How to Build Blogging Consistency -

This week in the Blogspedia group, we invited Jihan Mawaddah. She is a lifestyle blogger, well known for her amazing story telling in her posts. She has won a number of blogging competitions and is active in several blogging communities.

In this session, Jihan Mawaddah shared her tips and tricks on how to build consistency in blogging. This topic was especially important for our members who mostly are new bloggers, still trying to establish a new routine as bloggers. Even after around two years after we started, many of us failed to keep the blogging consistency. And here, Jihan came with her experience.

The meeting was conducted in the form of question and answers. The atmosphere was quite relaxed and warm, even if the session is done online via Whatsapp Group chats. Virtual snacks were put to the table. Well, it doesn’t fill your stomach, but it can make you giggle.

The 10,000 Hour Rule

The session started pretty straightforward, with Jihan sharing her admiration of ‘The Ten Thousand Hour Rule’ by Malcolm Gladwell. It is said that it requires at least 10,000 hour to at least master a skill. It is also said that the Beatles practiced 1000 hour before they went on stage to be a star. Jihan mentioned how Steve Jobs would spend his time after school even at dawn to master his skill in computing. We can then see that consistency is one of the keys if you want to reach success.

Setting Up The Big Why

When one member then asked Jihan what is the first and prime motive behind her building consistency, she said her main motive is that she feels she needs it.

She thinks that consistency is a lifetime learning. It is normal that sometimes we are diligent, but sometimes we are not. It is then up to us to push ourselves, Will we surrender and get nothing? Or will we push ourselves to be back on track to reach our goals?

When we surrender, we need to look back to our Big Why. If it doesn’t make us excited anymore, it means that our Big Why is not that Big. We need to revise it.

At some points, we might lose interest since our goal is actually accomplished. Then, it is time for us to create a new goal. As Jihan cited a verse from the Quran which means, ”If you have finished with a task, continue to work hard on the next one.” Jihan personally feels that we should have goals in life. Else, life will feel dull. With goals, you can move forward and be better each day.

Setting Up A Specific Time to Work

If we want to be an expert in a field, we indeed must spare our time to train and do the work. Jihan especially assigned herself at least one hour a day for writing. She chooses nights and dawns. She makes it compulsory to write, unless she is sick or currently on a long trip.

To spare the time, she delegates the chores that can be delegated. She limits her sleep time to only 6 hours a day, unless she is sick. She chose to drink coffee to stay awake, but she encouraged us to replace it with some healthier snack instead.

The Role of Community

Jihan thinks that the role of community is important in keeping ourselves stick to our goal. A group like Blogspedia that consists of people with similar goals and interests should then be fostered well by the members.

Get a time to relax

Taking a break and relaxing is also important. If you are too overwhelmed with it, take some time to do the things that you enjoy. Watch a movie, take a walk at a beach, swim, cook a new recipe, or bake. Anything that can release the tension.

But then don’t forget to get back to work. Allow yourselves a day or two, then push yourselves back to the track. It might be hard at the beginning, but then you will find the rhythm of work.

Special Writing Tactics

Limit the time

Although she does give some time between writing, editing, and publishing, she said that she would give a maximum of 3 days to publish a draft. Even sometimes she would immediately publish on the same day if the post has a certain close due date.

Speed Writing

For speed writing, she gained it by practicing. She once joined a speed writing class. In that class, she was trained to speed write in 3 minutes with keywords. As the practice goes, she gains more and more words.

Quick Concept Writing in Smartphone

In handling a long post, she would make a clear concept in the beginning. Sometimes she writes them on her phone, in a Whatsapp Group that has only her in the group. This way, she can create a concept, determine the headings, and capture random ideas whenever it crosses her mind, even if she is away from her laptop. Once it is time to write (usually at night), then she writes the post down from the concepts. This way, she can write quickly within her one-hour writing time.

Quick Note Taking Using Whatsapp Group

To Win Blogging Competitions

In addressing a question about blogging competitions, Jihan suggested that we do good research. Choose the right concept and find relevant references. They can come from anything around us, even the little things. She would sometimes find references from some books, if necessary.

This sharing session with Jihan Mawaddah shows me how she is very efficient with her time. Within around one hour she shared with us, we got many inspirations on how to build consistency. Now it is time to practice what we learned. See you in the next post.

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