Recalculating Route - Some (Much) Necessary Prioritization

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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