Blog-A-Day Challenge
This past week I took on the daunting task of writing a blog post every single day. Many bloggers do this every week without much difficulty or hesitation, but for me, it was a struggle. As a college student my life is normally filled with anxiety and stress about my next exam or paper… or my bank account. Coming up with new topics to explore and write about was overwhelming on top of all my other obligations. Although it was challenging it was also a great way to exercise and practice my blogging skills. Brainstorming ideas and finding ways to spin less-than-great ideas into something relevant was great practice for the writer’s block I will surely encounter in the future. On my least productive days I was able to find ways to get inspired.
The first thing I did was check out other blogs with the same focus as mine. Exploring what topics were of interest to other bloggers helped me expand my own thoughts on the subject. Through reading other blogs I was also informed about issues in the job searcher’s world that I wasn’t aware of before.
The second thing I did was to go back and re-read my older blog posts. Was there any subject that I could expand on further? You never know when new events, technology, or stories have come out that have to do with a specific issue you’ve touched on previously.
The last thing was easier said than done, “think outside the box”. When I thought I was fresh out of ideas, I would somehow come across a topic I had never thought of before. When using social media to find jobs you think of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn…in reality there’s many more social media sites than those three and, yes, they can be used to find jobs too. In the end, I realized it’s important to research the less obvious topics and issues.
Blogging every day was not easy and now I have a new found appreciation for those who do it all the time. Now I have the tools to fight writer’s block and can be more easy going about blogging just a few times a week.
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