Remember how I said I’d be writing for 31 days straight about girl power?
Well… I do plan to write about it for 31 days. Consecutively? Not so much.
I am generally a big fan of deadlines. Like, to the point I included it in my Twitter bio. And my college application essay. And a lot of cover letters. Not because I wanted to impress anyone (OK, maybe a little, but the point of all of those things is to impress people!) but because I genuinely thrive on deadlines. It can be a love-hate relationship, of course, and I usually have to give myself an earlier deadline just to make sure I finish a project in time for the real deadline. But in the end it’s worth it.
So I figured working with a daily blogging deadline would be good. And the first week or so was good. Forcing myself to write every day provided the pressure I needed to explore and develop ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise. Also, simply getting in the habit of writing daily will probably encourage me to work on the blog and post more frequently going forward. (Sidenote: The blogger that inspired the 31-day challenge actually did her month of blogging on “lovely limitations.”)
But the intensive writing schedule, combined with my tendency to over-research, over-write, and over-think everything, started to conflict too much with other priorities, like a freelance article with a very real deadline. I’m a night owl, but staying up numerous nights till two in the morning is not sustainable. Although initially setting a limit for myself was a valuable exercise, I also had to know and respect my own limits. Hence my less-frequent posts.
As I like to tell myself (in a very loose paraphrase of Mark): blogging is made for woman, not woman for blogging.
So, what to do now? Definitely more thoughts about girl power. I have so many more ideas to pursue and I have so appreciated the insightful and supportive feedback. So stay tuned for 31 days’ worth of posts (and more!) on girl power. I’ll probably throw in an occasional look-at-my-cute-baby post and the like, but we’ll get there eventually.
I know I’m not exactly following the structure of the Write 31 Days challenge, but I’m pretty sure I can get away with it. ‘Cause guess what? There is no blogging police. The stuffy editor in me sometimes wishes there were, but the blogger in me is grateful there isn’t. The only people I feel accountable to is my readers–and you people are just lovely. So stick around for 31 days. Or not at all. Or longer. Again, no police. Isn’t it a beautiful thing?
Do you love deadlines? Love-hate them? Hate them? Have you ever taken on a project and then abandoned it or switched gears?
spifftacular. 
Love them. And love your blog! Keep up the good work … or don’t. I’m not the blogging police. 🙂
I definitely have a love/hate relationship with deadlines, but mostly I love them because they make me do stuff! But with blogging, I tend to change my deadlines a lot because you’re right: no police around to tell me what to do. Just the way I like it 🙂
You are your mother’s daughter (for better or worse). 😉 I do the same thing, not necessarily with blogging, but with other things like scripture reading, or maybe exercise. I set up a goal or a “program” of how I’m going to do them, then I get frustrated if things don’t go according to plan. I’ve learned that the plan, program, deadlines, etc. help me do better than I ever would have otherwise, and that it’s also okay if things don’t go according to plan because, you’re right, there’s no police of any kind (insert blogging, reading, exercise, etc.) checking up on me. Thank goodness, I would have been arrested long ago!