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Less is More | 100 Days of Less Challenge Week 3

I’m tired, ya’ll. Can’t believe I went from doing two travel blogs a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays to almost 5 posts a week! Mondays, I started this 100 days of less challenge. I’m practicing gratitude every Wednesday, which I hope will be ongoing since it forces me to take the time to reflect. Recipe posts and my LA eats take up two Fridays out of the month. And I started filling in the other Fridays with food I wanted to highlight. Craziness. Pure craziness.

I’m really feeling this statement right now: less is more.

Unlike most of the good, consistent bloggers, I don’t have a few month’s supply of posts scheduled ahead of time.. I’m pretty much culling, editing photos, and writing the day before for the most part. Right now it’s Sunday at 8:47PM, and I’m kicking myself because I forgot to take a photo for this post while there was still day light. This will have to suffice. Thank you instagram and Confucius for your wisdom!

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I used to wonder how people could blog every single day… like wow.. those people were really disciplined. Now, I have a small glimpse at how they do it. When you have a blog series, it can seriously take up space on the blog every day… for the rest of your life…

Now, the 100 days of less challenge has been about spending less on stuff and decluttering our home. I haven’t bought anything, and we didn’t even eat out all week! The closet operation has been a slow and steady process. I think you need to give it a full year to go through all the seasons, but since we’re in California, I’ll give myself until February when our lease is up. It’ll make our move easier anyways. And speaking of decluttering, I think I need to declutter more than just my physical living space. I need to declutter this blog space, too.

I don’t want to blog purely out of obligation. I get that there’s a certain discipline to it, but I don’t want to create these rules for myself that take all the freedom away. Does that make sense? So from here on out, I’ll still do my travel posts, because it should probably take precedence on a travel blog. I’ll still do my monthly recipes and monthly updates on LA eats. Don’t get me wrong. I still enjoy blogging. I just want to take the pressure off posting updates every Monday through Friday.

Who knows.. maybe I’ll figure out a way to schedule some posts ahead of time and make it all work out! Right now, I just want more open spaces. Freedom to choose. Freedom to write. Or to not write.

Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever made rules for yourself that ended up being more harmful than helpful? How do you decide when to push forward because you need to learn discipline or to let go because it’s not necessary anymore?

100 Days of Less Challenge Homework:

  1. In between goals is a thing called life that has to be lived and enjoyed” – Sid Caesar. Just BE and enjoy life!
  2. Keep my desk clean for an entire week.
  3. Post a blog at the end of the week only if I slip up and buy something.

This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. it’s a balance. in general, practice makes perfect so when it comes to writing, if you write more, you improve. with that said, i think writing daily is beneficial for writers and maybe bloggers (who have a serious writing component on their blog). it could be in a paper journal or in a word doc. or on a blog.

    as for blogging though, i feel like that’s a whole other territory…

    generally my rule of thumb is that if i don’t feel compelled to write, then i don’t write, because i know the content will be forced and won’t be as genuine/creative. (there is a difference between feeling compelled/ just being lazy). i don’t know how you keep up with all your daily posts and multiple lists.. i have a difficult enough time just keeping up with one weekly series (and even that, i don’t do routinely). ah well.

    1. esther julee

      That’s the hard part for me. Deciphering what needs more practice, and what is being too forced. I definitely want to learn how to write better. I may even want to publish a book in the future just to check that off my list! haha but I don’t know that I want to be writer. Not at your level at least. ;) I just want to improve little by little and not write from a place that feels so technical like my chemistry research papers. I just want to learn to be a little more creative again when it comes to writing! How can you help me!! :P

  2. asiancajunslauren

    It’s so hard to keep the momentum going with blogging – even if you do love it. Lar and I decided to pare down a few months ago when we realized we were just slapping up content to meet our schedule. In a perfect world I’d love to be able to publish 3 great posts a week, but it’s just not practical. I’ve never been able to schedule and work on posts days or weeks ahead of time. I know every blogger advice says you should set a calendar, but sometime I think that makes the content a little stale. Even though blog posts are longer-lasting than a FB post or Tweet, I think there’s value to being more in-the-moment and relevant to the week’s events. I love reading all of your posts, but pace yourself. Your blog will always be here and always be great even if you’re not posting 5 days a week!

    xoxo, Cath

    1. esther julee

      Yeah, I thought so, too. I always feel a little weird posting up material that was from last year or from months back. Even talking about trips I taken isn’t even as exciting to me anymore after a few months. I think you guys are doing a great job at balancing out your love for blogging and making sure that your readers are updated. :) And I’m loving that you guys started to be more on instagram. I feel like I live on there!

  3. I’m not sure I could blog 5 times a week without losing the love. I try to shoot for twice a week and that seems to be my sweet spot, the perfect amount for me to still keep the blogging passion alive.

    1. esther julee

      It’s pretty crazy. I was doing it before I even realized it. I think it’s great for people who are aspiring to be bloggers, but I think my goal is just to express myself (hopefully in a non-messy format) and I don’t know that I can do that everyday. I think you definitely have it down, because I feel like you still know what you’re doing and you love it.

  4. I think when you feel the joy of blogging start to dampen, the best thing to do is take a step back and allow yourself room to breathe–so bravo for taking the pressure off of yourself! I try to keep things loose when I blog but stick to a 3 days/week schedule. For me, that is manageable and fun :) I also try to unplug at least one day during the weekend, which has been a perfect way to decompress and return more refreshed!

    1. esther julee

      I definitely need to learn to relax and keep things loose. :) I guess I have not found the right number yet.. because I keep going back to thinking am I just being lazy or is this okay? Unplugging is definitely something I need to do more often too. I’m always either on my phone or on some electronic device. I used to love being disconnected, but I don’t know what happened to me lately.

  5. Tidy-Up Gal

    Your posts are always so timely and relate-able. I attended a blog conference last year a few months after I started my blog, and I picked up the pressure to post consistently, on a schedule, etc. I eventually ran out of things to blog about and panicked because I didn’t have an editorial calendar. I had to sit myself down and ask why I even began the blog in the first place – I blog because I enjoy it. Enjoyment isn’t a scheduled thing. I gave myself some freedom to blog whenever while still making sure that I kept my blog up to date. So if I have an idea about a post I write it immediately – so what if I post five days one week and one day the next? lol.

    1. esther julee

      I’m so glad that we’re on the same page! Which blog conference did you attend? Yeah, whenever I go to those women’s networking events.. I always feel so behind and that I need to DO MORE! But maybe we just need to take a step back and realize that what’s applicable to other people might not be applicable to us.

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