Happy First Blogiversary X Blogging Goals For the New Year!

I’m very happy today! Today marks my one year blogging anniversary and I’m glad I saw it through the first year. Coming all this way (which is still nowhere anyway) hasn’t been easy, but I’m grateful that I’ve come this far regardless of the overwhelming challenges I’ve faced many times.

Another thing I’m grateful for is how supportive the WordPress community and my readers are. I appreciate every one of you who has read, shared and commented on my blog posts. Thank you for not giving up on me when my blog posts were so irritating and novice ish, as well. Your corrections and feedback are what has made me become a better blogger today.

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November last year, I set many goals I wanted to achieve before my blog turned a year old; some of them realistic, others farfetched. Good for me, I’ve achieved a good number of my blogging goals so there are just a few realistic goals left to achieve in my second blogging year:

1. Post at least once a week.

Personally, I’ve always frowned at the idea of following a blogging routine because of my busy schedule that I’ll still talk about before the end of this post.

But I decided to give it a try last month and I think following a blogging routine is the perfect solution to my habit of being inconsistent.

Because of my tight schedule, I will continue following my blogging routine of posting once every week, four times a month, and since I write on four major categories (inspiration, self-improvement/productivity, writing, and blogging.), I will make sure I write at least one post on each category every month, which gives us a minimum of four posts monthly.

2. Stop obsessing over my stats.

Like most bloggers, I have formed the habit of checking my stats every now and then to see if there has been a new comment on my blog posts, or if there has been a rise in the number of views. This obsession was part of the reason I almost stopped blogging some months ago, and if I keep this up, I fear I would be discouraged again and might end up taking a break from blogging.

Which is why in my second blogging year, I’m not going to obsess over my stats. Instead, I’ll use my stats to track my blog’s growth wisely. In short, I’m not going to measure my progress by counting the number of views, likes and comments my posts get. I will rather measure it by noting how much my posts are engaging my readers.

Like Renard has said in his latest eye-opener:

“our stats help us to figure out the types of blog posts that our readers like.”

So, this time around, instead of using the number of views and comments I get to track my growth, I’ll rather use it to observe the kind of posts my readers like and create similar engaging content for them.

3. Network with other bloggers in my niche.

In my opinion, the best thing about blogging is connecting with people from far and wide, and it’s for this reason that I enjoy reading new blogs and building relationships with other bloggers in my niche.

So far, I’ve become friends with a few bloggers who I learn a lot from and help me become better every time, and I’m hoping I’ll build relationships with a lot more bloggers before my next blogging anniversary.

4. Host my 9Perspectives series consistently.

Some months ago, I started a monthly blogging series that I haven’t been consistent with. I call it 9Perspectives.
The original idea of the series was that on the 10th of every month, I would ask a question here on the blog, and on the 9th of the following month, I would publish the best nine answers (the best 9Perspectives) I get as a blog post.

Now, for good reasons, I’ve made some changes concerning the series; the first being that I won’t be asking the questions on the blog anymore. Henceforth, I’ll ask the question using my various social media accounts every month and on the 9th of the following month, I’ll publish the answers here on the blog and give you – if you missed the question when I asked it – the chance to share your thoughts concerning the question in the comments section.

And, you should know that there’s no particular category for the questions I’ll be asking. They would range from blogging to writing to productivity to religion to stereotypes to a trending issue. But, you can be sure that they will always be controversial questions.

5. Be mindful of my health.

If there’s one thing I’ve been taking for granted, it’s my health. I’m a very busy person and unfortunately, I don’t have a ME time to do the things I crazily want to do right now, like sleep for fifteen hours straight!

As shocking as this may sound, I sleep for about 3-4 hours every night and it’s badly affecting my health. I wake up by 5AM every weekday to prepare for my stressful 7-5 job. (I teach NINE SUBJECTS in a secondary school 😒)

After the day’s work, when I get back home in the evening, I tutor my sisters in their core subjects until 7:00PM which marks the end of their lessons and the beginning of my chores. I usually finish my chores around nine, then I would lie on the couch, weakly, with my eyes closed until 10:30PM or thereabout.

It is then that I would have my dinner and start writing/editing a blog post until 2AM when I would then retire for bed, only to wake up to another stressful day three hours later.

Honestly, I’m dying; I’m not cut out for this kind of stress. My eyes are all bloodshot these days, and I’ve got leaner; I’m always so dizzy, it’s difficult for me to walk without staggering – I look like death!

Truly, this weary lifestyle is the major reason behind my habit of blogging inconsistently. I mean, it’s hard to live my life and still make out time to write and edit interesting blog posts, believe me.

But not to worry. I will surely put my life in check before the end of October and get that nightly eight hours of sleep I so much deserve. And, I will let you know when that happens.

Until then, I’ll struggle with this stress and work passionately to achieve the four other goals I’ve stated before this one.

That said, I’ll schedule this post to be published later today by 8:30AM and go get some sleep now. 😉

Thank you for reading!

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