It’s Okay to Take a Blogging Break

Let’s talk blogging today, y’all. We haven’t talked blogging in a while.

One of my biggest struggles with blogging, especially in the last year or so, has been consistency. Sometimes life happens and things get in the way of my blogging routine. Work, travel, health, family… the list goes on. In the last few months alone, I’ve gone a week or more at a time without posting, several times. Even when I was in grad school, I was blogging two or three days a week. It kept me sane, I guess. And Lord knows, in grad school, I needed as much sanity as I could get.

Those weeks when I’ve gone without posting drive me crazy. I worry that my stats are dropping and that no one is reading my blog if I’m not posting new content, even if I am resharing and promoting my other recent posts. That’s not entirely the case, but #bloggerproblems.

I’ve read posts and articles on other sites about how you shouldn’t go very long between posts and you shouldn’t go longer than a certain amount of time without posting new content. While I understand and agree with that to an extent, breaks happen and sometimes you just have to let them. The truth is, it’s perfectly okay to take a blogging break, intentional or not.

Here are 5 reasons why everyone needs a blogging break eventually.

You can’t always help what happens in life. 

Life is good at throwing curveballs and dropping in something unexpected. Or sometimes work picks up and you have to change how you manage your time. Priorities will have to shift at some point. It’s okay. It happens. The blog will always be there for you when you come back. And it will feel great when you come back.

Time away can help you refocus on your goals and how to make them happen.

Just like with rest, space is okay. Don’t be afraid of it. Giving your brain time to recharge and concentrate on other endeavors helps you refocus on your blogging goals and where in blogging you find your passion. Taking a step back also helps you see the bigger picture and how you can revise your goals, content calendar, business plan, what have you, so you can adapt and move forward successfully.

So when a blogging hiatus happens, take that time to refresh your brain and take a clean look at your goals. You’ll see everything with fresh eyes and there’s a good chance some things will change for the better.

It's okay to take a break from blogging when you need it. Click To Tweet

Breaks give you time to rest and recharge.

Rest is a crucial part of the creative process. No matter how much or how badly you want to just go, go go, your body and mind can’t always take it. Your ideas and work may even start to suffer, and no one wants that. Listen to your body and mind and let yourself rest and recharge when you feel like you need it. Burnout is real. Don’t let it happen.

A hiatus can show you just how much you care about your work.

Remember the saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder”? That applies to blogging, too. The more you miss it, the more you care about it and don’t want to be away from it. At least that’s how I feel when I’m away from blogging for any amount of time. My passion for it is reignited when I’m away from it and I itch to get back to it.

Blogging breaks aren't always that bad. Embrace them and learn from them! Click To Tweet

And the best reason that it’s okay to take a blogging break…

Coming back and rocking your goals with a new focus and motivation is one of the best feelings in the world.

Without a doubt, writing and publishing those first few posts and making progress toward your goals after a hiatus is one of the best feelings as a blogger. It’s like saying, “Hey y’all, guess who’s back?” And then you feel like a total champ when you exceed all of your goals. Definitely not a #bloggerproblem.

Blogging breaks happen, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. Don’t be afraid of it. Embrace the hiatus. Chances are it’ll be a lot more beneficial in the long run than you think!

Have you taken a blogging break lately, intentional or not? What did you learn from it?