It’s been a couple or several months since you have started your blogging website.
This is a big achievement and you should congratulate yourself.
You have learned so much and your writing is improving with every article that you post.
This is very exciting and it feels really good.
But there comes a point where the intense focus will start to fade away.
For some it will be couple of months, for others it will be several months but there will come a point where the mental fatigue will take its toll and your focus will start shifting to other things.
At that point you will start asking yourself how to stay focused on your blog.
Related: Starting Online Blog? – And How To Stay Sane
Reasons For Your Focus Fading Away
“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.” – Paulo Coelho
There are many reasons why focus will start to fade away:
1. Mental fatigue – this is a very real thing. When you start a new blog, chances are you do not have a lot of experience so the learning curve is very steep. You are learning so much and your mind is working almost constantly. If you do not take breaks and allow for proper rest periods you will get mental fatigue very quickly and that will only cause further delays.
2. The realization that a successful blog website is a long term commitment – I know, for the most part we all know it and yet we are still taken by surprise how all the effort and time commitment is not going to pay off till much later in time. Some people just lose their patience and motivation and just give up.
3. The pressure to come up with post ideas and maintain the publishing frequency takes a toll on you – again, in theory we all know that but then the pressure really gets to you. Depending on your publishing schedule, it feels like you always have to be thinking about ideas for the next post. This gets very challenging after a while.
4. The excitement of something new wears off – you might lose focus when your blog does not feel new and exciting to you anymore.
5. The intense learning curve starts to flatten now so it’s not as thrilling – Once you reach that stage that your website is set up and you are somewhat established in your routines, you are not learning as much, you might lose focus.
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How To Stay Focused On Your Blog
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
Now that we understand that this stage is normal, we can stop beating ourselves up for second guessing our motives and ideas and for losing our focus and start exploring some concrete steps that you can take to stay focused on your blog:
1. Maintain faith in your original ideas and motives
Try to go back to the beginning, remember how it all felt. Stay there for a while. Remember the excitement, the exhilaration, the hope that you felt?
No, you were not crazy or delusional. You had a great idea and great motives.
Don’t lose faith in them.
Keep going back to that beginning as often as you need to be reminded of your vision, hopes, and dreams for your blog.
2. Set clear long term and short term goals
If you already haven’t done so, take the time to develop clear long term and short term goals.
Especially the short term goals will allow you to stay focused. They will help you stay grounded and they will provide bases for those times when you feel stuck and unmotivated.
3. Create an environment for success
This includes many components:
- working space or home office – take the time to designate a working space in your home where you can be comfortable without distractions. Having that designated space will allow you to stay focused in a productive mind frame
- set boundaries – regardless of who you live with, make sure that you set boundaries so that it allows for time when you can focus on your blog without distractions
- technology and equipment – have the necessary equipment to be able to achieve what you have planned. I wouldn’t recommend starting a blog if you do not have a desktop or a laptop. While not impossible, it would be extremely difficult to create your website and write your posts on a cellphone
- develop a supportive system – find a network of people that will help you stay focused and motivated. Find a few individual that will support you and cheer you on when things get tough
Related: Organizing Your Home Office Ideas – That Inspire Productivity
4. Develop a routine and stick to it
Depending on your other responsibilities, create a routine for yourself when it comes to working on your blog. Determine how much time you have available and how often and create a schedule for yourself.
Once you develop a routine, make sure you stick to it. It will make you feel more in control and it will help you stay focused on your blog.
5. Minimize distractions
love working on my porch but I get very easily distracted by the beautiful birds in my backyard, or the gorgeous flowers in the garden. I still work on my porch but I keep in mind that I am not as productive as I would be in my office. So I give myself a time limit, for example 2 hrs after which I head back to my office where I can stay more focused.
There could be many other distractions that you need to identify and eliminate to stay focused. Anything that you enjoy doing instead of working on your blog should be temporarily eliminated and then maybe you can reward yourself with that after you complete your assigned work.
6. Organize and plan
Have a plan. A daily plan, a weekly plan, a monthly plan, whatever works for you.
Create publishing schedules and other check lists, that will help you stay focused when you feel your motivation drifting away.
7. Focus on process not results
Developing a successful blogging website is a long term commitment. If you focus on results, you will get disappointed very quickly. The effort and time investment that you are making now, will pay off in the future, way in the future, because that’s how it works. For the most part, there are no short cuts here.
Change your focus to process instead of results. This will help you stay strong in your efforts without loosing hope. Remember, you are still learning a lot, how to build a website, SEO, blogging in general, and so much more. Focus on that. You are getting better and better at writing and attracting your readers, helping them, connecting with them. Stay focused on that. This will give you a sense of satisfaction and achievement without seeing the results just yet.
8. Develop a list of post ideas
This is always a good idea, not just to help you stay focused. Everyone has days when the creativity is just not there. Having a list ready with researched ideas will help you create a post when you feel demotivated and just don’t feel like doing it.
It will take the pressure off and help you maintain your publishing schedule.
Related: How To Do Quality Research For Your Blog Content
9. Develop several posts ahead of time
Yes, I struggle with this one as well. This is the next step to the previous point. If you can manage to have a few posts completely ready for when something comes up and you just don’t have the time to write a post.
I had a few ready but I already used them in similar situations. I see the value of it but it is very hard to write ahead of the schedule considering that my current publishing schedule is challenging as it is.
Well, if you can manage to do that, this will make you feel so much better knowing that if you do lose your focus for a day or two, you have a back up and you will be able to maintain the publishing frequency.
Related: How To Increase Personal Productivity?
10. Give yourself a planned break
Most people that start their new blog website feel that taking a break is optional. I definitely made that mistake and then I had to deal with the consequences of loosing focus and becoming mentally fatigued.
Take breaks, prepare for them so you do not compromise your posting frequency but do plan for breaks. Without them, sooner or later you will burn out and nothing good will come out of that.
I hope you have enjoyed this article and found it helpful. Starting a new blog is not an easy task. Hundreds of people do it every day and hundreds more give up every day. We all lose focus from time to time, and this is normal but don’t give up. There are many steps you can take to maintain your focus on your blog so that you can preserve and continue building your amazing blog.
I would love to hear from you. Please leave your suggestions, comments, or questions below.
“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.” – Tony Robbins
It will soon be a year since I created my website. However, I recently read that many people create and abandon their blogs after six or seven months.
Thanks for all the helpful tips on how to stay focused on your blog. I am aware from the beginning that you have to lay the foundations first, persevere, and eventually, visitors and results will come as well.
My current weakness is that I am working on a plan in the short term, so you have now encouraged me with this article to make a slightly more long-term plan, especially of the content and planned posts. And it’s really great if you prepare a few posts in advance to have stock when motivation and inspiration drop.
Thank you, it was very helpful and encouraging to read your article!
Nina
Hi Nina, thank you for your comment. Yes, that is true, most people do not understand that blogging website is a long term commitment and those that do understand may not necessary realize how long it takes for a website to become successful. It is a shame, we put so much time and effort into our websites and blogs just to give up several months into it.
I’m glad you found the article useful. It looks like you have the right attitude and you know what you need to do. I’m sure you will achieve a great success with your website.