When Boredom Sets In
I don't know about anyone else, but I get bored easily. Perhaps it's because I'm retired without a real world job, perhaps it's because I'm an inherently boring person, or perhaps it's because I like being bored. I really don't know.
When I started this blog, I started it as a journal of my new life in the Philippines. A few months later, it morphed into something completely different. It started to take on a life of its own. If you dig through the archives, you'll see exactly what I mean.
In the past, I wrote about how I was breaking the blogging monotony and the need for work. I still practice what I preach, although I don't seem to do as much as I used to do.
Blog Reviews
As Lorna pointed out recently, "Don’t know what to blog about? Do a blog review!". Blog reviews are a great way to fill the creative void when you can't think of what to write about. As Frank Carr can probably tell you, it can become a passion in itself. He writes great reviews, much more in-depth than mine. His "Blog Review: environmentastic!" is just one example. I have to be careful, however, because if I do too many reviews in a short span of time, I get bored with them. It's one of the reasons I'm going to be moving my blog reviews to a new blog.
Blog Drive-Bys
I haven't given them up. In fact, I'll be doing them on a new blog (same as above) and calling them "article reviews". Glorified speed-linking is all they ever really were and they'll probably remain that way.
They were another way for me to fill the creative void and avoid boredom.
Passionate About Discoveries
I don't know how to express it otherwise. I'm passionate about discovering something new and mastering it. When I first delved into HTML years ago, it was all about mastering the tags. Now, I don't care much about it. The same thing goes with CSS. Once I figured out how it works, I lost interest.
I should be passionate about how to make money online, but I'm not. As I mentioned, I'm retired. Money isn't something I absolutely have to make a lot of and therefore, I'm not passionate about making a lot of it.
Once I learned how the Google PageRank worked, how to climb the SERPS and how to generate screaming traffic really fast, I lost interest in it. Boredom set in once again. I was passionate about the discovery aspect, but not the continuance of it.
Discovering My Passions
I actually have a lot of passions, but they don't translate well into something that I would write about without sounding like a broken record. I like to read. The source isn't important; the subject matter IS important.
I like to help people, but not necessarily in a monetary fashion. Writing about helping someone in the real world seems a bit too self-serving to write about more than every once in awhile. Heck, writing about helping someone in the online world seems too self-serving to me. I prefer to operate in the background. Some people like being in the limelight. I'm not one of them.
I like answering questions. The more in-depth the answer has to be; the better I like the question. That is, if I can answer the question in the first place. The long answers turn into great articles, in my opinion.
Final Thoughts
When boredom sets in, I need something to defeat it. Whether you're familiar with my blog or not, do you have any suggestions? Is there something I've done in the past that you really like? I'm all eyes. I would love to head off in a direction that all of us could enjoy.
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How about developing an interest in yourself? You'll be around for your entire life, and a human being is a fascinating creature. You'll never lack something to study.
Solomon Broad's last blog post..Things I’m Grateful For on Sunday 9 March
Yeah, but I'm a pretty boring subject.
Well, my solution lately has been a combination of Google Reader and StumbleUpon (which I have written far too many posts about), but I really have had the same problem. My blog is the first thing that I have managed to stay interested in for more than a month, and it's because I push myself to write a new, worthwhile post every day. That may not be something that's realistic for you, especially since your content is more in-depth than a few resource links, but when I view my blog as a job it keeps me looking for ways to improve it.
Just my 2 cents
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I think when you are bored with what you are doing, that's a good time to sit back and realize that you probably just need to enjoy being bored.
Like I love writing for Pop Critics, talking about TV and movies, but every now and then I get a bit tired of it and bored.
So that's when I go outside, sit and just enjoy doing nothing. Read a book, do something away from the computer. Especially away from the computer. That always helps me.
We're always trying to over-stimulate ourselves, so stepping away and doing nothing is a good way to defeat boredom I think.
Mike Olbinski's last blog post..No Judgment Day for The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Series renewed?
I think keep the blog as unfocussed as possible. Varying the pace of blogging and varying the topic is the best way to defeat blog boredom.
I did a couple of blog reviews, but that's something that bores the heck out of me even before I did it regularly. Hence I don't offer reviews to anybody except known bloggers.
hari's last blog post..Boxi and Panjo – Running for health
Take up something on the creative side. Try some art.
Atomic Andy's last blog post..A Very Special Friday Night Nerd
Thanks for the link RT.
My blog review queue has become quite large since I barely did any reviews in February due to my move. I'm trying to get back into the swing of doing them. Sometimes I question their usefulness since very few people act on my suggestions and some don't even bother to respond with a "Thank you".
I like have my collection of niche blogs since that helps prevent boredom to some degree and adds in some new challenges.
Frank C's last blog post..SNL Hillary and Obama – The 3 A.M. Phone Call
That's part of the reason why I dislike reviewing other people's blogs myself.
Another reason is that the least deserving blogs asks for the most number of reviews having installed a default wordpress blog and not even bothering to change Kubrick to something else!
All they want is the back link.
hari's last blog post..Visual Basic (almost) on Linux
I do reject some blogs or put their reviews on hold. I'd guess about out of 10 requests I get I reject one or two. On the flipside, I also give preferential treatment to top commentators.
Frank C's last blog post..SNL Hillary and Obama – The 3 A.M. Phone Call
perhaps you can write a book, or make short stories, or even children's stories.
i blog to defeat the boredom bug.
It's always good to take up a constructive hobby when you find yourself with extra time on your hand.
I'm reading some books by Kelley Armstrong, the first being "Bitten", when I'm not online and the wife's at work. It seems to be helping me fight the boredom. I usually don't like to read fictional thrillers about things like werewolves, but it's different enough to be enjoyable.
I have an epic of my own in the making, but it hasn't left my brain and found it's way to the written form yet. I'm afraid it'll probably take years to finish. Heck, it may take years to start.
I suggest, try to change your daily routine.. do things that you haven't done before. maybe this could help you to fight boredom!
To avoid been bored, i would suggest you have some animal of your choice. It could be a cat or a dog. I would recommend a dog. Since you are retired the best companion after your wife comes pets. Believe me you will get interest in life.
Auctions's last blog post..kcsfworthpoint
Stop facing the computer for a change
Or try not to think of the word "blog" for a week! That will surely refresh you.
If you blog about your hobby that makes it easy. If you like something it is easier to write about it all the time. I see so many people write about things they just want to get listed in search for and not really care what they are talking about. If you have some talent or interest that people like to learn about that makes it easy.
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