Recalculating Route - Some (Much) Necessary Prioritization

in #blog8 years ago (edited)

Less than a week ago I shared with you my weekly post schedule in an attempt to organize my content creation and sharing. If you've been following, you'll notice I've failed miserably in keeping up with my plan.

There are many reasons for that, most of them are personal - I was simply too busy with life to keep up with the schedule I set for myself. In addition, some changes in the past few days caused me not only to lag behind my plans, but also demand that I recalculate route and prioritize my activities on the blockchain instead of just trying to stick to a posting schedule.

In the past 6 months or so (time sure flies on the blockchain!) I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a generous delegation I used to found the Israeli community and support hundreds of authors and artists on the platform. For that, I am grateful. But all good things must end, and now I stand on my own. I kinda like having less responsibility without the delegation and voting trail I've had up until yesterday. I never did get used to my votes meaning so much.

Unfortunately, this does mean I will have to withdraw all my outgoing delegations to be able to continue supporting content creators and growing my SP through curation rewards. It saddens me that my loss has such ripples across the community, but such is the blockchain - things change faster than you can say "So when are those SMTs coming anyway?"

Getting My Priorities Straight(er)

My first priority will always be the community. I do, however, need to balance the giving with the taking needed to pay my rent. Which is why a lot of what I do with and for the community does not result in posts on my steemit blog, but it does help in paying those pesky bills.

1. Utopian.io (and Buildteam!)

I've written before that I've gotten involved with this amazing and inspiring project on the marketing and social media front. I didn't think this would be a full time job, but boy was I wrong! With the Open Source community flocking to Utopian for their steem rewards, Utopian needs my skills more than ever.

This is probably a good place to note that if you think you have a way to contribute to Utopian in ways that are not just posts for the moderation team to approve, you should probably chat to me on Discord.

I also haven't forgotten about my commitment to the wonderful guys at the @buildteam . I have a couple of deadlines that made that "whoosh" sound as they passed, but I have not forgotten them.

2. The Israeli Community & Hebrew Content

I have big plans for this community, and I have no doubt that I will see it flourish even without the support I could provide thus far. Behind the scenes, I am meeting with interesting people in the fields of online content and publishing in hopes to grow the Hebrew community on steem faster and bigger. I want to give the Koreans a run for their money, but I don't want to give away too much before I have more concrete plans.

3. Mistress of Magic

As I've written before, my main goal joining steemit was writing my erotic fantasy novel and monetizing it as I type it up before handing it over to professional hands for publishing. My efforts to post daily while investing in my current top priorities on the blockchain have left little room for inspiration to write my book. 

Every single day I find myself getting to writing my book when I am done and exhausted, so whatever I do manage to write is not even close to what I consider my standards. This needs to change, even at the cost of more posts.

4. Quality Over Regularity

I hate the feeling of posting for the sake of posting. I don't want blogging to feel like a job even when it is. I want this to keep being fun. So I am going back to my strict policy of quality over quantity. Even if a post takes 3 days to write, I rather is be one good piece than three mediocre ones.

I do, however, plan to stick to the topics I outlined in the schedule, giving some context to blog posts and some wiggle room to write posts in advance.

So what gives?

Something's gotta give. I have waaaay too much on my plate, and I end up staring in confusion at the mass while eating none. I've lost too much weight in the past few weeks (true story, friends).

I am going to have to cut back on manual curation. I simple do not have the time for that and with my reduced power, each vote would use up more VP to be significant, thus allowing me less upvotes to spread. I will likely be dropping from ~100 upvotes a day to ~20, the majority of them automated through SteemVoter.

To avoid spending too much time on Discord and Facebook Chat discussing steem-related topics (which I currently do), I am going to stop providing 1-on-1 mentorship and support to newcomers and struggling minnows. I wish I could continue doing this, but I simply do not have the time.

Last but absolutely not least are my relationships. I feel they are, once again, suffering because of my level of investment in steemit and related activities. That too has to stop, and I am working on it.

It's not easy being me, but I am pretty sure no one can do it better. I'd like to see someone try, though. If you have any advice or insights - hit that reply link. My comment upvotes might not mean much anymore, but I still hand them out.

