When You have No One to Answer to But YOURSELF
Word Count: 1718
Reading time: 6 min. 53 sec
I have been blogging for many years. 3 years sounds about just right – albeit inconsistently, and sometimes laziness is a contributing factor. I am doing it out of my love for writing. I also love to create music and play video games. But, I do not have a preference or a favourite among the three.
A common factor exists among all the three projects I am running. I am answerable to no one but myself. So, there are pros and cons the above conjecture that I do it out of my love of the art.
What does come to my mind when I compare my projects to the ones I typically work in the office?
What can you do to prevent the lack of answerableness to yourself?
What are the possible and potential solutions? Let’s explore these questions in greater detail.
Entrepreneurs run start-ups in their respective businesses out of the love of what they’re doing. I have seen some interviews where they put in 14-15 hours (or more) daily for their business. Why? Simply put, they love what they do. They want to see their business succeed and will do everything in their hard work to achieve it. Some fail while others succeed. There are lessons learnt from every step we take.
Answer this question – The core idea here is if you won’t try it, how would you know if you would succeed or fail?
So it is tantamount to what we do. They work full time for their love and some people like me work part time. With the little time I have in hand, I do my best to deliver.
What are the Reasons to Choose Part-Time Work Over Full-Time Employment? Most of the time, we realise our dreams much later in life. Some of us regret it while some people like me do not.
For example, English is my second language and as already evidenced, you know I am very good at it. My only regret was not having sufficient guidance earlier. Even when I had the distinct opportunity to proceed – I did not realise it until it was too late. One of my school friends suggested taking up arts and mastering English Literature. I did not take his advice seriously. Due to wrong judgment and lack of guidance I ended up doing something else that affected my career choice. I could have flourished taking up journalism!
Anyway, my problem with delivering my work is that I cannot do it every time. For example, when I come home from work, I may be too tired to do anything. Sometimes, the responsibilities at home are overwhelming. And, sometimes, my office work overshadows my personal life. In some instances, a complete work-life imbalance permeates through the atmosphere.
What we lack is discipline, focus and consistency.
Let’s answer the most obvious question. Why do I do the things I do? Why do I write? Writing is my way of expressing myself. Writing also helps me improve my sentence construction. The overall language enhances and most obviously improves my typing speed. I always wanted to own a blog and eventually monetise it. I would love to earn doing what I love. How many people in the world accept that when you do what you love and love what you do, you won’t work for a single day?
There are several other benefits to writing besides improving your diction! You are sharing your opinions with the world, the world takes note!
Here’s a fun fact. When I decided to launch my blog, why did I name it Xyneohphoenyx? Isn’t the word too long, hard to pronounce and unheard of? One of my managers (who I was pally with) objected to my choice of the word. He was right in a way. But what I realised was the massive benefits of visitors to my blog. They’re having no problem in typing the word in their browsers! That was an eye-opener.
It’s been nearly 5 years that I have been blogging. However, my blog hasn’t reached that far. There were things I did not anticipate during this course but I have zero regrets. The major part of my concentration was to build my content. Now that I have done that, I need to build on the consistency. Little by little, slowly-slowly, with time – making the most of what I have in hand.
Has this thought ever crossed your mind? If I love writing so much why do I not write a book? Well, I did write one and the completed manuscript is lying in cyberspace! It’s been almost 10 years, I am yet to publish it. Reasons exist why I couldn’t publish it or have since delayed it. But rest assured I will publish it when I give it some serious thought. Now isn’t the time to think about it. I digress.
YouTubing:
My YouTube channel – GamerPhoenyx has been active since 2018. I wish I had started sooner with the right systems, planning and equipment. I love playing video games ever since I was a child. I still play games mostly on my mobile and a little on my PC. All those years I was waiting to upgrade my PC but couldn’t due to circumstances and situations.
My YouTube goals are different from my Blogging goals. Blogging is where I want to express myself through my writing. YouTube is where I wish to play and showcase the games I play. I also want to do game reviews regularly. But considering other things, I have little time to intrude in that space.
Work vs yourself:
This is a striking contrast to the role all of us play as executives in our respective offices. Those who do a regular 9 to 5 job are routinely answerable to their superiors. Working professionals have someone to report to. The first person they report to is themselves.
The benefit of reporting in a hierarchical structure is that the job gets done at the stipulated time based on your skill set. This framework when followed as a routine as long as the task gets done is what we get paid for.
When we work, the salary we receive towards the end of the month keeps us going.
When that doesn’t happen, we take our time to do things. For example, on two of my ongoing Instagram accounts – @GamerPhoenyx and @Aethyereia_Offical, I have to make creatives when special occasions are around the corner. The idea of doing that tasks already exists but a lack of initiatives like seriousness and the pain to build up on the struggles exists.
It is not just with me, there are individuals exhibiting something similar. That’s why not everyone succeeds and I don’t want to be one of them.
Anyway, the idea is to develop the creatives in advance and schedule them on social media rather than wait for the eventual moment to show up!
I’ve understood that maintaining a content calendar is essential for success, just as I did as a content writer. Implementing a structured system is key to effectively managing my projects and ensuring they stay on track. It took me a long time to realise that to maintain a decent social media presence I must develop the habit of making a content calendar, posting consistently and following it religiously.
The very first step towards organising oneself is to self-observe and take notes.
Answer these questions: How much free time do I have in a day after work? How much total free time do I have in a week? What do I do in my free time? What can I do now, later or next day? If I have multiple things to do, what are the topmost priorities? Is there anything I can do now to complete it sooner? If I want to do things later, can I sincerely do it later? If due to situations and circumstances I postpone my tasks, what’s the guarantee I will do it later? What is the target, timeframe and framework for the tasks I intend to do? How much time would it take to do those tasks? What is the deadline to make sure the task is 100% complete and requires no re-work and re-visit?
There are many more questions but that will sound very overwhelming! Some of the questions may apply to you. For some, a few or all.
Enter: Content Calendar
A content calendar outlines what you should do in the coming days. It helps plan your content prompting you to stick with the schedule. For example, before releasing music, I must create a buzz about it. Creating a buzz will vary from person to person as the level of thinking differs widely. So, an attempt should be made to market and promote your finished work.
The content calendar has many benefits. If you have a team working on a campaign, it can be mighty helpful to delegate responsibilities and direct actions. It can be made offline and online. I would prefer both. Printing the online version and pinning it on the soft board in your office or home will compel you to be on the track like a vision board.
I have recently started creating a content calendar. It is not that different from making a to-do list where you outline the things you need to complete by the end of the day, week, month and year.
If that is what you are following due to personal preference then you can continue doing so.
A content calendar offers a more visual representation of your upcoming tasks and actions than a to-do list. For now, these are the things I have come up with the fiery determination to get things done.
One thing I have excluded is that in my to-do list or content calendar, I have not considered Saturday and Sunday in the list. These two days are marked as buffer days for things I cannot complete during the week or if I am occupied with other tasks.
If you have any questions on how I can help you, post in the comments I’ll take a look and answer the best possible way I can. I am not an expert. But I will help in the best way I possibly can.