I Hate Writing Posts Like This…

This week I have failed to meet my weekly Wednesday deadline.

It’s the time of year when personal life has caught up and got in the way of my consistent blog writing schedule.

Although I have a new post that I could have published, taking the honesty test I knew it was an unfinished product, and I’d just disappointed myself if I shared something that wasn’t quite ready to read.

Often I see bloggers talking about writing posts that they intend to publish that same day, they have my respect, but I can never work in such a rushed and time pressured manner to produce an outcome.

How I work is by having everything planned and scheduled so that there is time to breath and make changes before you see the final release.

My work is normally done weeks, sometimes months in advance – plenty of space to draft, proof read and polish in anticipation of that final publication date.

But life has got in the way and it’s left me feeling pressured as I get behind – I’ve neglected my own writing and not even had time to respond to all the comments on my last post.

To follow my own advice from 10 Reasons Why I Unfollowed Your Blog

“Respond to your damn comments”

And to reassure you I will in time, but as much as I love doing this, family and other commitments have to come first.

Family comes first

My family are always my first priority, they define the rest of the other priorities in my life which essentially are:

a) I am able to support them and pay the bills.

b) I look after my health to ensure I can continue to function as a family man.

If I don’t fulfil these tasks, then it impacts my ability to impact that first priority – family comes first.

Some people raise an eyebrow when I say I make time for the gym when I have the demands of two young children, but I’ve never seen this time as a luxury, but as an important factor in keeping myself functioning like eating or going to the toilet.

Figuring out something new

Then there is work – for those who aren’t aware, recently I’ve made a bit of a career change, and what can I say it was the best move I’ve made in years, and I love that I no longer dread getting up on Monday.

Although I enjoy my role, my job is really busy and I’ve worked through a few lunch times, which tradiontally was when I used to spend a bit of sneaky time drafting out my blog post ideas, and making a start on the writing.

No longer having this space has meant my regular habit has fallen apart, and it’s made me unproductive when it comes to writing.

I don’t know if or when my job will settle down, and if I ever will be able to get back to how I used to do things, if not then I’ll have to figure out something else.

I touched on bloggers who can always do a rushed schedule and said I could never do something so uncoordinated – well this post contradicts what I claimed, I’ve managed to write these words in a public library, for same day publication, as I kill time between waiting for trains.

Priorities…

It’s gutting to never have enough time in the day, as I reach forty, I have so many ambitions. This is a bitter irony compared to my twenties where I had lots of free and no ambition.

I have lot of ideas where I want to take my writing, and things I want to do with this blog, but unfortunately it’s all about priorities.

Please don’t take this post as complaining about my life – it’s not. I used to have a nihilistic view of the world, so I have the greatest clarity when I say, despite how hectic it is, I love my life more than ever.

But damn is it busy.

I hope to get back on track on my regular Wednesday schedule soon.

Thank you for reading, as always…

Wishing you the best in your success

James @Perfect Manifesto