Blogging: You Get What You Give

Blimmin Blogging Busy

Life has been super crazy lately and I have to be honest, some days I don’t know if I’m coming or going. If you’re a regular to this blog, or if you have read any of the guest pieces I have appeared in, on other blogs, then you’ll know that I work five mornings a week and in the afternoon I am back looking after the Little Man. My days go by very fast. When I’m not doing these things I am usually sat here at my computer tip-tapping and blogging away coming up with lovely things to post on this blog, or commenting on all of my fellow blogger’s posts and sharing them on social media as part of our Triumphant Tales linky. In all honesty, I don’t have much time for anything else. On top of all of that, recently I have been spending time developing a website for a family friend. I did this last year and on recommendation, I find myself doing it again for someone else this year.

All of this combined has left me feeling a little, shall we say… frazzled.

I wrote earlier on in the year about how I needed to get myself more organised. And I did. I really did. Up until recently, it was going really well, but just recently I have taken on more and more and I guess you could say it’s starting to get a little out of hand. I spend so many evenings lost in this little blog bubble that I lose track of time and before I know it, the night has gone and it’s time for lights out. It’s a good job my husband spends most weeknights in the gym or no doubt, I’m sure he’d have something to say about it!

Reasons to be thankful

But on the plus side to all of this, I have had so many things, blogging related to be grateful for lately. A couple of months ago, Jaki Jellz, as you see it today, turned one year old. One whole year of consistent blogging. One whole year of bloody hard work and one whole year of achievement.

Today I found out that after just eight months of signing up to Tots 100, I finally made it into the Top 500. I haven’t specifically been trying to do this, but it’s happened naturally just through the day to day hard work I put in.

Last week I got nominated by Becky over at MommyandRory in her very first Bloody Brilliant Bloggers tag. This is a new tag Becky has created for bloggers to celebrate who they think are, well… ‘bloody brilliant’. I can’t tell you how happy this made me – more so than the Tots 100 if I’m honest. Because it didn’t come from page hits, or followers or other statistic held in Google. It came from a real person. And that means more than anything! It didn’t stop at Becky’s comments though. More compliments came in the comments of her post, from other bloggers. Compliments for me! It warmed the cockles of my heart, that much I can tell you.

As well as these things, last week I published my most popular post to date. Am I Less Of A Mum As A Mum To Just One. Now I can only apologise if you are sick of seeing this post everywhere (actually, no I’m not sorry!). I didn’t anticipate it being so popular. This post was shown so much love. I’m pretty much speechless about this because I was named Featured Blogger in no less than FIVE linkys in one week. As if that wasn’t enough, it even featured on the homepage of Mumsnet Bloggers. I have no words. It feels so amazing to know I really am doing something right when I sit here, as I said before, just tip-tapping away.

Getting back what you give

So I guess the moral of all of this, to anyone who may be flaking or finding it all a bit much is, that eventually, you get back what you put in. All of the hard work does pay off. Not just in the blogging world, but in life in general.

I am not complaining at all. I know I need to find a nice balance so that the workload doesn’t consume me. And that is down to me completely. Now I am aware of it, I will make it happen.

I’m so excited for what the future holds for my little corner of the internet. The friends I have made are wonderful and supportive. The brands I have worked with have been welcoming and enthusiastic and I have finally found something I appear to be good at, and I enjoy it too. I had no clue when I started blogging that this would happen, but it has. It doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

How do you manage your workload and what keeps you going when you feel deflated? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://jakijellz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/I-regularly-link-up-to-these-lovely-linkys..pdf” title=”I regularly link up to these lovely linkys.”]