BLT - Blogging, Love & Time

Written by Meredith Elizabeth

According2Meredith: About Meredith

The Blessing of Blogging:

I share what I’ve learned in life. My unique view is of an adopted person who has unofficially adopted two boys through marriage. I’m going through Human Services educational program for a future career as a Social Worker. Blogging allows me to digest my academic lessons as well as the lessons that are revealed to me through life. Due to the “accountability” factor, I hold myself to what I write to maintain my character and integrity.   Blogging gives me the platform to lift people up who are struggling. I can encourage people who perhaps have no other source of hope. I also get to brag about my kids and my husband which in turn increases my positive reflection on my day to day life. I strive to be content with my life on a daily basis. 
 

What’s in it for me? 

 

I am not blogging for income yet. I'm not hiding advertising in my posts. I am networking to learn from the pros. I’m enjoying e-meeting people. It is a blessing to connect with people who can relate to my writing as well as be exposed to people with different views. I am motivated to keep my site traffic steady and my Alexa ratings in the 6K-8K range.

 

Status so far:

I started to actively promote my blog in April of this year. I’ve made my Alexa standard since taking those measures. I’ve had one guest writer and I guest wrote for a business blog in England. I spend a minimum of 4 hours per day on maintaining my blog and writing posts. I’ll always consider myself a student of this venture. [I look to Terri for some guidance. =)]

{ I have a love affair with calendars. My earliest memory of using a schedule/calendar was during midterms and finals of sophomore year of high school. I plotted out the amount of time I would allot to study for each subject on a particular day a certain amount of days out from the exams. I broke down the exam content into topics and approximated how much time I should devote to each portion. I had the study schedule broken down into 15 minute intervals. And this was all hand written with lined paper and a ruler. I know, "so old-school." Later, when I met my husband and his two boys, I used Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to make up a proposal for how we should spend time together. I came up with a time management strategy so we could give our combined 3 kids (at the time) alone time and family time. I also carved out time for just "adults." Every plot of time was strategic and meaningful. It screamed "woman." =)    My husband was willing to try it. But he, having a different childhood background, did not warm up to the schedule. He didn't like having all his time spoken for. As many financial advisers would say to calculate the budget to zero (without buffer), that was also my mindset about our precious time. As much time, thought and formatting I put into that "beautiful" family schedule, it went by the wayside. The kids loved it (naturally), but again, husband lacked buy-in. Who could blame him? This was new territory for him. Well, time went on. The kids were getting more needy and we, the adults, seemed to be spread thin. Since we hadn't budgeted for the time investment with our kids, things were getting out of hand. As I understood it, the kids preferred our planning to give them our time, but most importantly, as a way to get guaranteed attention. 
 

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Funny enough, fast-forward about for years, my husband has come around to saying that we should come up with another schedule. And like the saying goes, I just let him think it was his idea. (wink) I lost sight of the power of letting others take initiative. Actually, that is a big theme (I'm finding out) in Human Services. The professionals are trained to help clients with their problem solving goals. That strategy allows for more helper-client synergy and teamwork.  It's really brilliant, actually. I went wrong with the time schedule from the start. I didn't get him involved with the creative process and therefore, there was no ownership or buy-in.} These days, I still favor schedules. I thrive off of order. But I have one more kid, a part time college career and a part time blogging career to juggle in-between marriage and family life. I don't know how I could get stuff done without an agenda.  When I was doing full-time college, I'd plug my syllabus dates into Google Calendar AND create a Task List. I'd religiously decide when I'd do the assignments ahead of their due date. As always, the set up took a time investment. But, operating off that task list made my life a breeze. I knew when I was on target and that felt empowering. So, that is why I bring my calendar habits into my blogging life. I could spend endless hours of my day on my blog at the expense of everything else. Instead, I put time limits on my activities. I have boundaries for my energies. This is what I do over the course of the week: 
 

 
As I go along, I am learning less about the statistics and more about how to keep ongoing conversations with my audience. I’m learning that a lot of blogging success is rooted in relationship success. The more I infuse my growing relationship sense into blogging, my audience should see improvements.