send in the middle of typing your replies?
I did. Many times. My thumbs are unreliable. One time, I was writing a blog post using my WordPress app but I accidentally pressed “Publish” instead of that gear icon. Not only that, it got published twice. What the heck is wrong with my thumbs? I had to delete both abominations of a published post and continue writing, grumbling at my thumbs while doing so.
The same goes when I’m commenting on a post and when I hit reply/send midway, I’m like
I want to show an example made by my good blogger friend and inspiring human being Kiya of Flawed Silence.
She didn’t just handle the embarrassing pressed-send-accidentally scenario really well but I could also relate to her a lot. Then a couple of days ago, I found a rather cheeky solution.
Basically, all you have to do is to disconnect your Internet connection while the WordPress app is loading the unfinished comment/post. That’s what I did the last time it happened (which was last Wednesday), it would say error and go back to being a draft. If this happens on your computer, just close the window as fast as you can. Better to start again, I always say.
There you go! This is a completely random and not-so-helpful post but yeah. 😅
And if you can’t help it and it’s already out there, relax bro. Do what awesome Kiya did and coolly embrace your fingers’ clumsiness. There are far graver mistakes to make. So don’t worry, at the end of the day, you’re still alive. 😉
Happy typing, awesome peeps! 💃
August 21, 2016
The Flower with No Name
Hello awesome peeps! I haven’t been able to write any post for the weekend because I had the Headache of the Century. Paracetamol or any pain-relieving med didn’t work. So I applied vaporub on my head and across my scalp. Yep, I was so desperate to end the migraine that my hair smelling like Vicks didn’t even matter to me anymore.
And lo and behold, the morning after, the headache was gone! Thank God for Vaporubs.
But that’s not the story I want to share with y’all today. Today is Monday which means I have a kinda motivational story to share with you.
I’ve been staying in my grandparents’ house for two months now. But I’ve only noticed this plant last week.
See back when I was in elementary, this certain thorny flowering plant that I don’t know the name of was almost dead. Like probably four leaves and it’s kinda wimpy. I was surprised my mom brought that from her school. She planned to put it in front of the house but it didn’t bloom so she just left it in our sideyard to eventually die.
Then I saw something white in the middle of the pot. I thought it was a paper my sister threw or something but no. It was a flower. For some reason, I was so transfixed with this one white flower.
How could something dying even bloom?
I kept staring at it. At one point, my mom saw me and told me to be careful with the thorns. But you know, kids do the exact opposite. So I’d try to reach for that flower but I could never lift my hand with no scratch. They stung, even the leaves have sharpy thingies. And after so many attempts and too many little cuts, I gave up. The flower still there, guarded by the thorns.
And one day, I thought of watering the plant everyday, when I arrive after school. It was the first thing I did when I get home: grab a little bucket full of water and pour it onto the plant. My grandpa would ask me why I was doing it when it was obviously dying. And I always answer the same way. I just want to see if there would be more flowers.
At one point, I was too caught up in preparing for high school and then getting busy in high school that I forgot about the plant. But it was still there. During typhoons when we get the occasional flood, during dry season, and after so many Christmases. The plant was there.
You see, I think we have gone or will be going through something that the plant had. A wilted moment. The time when we will be our lowest. And oftentimes, we act bitter and thorny with the people around us. I would know.
I’ve thought plenty of times that I have been at my lowest. But then something else happens and there’s a new lowest in my life. And during those times, I wallow myself in bitterness and self-pity and dozens of “you wouldn’t understand.”
But recently, I came to realize that the people who love you? They might have seen one tiny flower somewhere within you. That’s why they didn’t give up on you. And that’s a start.
So I guess what I’m trying to say here is: embrace the love given to you. Know that even if you think you’re suffering from your problems alone, someone hasn’t given up on you.
So find the eleven-year-old Kate that will pour water into your wilted phase. That sounds cheesy but you know what I mean. 😉
I think I was already in my last year in high school when I noticed the plant again. It looked so different from when I saw it the first time. And I could still remember thinking, “Yay it bloomed!” And now, two years after, it still is.
Happy Monday, awesome peeps!🌻
Who’s the person who didn’t give up on you at your lowest?
How did he/she/they help you?
August 15, 2016
Where Do You Find Free Graphics or Fonts? | The Monthly Catalog
Happy August, everyone! How was your first week of the month? I hope good.
Now I don’t know what you plan to do for your August (you can share them below, of course!) but I also plan on helping you as much as I can. Remember my monthly catalog? Well…TADA!
Here’s the first ever monthly catalog in my blog which I consider calling KATE-alog! Genius, right? No? Okay…let’s move on.
So I hear you asking, what is the monthly catalog?
The Monthly Catalog is going to be a monthly feature here in my blog. Basically, I will scour the Internet to find and share to you a list of resources that I think may help you guys. So let’s get to it!
For the first ever Monthly Catalog (or KATE-alog! Still no? Okay.) I have come up with an amazing topic to make a list of (which you all know from the title): Where to find free graphics or fonts.
Before I was still ignorant of online copyrights and I have this notion that everything you see in the Internet is free. Now, I’m a nervous wreck when using graphics that aren’t mine. You just never know when the Internet police will knock on your door with a warrant, you know?
