Blaugust: C’est fini
This is it, the last day of August and the last day of Blaugust. And including this post, I’ll have written the 31 posts needed to “win”. I’m equal parts happy and relieved. Happy with myself for making through the entire month, and relieved to not have to do it again. To put it in perspective, I thought that NBI back in May was hectic and I only ended up writing 13 posts in May. So I know have over double that for August.
I enjoyed the experience overall, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t come at a bad time for me. There’s been a major project at work that involves a lot of my time and effort. I’ve also had people asking me to do web stuff on the side a lot (I do some web design and hosting on the side) so when you add in writing a post every day for a month, it’s left me feeling kind of stressed out. It’s definitely not Blaugust’s fault, and if I had been smart, I probably should have just passed on it until next year. But nope, I got excited about it and opted in. I have no one to blame but myself.
On a slightly related topic: between all the typing/clicking for my day job, my side jobs, blogging, and gaming…I think the tips of my index fingers might be a little bruised. I’m one of those people who types with (mostly) two fingers but I can type relatively fast so it’s usually a non-issue. After all of the typing I’ve done for this month though…owie. I think I might take a break for a week or two just to let my poor fingers heal.
Anyways, like I mentioned in the middle of the month, I can say with certainty that posting every day is not my thing. I could probably do every other day with some relative comfort, but two or three times a week is probably a better speed for me. It was really nice to get through some of the my “Post Ideas” backlog. Many of them had been sitting and just waiting for an opportunity when I want to write something but have nothing to write about. I’ve also learned that a post doesn’t have to be perfect or totally awesome for me to be okay with publishing it. In fact, some of the ones that I wasn’t sure about writing at all (like introvert communications and blogger design tips) were really well received and generated a lot of good feedback. So I’m certainly more encouraged to write more like them in the future.
One thing I really loved about Blaugust is that I got to find out about so many cool blogs (and there are certainly some that I haven’t seen yet) and a lot of you made some amazing posts. If I can say one thing to you guys, it’s that you don’t have to necessarily post about one game, one kind of game, or even about games. Some of my favorite posts were the ones where the blogger talked more about their personal lives and struggles, not just for the insight into their lives but the fact that now that I know there are kindred spirits out there who have some of the same problems I do. Even if I don’t like talking about them myself. In other words, do as I say, not as I do.
I’ll admit though that there were moments when I felt completely overwhelmed by the number of unread posts in Feedly and I just wanted everyone to stop for a day or two so I could catch up.
Anyways, my fingers are hurting again so I’ll wrap this up. Other stressful things aside, Blaugust was pretty fun and while I won’t be continuing daily posts, I’m thinking about doing it again next year. Provided there’s no major projects at work around then.
Oh, and congratulations to all of the participants for even trying this out. And uber-congrats if you hit/surpassed your personal goal or fit all 31 posts in. We’ve done it!
Grats to yourself as well. Ahah, I felt like that guy in the gif too.
Thanks! And that scene from Hot Fuzz got so stuck in my head that I had to make a gif out of it.
Well done! I would have quit if my life had become busy like that. It’s hard enough for me to blog once a week. Ha! Even once a month most of the time. 🙂 I hope you are beaming with pride.
Thank you! I am pretty proud that I made it through all of that, even if I was a little stressed. Now posting a few times a week will look like a cake walk.