How has 2018 gone so quickly?!

We’re only one day away from the end of the year, and from starting a brand new year. And it’s also the official 1 year anniversary of my blog!

I’m excited to write this post because when I started this blog, I didn’t actually believe I’d still be doing it a year later: I honestly thought I’d have run out of steam after a couple of months. And yet, I’ve made it a whole year with a total of 65 blog posts under my belt!

So I thought I’d commemorate it by sharing some of the lessons I’ve learnt over the past 365 days.

1. It’s best to write and schedule posts ahead of time

As many of you know, writing a blog post (or writing anything in general), takes time and energy, so it makes sense to prepare yourself as much as you can by planning ahead.

I started off my blog with a long list of ideas, but with very little time to actually write them, which meant at the start of the year I would often rush through my writing. Doing that made blogging a lot less enjoyable for me, and at these points I did think about giving up.

For me, blogging was supposed to be a fun hobby, so stressing myself out about writing the next post definitely dampens that enjoyment. So a few months into 2018, I started a calendar just for my blogging, and made sure I scheduled blocks of time to write and finish my posts on time.

2. Sometimes you’ll get into slumps

Even with a humungous list of interesting things to talk about, sometimes the inspiration to actually sit and write any of these ideas just doesn’t hit you. You can have an amazing idea, but when you get down to it, you can’t seem to put it into words. It happens to me far often than I’d like it to!

In fact, it happens to every blogger. The main thing to remember is that you will come out the other side, most often with a renewed vigour and energy to jump back into it! So if you find yourself in one of these slumps, don’t force yourself to write: leave your desk and engage your mind with something different, so you can come back later with a clearer mind.

3. You can connect with so many people on here

Since I started writing this blog, I’ve had so many great interactions, either on my own blog or someone else’s. By posting your own thoughts publicly, you’re inviting people from all over the world to read and share their opinions on what you’ve written, and in turn discover new perspectives on matters that you might not have considered before.

With social media being such a big part of society nowadays, everyone is able to connect so easily with other people from all over the world and even creating long lasting friendships through it. Although social media does have its cons, this is one of the more beautiful things about it.

4. You don’t need to have a niche

This is a slightly biased one that might be proved false in 2019, because I’m a year into blogging, and I still don’t have that much coveted niche that I’ve read so much about in the blogging world.

While I tried to figure it out in the first couple of months of 2018, I decided in March that I was just going to post what I wanted to: a mixture of writing and technology posts, jumbled up with various lifestyle from beauty to travel posts.

Those are my interests, so it makes sense that I like to write about them, but if someone were to ask me what I blog about, I’d feebly answer, “um, anything, really”. “Anything” isn’t exactly a niche, but deciding that that’s what my blog writing is about, has given me a bit more freedom when it comes to thinking up new posts.

While this is a “lesson” I learnt this year, perhaps it’s still too early in my blogging life to tell. In the mean time, I’m happy to keep going until my niche emerges, if it ever does. Who knows where my blog will be this time next year!

5. Blogging is very therapeutic and, most of all, fun!

Writing in itself is a great therapy. Whenever I’ve been sad, or angry, or ecstatically happy, I’ve turned to writing because it helps me process these feelings better, and likewise with blogging, I find it helps me process my thoughts and ideas on particular topics. Especially with my technology posts: I always understand so much more when I try to consolidate what I’ve learnt into into my own words.

And most of all, blogging is fun. I love choosing what to write, finding images to place in my posts, and amending my blog theme when I feel like it. It’s incredibly freeing having your own space on the internet that’s completely yours to play with!

I learnt a lot more than I ever thought I would in my first year of blogging! As with every craft, it takes time and energy to improve, but I can happily say a year later that it’s all been worth it.

Do you blog? If so, what lessons have you learnt this year?

Feature image photo by Brooke Lark, and all other photos on post respectively by Hey Beauti Magazine, Kyle Glenn, Melinda Gimpel, Emma Matthews, rawpixel on Unsplash