Back when I was starting the Blog Revamp project, I was really thinking about my blog’s aesthetics. I know I need to come up with my own blog graphics, one way or another. However, I was facing some problems.
+ I’m no graphic expert who can conjure pretty graphics from scratch.
+ I can’t afford a graphic designer to do it for me.
+ Microsoft cliparts and Comic Sans are not even options but…
+ Being the jobless student-on-vacation that I currently am, I can’t afford the pretty fonts some shops have for sale.
Or don’t I?
If you can’t afford the premium themes and glitteringly sophisticated graphics, worry not. I found a solution for me that I hope may be a solution for you too! So let me be clear: these aren’t The Ultimate Resources out there but these are what worked for me in the past couple of months that I’ve been using them.
Here are some websites I found that offer free graphics or fonts:
Behance. The creatives’ hub in the Internet. I usually use Behance for inspiration and free fonts. But they also have great graphics there. Type in ‘free’ in the search bar et voila!
Freepik. When it comes to graphic websites that offer freebies, this one is my first love. It’s my go-to for watercolor illustrations because they have fabulous ones and all for free! Those social icons on the right are downloaded from Freepik.
Design Cuts. I love how this site has “Freebies” as one of their main item in the navigation bar. And their freebies could go free for a very long time, which is great. Because I can’t download anything more than 20 MB with my crappy data connection. So I’m hoping to splurge-download when I go back to school.
Font Bundles. Oh my Clark Gable, this site is THE ULTIMATE FONT HEAVEN! Ahem. Pardon my sudden fangirling for fonts. Anyway, they have new free fonts every week. And just last week, they started giving away two free fonts every Wednesday too! And they’re nothing like the Chiller fonts, believe me.
Creative Market. I saw a lot of amazing deals in this site but that doesn’t change my uber-frugal mode at the moment since I’m still a jobless student. So I have to settle for freebies and they do have new ones every week. And the freebies are always fab. Who am I kidding, everything in the Creative Market are fab!
Creative Booster. Like the previous three mentioned above, this site usually sells graphics or fonts but I see the site as a Freebies Lounge. I discovered Design Cuts and Font Bundles because of Creative Booster.
So those are the sites I get free graphics and fonts that I use in my blog. One additional tip: Look at the licenses and terms of the freebies. Usually they are good for personal use, which is what I’m doing. But if you plan on using the freebies for commercial use, you really do want to look at the license and terms.
And remember: MS Clipart and Chiller are fun and all but don’t let them be your only options. There is a humongous amount of resources out there and some of them are free.
I really do hope this first Monthly Catalog (or—alright, alright. I’ll drop it already) was helpful to you guys.
Happy blogging, awesome peeps! 💃
August 6, 2016
Your Self vs Your Labels (and your “About Me”s)
Funny how this is Katie and that’s my nickname. via Google images (source) Read the article if you want to. It’s pretty fun.
Big-headed as it sounds, I can easily say that I’m a person one can’t describe in one word. That’s most likely why I have these hoards of different topics to discuss on this blog. I tried talking about just one main topic in another blog once. That blog didn’t live long. It’s still there somewhere in the depths of the web. Not active but merely existing. (Whoa, I feel like I just described Kronos.) Single niche blogs doesn’t work for me, although I read TONS of them.
It’s the same thing with my self.
I don’t see me as just one type of person. I am so many things that can’t be coherent in one single word. So imagine the difficulty I face when filling in those “About Me” in my different accounts in different sites. I have to think of something that’s short but could summarize the basics of me. It takes me, at most, a few hours. That About page in this blog? Yeah, it took somewhere around 45 minutes to an hour. But still.
Then after a few “About Me” filled out, I learned something: I could never summarize myself. It’s not possible.
And the same goes for other people. I truly believe that no one is just a nerd or just a jock or just a popular girl at school. You don’t need to be a tomboy just because you’re a girl who is “one of the guys”. Go act something childish that you love to do even if you’re supposed to be an adult. Like collect toys or read comic books.
And let’s face it: the labeling? It’s not just others’ fault. I see all these people who have let themselves be absorbed by their labels and I feel sad and frustrated at the same time. Why can’t one just embrace his entire being instead of that one thing that people thinks of first? That person is just making his own wounds deeper by not becoming more than just a label.
We all know, in courtesy of Shrek, that ogres have layers. But the thing is, we have layers, too. The difference between us and Shrek (other than the complexion and ears) is that there are times when it’s not easy for us to see those layers.
I’m a blogger, an avid reader, movie and music junkie, frequent Pinner, less frequent Tweeter, art enthusiast, probably an accountant-to-be, and, most of all, hopefully the first unicorn rider. And I still have more in myself to discover. My tombstone has to be as tall as the Washington Monument for them to completely summarize who I am. (Imagine hundreds of Washington Monuments in graveyards. Burial would have been nasty expensive. No wonder we have eulogies.) And so does everyone else.
So how about you? Who are you?
(And unless the answer is “Human” or “Person” or “Girl/Boy/Man/Woman” try not answering with one word.)
May 31, 2015