Summer. That magical season when the sun is bright and moods are brighter.
Today is my first day back to "normal" routines after my three week summer vacation. This year, as in previous years, we were fortunate enough to have use of a family cottage. Sunshine, sand, friends, family, good food and drink, and a lake to cool ourselves in. Not too shabby!
There is no telephone, internet, or Wi-Fi. Our mobile phones provided our communication needs. This is the first time I have left the city for any significant amount of time since starting this blog. There are a few things I learned and some strategies I plan to use should there be a next time.
First of all, when on vacation, I should not confuse my idyllic visions of my vacation with reality. Three weeks off? Thought: "Great, I will relax in the sunshine with my TBR stack and finally conquer that sucker!" WRONG!! Reality: I would have a short time to myself in the morning over coffee, and the rest of the day would be spent in various activities and games with friends and family until late night. My actual reading time was significantly less than what I thought it would be. I had little time to read, never-mind time for composing blog posts and tending to social media accounts. For what blogging I did do, I have this to say....COMPOSING BOOK REVIEWS ON A CELL PHONE SUCKS! That tiny virtual keyboard, on that tiny screen (did it shrink? It didn't seem so bad when I wasn't trying to compose longer entries on it), trying to hit the tiny formatting tools, etc. A simple blog post took much more time than typing on a standard keyboard and was still full of typos that required correction. Not pleasant.
With my cellphone being my only source of Google, blogging, email etc. I realized early on, that even while reducing my social media and blogging greatly, I was chewing through my data plan at an alarming rate. As quick as I was chewing through data, I was quickly seeing the adverse effects in reduced activity on my blog's page visits. Understandable, but still frustrating.
So, what did I learn and what should I do for next time (if we are lucky enough to have a next time)?
You wont have as much time as you think. Be prepared for it. Plan ahead. No, this year will not be different.
Yes, preparing for vacation takes a lot of time and energy immediately before departing, but having a few short miscellaneous blog posts and memes already in your drafts or phone files, means not having to use data to compose, upload, or download. A quick visit to hit the publish button (or better yet, auto-schedule ahead of time!), will keep your blog and social media accounts active. While you cannot prepare a review ahead of time, you can upload book cover art, and basic information into a draft that you can keep on your blog site. Anything you can do on Wi-Fi will save you mobile data later. Consider the use of Way Back Wednesdays, Throw Back Thursdays, Flashback Fridays, etc.
to recycle some of your favorite posts, reviews etc. Does a favorite
author have a new book out or coming out soon; or are there books you
have read that are now going to screen? Recycle the old post to revisit
the book or author that is receiving new attention.
Go old-school. While away, keep a notebook handy and compose your reviews, blog entries, etc. on paper first and work out what you want to say. Once you know exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it, you can get it onto your blog quickly, reducing your data usage.
Consider your surroundings while out and about. While cottaging or camping you may not have Wi-Fi, but when I went to the nearby shopping district for additional supplies, free Wi-Fi was available. Take an extra five or ten minutes and take advantage of it! Upload, download, compose a quick post, visit blogs whose newsletters are sitting in your inbox with links you have left un-clicked in an effort to save mobile data. Just take advantage of your time in line waiting for checkout etc. or maybe take a little extra time to grab a coffee with it.
Consider asking for help. Next time, I will consider reaching out for other bloggers who might be interested in guest-posting.
Most importantly, relax, don't sweat it, enjoy your time. In the end, it is your vacation. There is no point in planning a relaxing break from work, only to stress yourself out over your blogging hobby! I suspect that once you return to normal posting habits, your page views will return to normal as well 😊
Happy Reading,
Christine
No comments:
Post a Comment