One of my main focuses here is blogging about blogging, or "how to blog". But I often find myself, sitting at my desk, trying to write blog posts, and ending up with nothing to show for my efforts. This article is an effort to list the worst productivity killers, when it comes to blogging.

  1. Read too many RSS feeds - I am firm believer in reading what other relevant blogs are writing about to inform your articles, but there comes a point when your reading can be killing your writing time. Keep an eye on this.
  2. Stumbling - Stumbling is great, and a great way to research content. But spending your time looking at stuff like this:

    How to Blog Pic - Failed

    … can be unproductive.

  3. Work in front of distractions - Writing while you sit in front of the TV for example…not a good idea.
  4. Strive for perfection - I went through a phase of trying to make every single blog post I wrote a real masterpiece, and in the end you find yourself wasting time, trying to perfect points when you should just be hitting the publish button. Quality is important, but you need to remember that it is a blog and not a published hypothesis, perfection is unrealistic and counter productive at times.
  5. Read and post in too many forums - I read a lot of forums, and you have to take a look at yourself at times. Posting content in a forum is creating content for someone else’s site. Posting an article on your blog is creating content for you. Forums are great for boosting the profile of your blog, and making good contacts, but don’t waste your blogging time helping others at your expense.
  6. Spend all your computer time looking at funny videos on YouTube - Flight of the Concords is hilarious - especially their live stuff, but 2 hours of Youtubing does seem unproductive.
  7. Drop your laptop - Try not to do this, they are damn expensive to get repaired and it limits your blogging time (I know :( ).
  8. Spend all your time submitting posts to social media sites.
  9. Blog when your thirsty or hungry, that’s just not going to work.
  10. Being addiction to online poker or buying things on Ebay is unproductive. Don’t do either of those.

www.pingable.org

7 Responses to “How to Blog Unproductively: The Top Ten Ways”

  1. Katir on March 10th, 2008 4:03 am

    The very first view above strike my the most. If too much time is spent incorporating other people’s view into one’s own work, such bloggers end up being secod class.

  2. fedmich on March 16th, 2008 5:39 am

    Yes, using the laptop your typing speed will be reduced than using a normal keyboard on a pc.
    the other tips are great too, Ill keep this in mind :) thanks

  3. David on March 16th, 2008 3:27 pm

    Funny list. I don’t see enough how to guys combining humor and good advice.

  4. Trevor on March 17th, 2008 9:58 am

    Great list. This will certainly help me if I print it out and stick it to the wall behind my computer.

  5. Chris Guthrie on March 21st, 2008 6:18 pm

    I definetely agree with your first item on the list. I’ve blogged about this as well.

    It’s so important to read less and write more - especially if you have a very finite amount of time to get work done (i.e. for those of us blogging part time).

    Nice list :)

  6. gtd on April 9th, 2008 3:03 am

    #4 reminds me of Faulkner. He used to say that when you read something you’ve written and for you it’s a diamond, you should delete it and start again. Something that for you is perfection, probably won’t be perfection for anybody else.

    #1 sure, keeping only relevant content in your RSS aggregator is an art!

  7. Luis Narvaez on May 5th, 2008 9:36 pm

    I have been a victim to number 6 but instead of funny videos I keep searching music videos made by people using popular tracks. So when I check the time I go wow its already time to sleep. You tube can be addictive no wonder its so popular these days. About posting to social sites, there are nice tools out there that can make bookmarking really fast like Socialmarker but if you are talking about Facebook or Myspace even if they are not for bookmarking keep out or your blogging time is doomed.

Trackbacks:

Leave a Reply