You may (or may not... hey, I don’t know your life. Lol) have noticed that I was gone for quite some time recently. I was just in this awful reading/blogging slump that I could not get out of... until the start of July! (Thank the gods!) So this little hiatus had me thinking, “boy, I sure do take a lot of unplanned hiatuses.” And it’s typically not because I want to, it usually has to do with blogging slumps. Maybe it starting to feel like work when it’s supposed to be fun, so I just need a break. But most often I just don’t feel inspired to write and post things on the blog.
So I went back through the years to see when I took these surprise hiatuses and I found a very interesting pattern. My first year of blogging, 2011, everything was fine. In 2012 I had stable posts of about 10+ per month, so all was good. But then things start to go downhill from there... literally. Lol. (I made some graphs! I just love numbers! Lol. The numbers on the vertical axis represent the number of post per month.)
(And obviously there's a huge drop of starting August 2018 because, well, today is the 1st of August. Lol.)
So, what do all these graphs have in common? The dips. So many of them. And usually in the same spot. Interesting...
I apparently get into these blogging slumps around the same time almost every year since 2013! What is it about these times of the year? Honestly, I don’t even know, but these recurring dips in my posting seem to first happen in the spring and then the fall. Let’s look at when the major dips happen:
- 2013: February-March, then October-November
- 2014: April, then October-November
- 2015: April-May, then October-December
- 2016: This year was weird, I had a ton of ups and downs (February, April) at the beginning of the year. I had one significant dip in June-July, then again in September-November
- 2017: March-May, then September-November
- 2018: And this year I had a major dip April-June
Do you see the pattern here? The major months where I typically leave are during April, May, October, and November! WHY?! Lol. While I may not know why I get into a blogging slump during these particular months of the year, I did learn one thing from doing this research: I should probably have some posts scheduled and ready to go when these months roll around. LOL.
You are not alone! I get into a lot of slumps too! Sometimes for many months. Great idea on using the graphs! I may have to try that myself:)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that 😅 You should! It would be very interesting to see! I was not expecting there to be a pattern for me, tbh.
DeleteI love your graphs! I think we just get burnt out, the new year rolls in and we go in guns ablazin and then burn out by April/May, then we are good for the summer and then burn out again by Fall .... it is just the name of the game I think.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I try to spread thins out so that this doesn't happen and I try not be read all the things at once either because reading slumps are the worst and I fall into them after pushing myself too hard in the reading dept.
Glad you are back at it and we will keep in touch eve through the hiatuses. I was happy to see your blog pop up in my feed again.
Yeah, I think you may be right. And that's good advice. I think I do burn myself out, just wanting to post ALL the things followed by wanting to post absolutely nothing. *sigh*
DeleteThank you Steph! :)