My Latest Update
It has been a while since I come back to my blog. My last blog post was in last year October.
Ever since I changed to a new job on Oct 2023, I lost my motivation (or discipline) to continue with my newsletter (or blog post) series every week.
To be frank, it wasn’t easy to keep up with the hustle.
Since March 2023, I pushed myself to prepare all these things every week:
- 13 tweets + 1 thread (long tweet) weekly (1.5 hours)
- A newsletter with some research on the topic (5 hours)
- Schedule the newsletter and blog post (same article) (30 mins)
- Reply to emails and tweets (1 hour)
I spent around 8 hours of my time weekly on writing tweets and newsletter. Sure it looks like feasible if you don’t have any family commitment (aka spouse, kids, or parents). But too bad, I have these commitments while doing all these.
It ain’t easy to juggle between work, family and side hustle. There’s hardly “me time” for me to enjoy at all.
However, I was quite proud with myself that I was able to consistently produce 25 newsletters continuously (only 1 rest week in between). From all the hard works, I earned a little money of around RM4,000 in 6 months (~RM700 per month).
It was a great life experience for me. It proved to me that it is possible to earn side income by writing online.
And then, I managed to get a better job with a higher pay. At that time, I took the opportunity to take a break from all the hustle.
No joke but constantly squeezing out my free time did sometimes cause me mentally exhaustion. There was hardly space for me to take a break.
Since the day I took a break, I started to lose my motivation to continue with my content creation journey.
What’s the Reason to Come Back
Recently, I felt empty.
The void which cannot be filled even when I spent most of my free time playing my favorite games, spending time with family or watching animes.
My mental health is definitely improving with all my favorite activities, but I still feel like lacking something.
Some spaces where I can unleash my creativity. Somewhere I can create something.
That’s why I am back to blogging.
The Difference with Before?
The mindset.
The reasons / motivations / goals on why I am blogging now will be different than before.
To be honest, one of the main reasons I was committed in blogging is to monetize it.
Because of that, I pushed myself too hard and lost my motivation.
I don’t want to end up in that infinite loop of burnout and motivated for money anymore. So I’m going to change my mindset on blogging.
The main reason why I am blogging now is to have a space to write my thoughts out and be creative, without having to worry about metrics like SEO or target audience.
I won’t be blogging on niche topic (i.e. finance) anymore. I gonna open myself with several topics that I am interested to write.
Even if the blog post is not gonna bring any value.
Even if the blog post is read by no one.
It’s fine.
Most importantly is, I able to let out my inner thought out and free up my mind.
Final Thought
Instead of forcing myself to be discipline, I am changing my expectation toward blogging. So I will be naturally motivated to come back writing blog post without forcing myself.
Not everyone have to make their blog professional.
From now on, my blog will have broader topics that I’m interested in. The blog may become more personal as I write it, but as long as it is still my favorite space to share my inner thought, that’s all matter.
That’s all for my comeback blog post.
If you read until here, thank you for reading my struggling thought haha! I wish you have a nice day ahead!