-=-=-=-

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Stop bleating. Priority 1. Do what you enjoy and makes you smile. Priority 2. Re-read priority 1.
Ohh and you need a new character in your book. He's called Nathen and he's devilishy handsome and has more power to give than a nuclear power station.. I think it could work :-)
Take care, stop beating yourself up and touch up your roots. You know it makes sense ;-)

LOLOLOL You made me laugh just now. I needed that. Thank you. <3

I might just do that, you know. Name a character after you then have him fuck a LOT.

At 51, I feel fucked more than I fuck but hey ho, god loves a trier lol
0.04c upvote? I wish I hadn't bothered ;-) hahaha
You take care :-)

My only insight is you have a healthy habit of evaluating your commitments and workload, with healthy meaning: you know when you're going a bit overboard and then decide how you want to adjust. It's an ongoing task though, so let us know how it works out for you!

In the meanwhile I might finally start reading your book chapters - one of those things I know might be fun but man is Steemit an overwhelming place and wow do many people do fun things on here!

Yeah. What you said, @soyrosa. So many people doing fun things, and a lot of us trying to find balance.

@techslut, I totally hear you about trying to balance Steemit with creative writing. I haven't touched my novel since starting Steemit. It's a great story (shaman-psychic space opera), and needs a round of revision before starting to send out to get feedback, but where do I find the time?

Can we please have 10 more hours in each day?

A very great post that reveals a lot of information about you and your great contributions to the steem ecosystem. As an active steemian I can do nothing else than to say thank you for the efforts and the time you´ve invested into the ecosystem.

Anyways I honestly wonder how one can ever loose too much weight xD I´d be happy to strip of some additional pounds but just don´t really succeed doing it. Food is just too tasty :)

The first part of this sounds...EXACTLY...like how my past few weeks have gone. I similarly posted about some goals and extra organization and investment of time that I was pretty fired up and motivated to have at least halfway finished by now. Hahaha...but life also seems to have gotten in the way and now it's time to re-route and re-prioritize.

While reading about your process...I realized that I am just really glad that I am not the only one who tends to fill my plate really full and put my ambitious thoughts out on the blockchain...only to have them turn right around and go the other way! You inspired me to make a new l bullet list of my own to straighten things out and steem on.

I hope that you are able to find your Steemit to life balance soon...it's really tricky. Posting schedules and daily posts appear to be easily for some people...but everyone has a different system and way of doing our best. Perhaps...you could see the decrease in your upvote power as yet another way to determine who decides to engage with your content for the right reasons.

You are always a hero big uovote or no. Thank you for all youve done sofar. Totally understand priorities!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I am not sure anyone can do a better job being you, but I also doubt you can do as good of a job being, say, me, as I do :P

More seriously, I agree. I strongly advised you to take days off. It's not just because one needs days off to do, well, relationships, deal with stuff that comes up, or just emotional self-care, but because good posts often take more than one day.

There's the day you post them. And then there are the other days you've worked on them for. Can you keep going non-stop? Honestly, if it were "just" 7 posts a day, you probably could. But as you noted, you need at least one day a week just to write for your novel, and that's at bare minimum. And then there's the half-day you need to spend dealing with feedback.

And then there's dealing with feedback on past posts...

Also, I totally hear you about reducing one's open-loops online. I remember leaving a Skype group call made up of a lot of people I liked, because I ended up staring at it at least 4-6 hours a day, and it constantly distracting me from stuff that required concentrated attention.

Good luck!

Love the "Multi-tasking..." meme!

as far as i am concern you have really done much for communities, and alsi for your self, really is not an easy task, there was a time i do envy you, but i came to realise all those work attached ain't just an abcd task, like seriously blockchain is like the bee so. much going on and so much for the brain to comprehend, but anyways being busy is a blessing, and now that you have recalculated your route to actually know the next action in line we wish yah good luck with your endeavors and may the atlas force be with you.

I went through this recently with losing the fulltimegeek delegation. It has really set me back, as I have half of my SP delegated out myself. I dont want to change that so I am just doing my thing with less juice per vote. What can you do.

As far as time on here, you should never feel an obligation. The number one rule for Steemit is it must be fun. When part of it stops being fun and becomes more like a chore, change something up :)

I like this plan better, so I see this recent turn of events as a positive. Wish you all the best, particularly in your relationship with me :P

Must be handy sometimes to have your relationship commitments engraved on a blockchain :')

Well, it's pretty abstractly declared, but I was amused by your comment <3

and relationship with me too. :P

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