Why Blogging Is A Waste Of Time

There was a time when I blogged every week. Every single week. I look back at that now and lol too hard because recently I’ve taken a spontaneous month break and before that I was posting anywhere between 0 and 3 times a week. Essentially, I’ve become the unorganised blogger which I vowed I would never be. But then I realised that having a break was actually really nice, because sometimes- for me anyway- blogging is a waste of time. Here’s why:

I have to spend ages online: Whether it’s scheduling tweets to promote myself or hyping up posts about palettes I don’t really care about with heart eye emojis or even just gramming photos for the sake of staying relevant in the algorithm, everything involves the internet. When I’m blogging, I turn my laptop off at the end of the night and my eyes burn because I’ve spent so long staring at a screen. During my blogging breaks life is the opposite- I’m outside working on my tan lines or seeing friends that I’ve neglected, I don’t have to worry about spending an hour in a twitter chat because instead I’m having an actual conversation with the barman in Wetherspoons who’s trying to tell me that they’ve run out of Sourz cherry and so can’t make me yet another pitcher of Purple Rain. Don’t get me wrong, I love connecting with people online but spending hours of my day trying to grow my brand only to find out they haven’t clicked on my links in return makes it a huge Zeitverschwendung. (Yes that’s German for waste of time and yes I’m trying to make use of my German A-level before I forget it all, just roll with it.) 

The stats aren’t solid: Maybe if they were I would feel more motivated to keep going but they fluctuate so much. I’ll think okay a big Twitter following seems to equal success so I’ll build up my Twitter and then suddenly everyone’s traffic is from Instagram, then the next month it’s about SEO. I can’t keep up with the trends- it’s even worse that blady Urban Outfitters. It feels like a waste to commit to one if its only going to be important for a few weeks.

I’m trying to write a book: I got 50k into a book when I was 16 and quit. Now I’m at the 50k point again in a different novel and just crossing my fingers that I’ll stay motivated enough to finish it by September, but blogging majorly hinders my progress. I can’t whip up an 1,000 word blog post with pictures and promo as well as another 2,000 word chapter of my book in one day- not if I want to eat, sleep and actually go outside too. Also when I blog I develop The Blogger Voice (which I wrote about here) which means when I head back to my protagonist she’s speaking in a ‘hey guyssss’ Zoella kind of way and it ruins my flow. So when I prioritise my blog over my book I feel like I’m wasting my breath a little.

There’s a lot of luck involved: We need to stop feeding bloggers the ‘work hard and success will come’ BS because it’s so untrue. I’ve been blogging for 3 years and only have one post which has 500 views, I’ve seen other bloggers who work half as hard as me pop up onto WordPress, review a lipstick and suddenly they’re the face of Rimmel. Yes half of the excitement is wondering if or when you’ll make it but in the meantime it seems like a waste to dedicate too much time to something that won’t necessarily get you a return. The only time my blog is hella successful without me having to put tonnes of work in is when a post makes it to the first page of Google but I have no idea how the search engine shebang works so to me it feels like sometimes I just pull a Daft Punk and get lucky.

There are so many bloggers: And while I love the diversity I can’t be bothered to compete. I just want to write and be read not have to insert neon flashing Read Me GIFs into all my tweets just to get some attention. Sometimes it feel like the people who type with the caps lock on get the most views even if they’ve nabbed their content from others and don’t really deserve the traffic- but that’s just the luck of the blogging drawer. Realistically we’re not as in control of our audiences as we wish we were and so there comes a time when you can’t battle for the limelight anymore, you just have to work on yourself and hope for the best.

Obviously, I love blogging deep down but I think it’s important not to let the cute bullet journals and flatlays cloud our vision. We all have different things we dislike about the hobby and these a just a few of mine- which I hope you can relate to otherwise I’m Victor Meldrew at my table for one again. Comment below and tell me if you ever think blogging feels like a waste of time too.