Image from danielgebhart and problogger

Wow, what a great article here by Problogger about feeling overwhelmed by one’s blog and the content that one is pressured to write, especially regarding social media and technology.

My thoughts after the jump.

It only took 3 months after my first began working at my first corporate job in technology and web development to realize that keeping up with technology was a full time job, in and of itself.

That was back in the summer of ’98… a decade ago.  Although I understood this principle, I didn’t begin practically applying it until much much later.  Instead, I did all that I could to keep up.  I only realized that it was impossible to keep up a number of years back, and it was only recently that I’ve given up.

And that’s a good thing.

Because it helped create what I call The Three F’s:

The 1st “F” : Focus

I could now begin to concentrate on the things that I was passionate about.  Especially related to blogging, I could really dig down deep, write about the things that were the most interesting, and create better content overall.

This really, especially now, is the only way to fly.  With so many blogs out there creating content daily, there’s only one thing that makes your blog really unique and that’s YOU.  Focus on yourself, your interests, your passion, and who you are as a person.

Don’t fake it.  Don’t try to be anyone else, because that’s not interesting.  Be you.

Finally, with focusing you can provide yourself with a good and hearty schedule of publishing.  This is crucial.  Don’t blow that off.

The 2nd “F” : Fun

As a result of focusing, I could have more fun.  I didn’t have to beat myself up if I felt like I had to write on something but didn’t… or get depressed when I didn’t write about something that was “bleeding edge” technologically but that I, personally, wasn’t very interested in.  Again, I could write about what interested me.

As a direct result, burn out was avoided as well.  This is crucial in regards keeping consistent content flowing.  As I’ve mentioned to many people in my life in regards to their vocation: “If you’re not having fun, generally speaking, there is perhaps another occupation for you.”

So have fun with it.  Or don’t do it!

The 3rd “F” : Free Time

The more focus and the more fun I was having with blogging, the more free time was created.  This can seem fairly counter-intuitive but it really isn’t.  As I began blogging about things that really excited me and was having more fun doing it, the more productive I became, and the faster I would write, collect content, and produce content, saving me a lot more time.

Forcing paragraph after paragraph out of no interest was gone.  What happens is that I could actually put the computer down and relax.  This was extremely helpful for my family too.

And seriously, there’s more to life than just blogs… right?

Got any additional tips?