Here are the reasons why this month was the slowest I’ve ever had on Medium and for blogging in general.
July 2022.
I wrote 2 to 3 pieces near the beginning of the month and posted those up on Medium and on my personal blog.
Then I stopped.
Not because I didn’t try, I remember the nights after the kids were in bed, I went on my blog to start writing.
And then.. nothing.
I did not feel like writing.
I procrastinated and delayed starting a post. At most I wrote a title and saved that as a draft.
I did other things instead, watched Youtube, watched movies, looked at family photos, and did menial work around the home, while my blog was open in another tab, waiting for me to fill it up with words.
This was not new, in the past on those nights I managed to push myself to write.
But this time I felt the fatigue of writing, so I stopped myself.
Why?
Because writing should not be a chore.
It shouldn’t be something I dreaded doing, and I wanted to keep that part of the allure of writing.
Of course, it would have been great if I could type out an article in 20–30 minutes, which was what I used to do in the past for some posts when I felt particularly inspired.
But this time I was dry.
What about the other reasons?
I went on a holiday, make that two holidays this month. One over the weekend, and another longer one a week later.
As any parent knows, a holiday with young kids is a different level of energy drain.
Back to the office on Monday, and I powered my mind and body just enough to perform at work, get the kids home safe and down for bed, and then run on reserves for everything else.
Including writing.
Then, I fell sick after the holidays, for 3 days I was down.
While I recovered, my husband and my kids fell sick too.
I tested myself and the kids for Covid, and it came back negative. Thankfully, no second round for us.
Anyhow, all five of us went down one after another.
Darn you seasonal influenza.
As I write this at 1 am at night, two out of three of my kids are still with fever, medicated of course before bed, tears and wails all included before I left their sleeping bodies in the darkness of their room.
So there. My slowest month.
Do I feel bad about it?
Not really, but the word I feel would be more of discouraged.
Discouraged at the slow progress I have on Medium in general, versus the work that I throw into it.
But that’s just me complaining.
I hope you had a better month than me, and stick to your writing goals.
Maybe I could be motivated by you instead.
For now, I’m flat, mentally.