Wednesday Light at the End of the Tunnel: Signs You Might Need a Break from Blogging for the Sake of your Sanity!

It’s been two years and eleven months since I launched Chocolate’n’Waffles (applause). During this period, I took two complete breaks; the first in July 2016 after having blogged intensively for six months, and the other earlier this year.

Did I feel guilty? Yes.

Did it do any good? Yes!

Is it okay to put your blog on the side for a while? Why the hell not?

Your blog, your rules! And sometimes, it might be the best decision you can take for you and your corner of the Internet…

Blogging is time-consuming, addictive and fantastic, but it is also hard work. Finding content, interacting, writing, formatting, everything-ing! It can feel too much at times. I know some days I just look at my laptop and say ‘Not today’.

An mportant point for us book bloggers is that sometimes, blogging trumps reading. Ah!

How can we keep going if all our efforts go into our site and we are left with no time to do the actual basic but fundamental element we need to blog??? Memes are cool, blog-hopping is great, but before turning off the lights at night, I want to be able ‘damn, I had a great reading time today’. Silly as it may seem, forgetting to read happens. Pressure to read on deadlines for tours or to honor the proofs we are kindly given adds to the problem.

See, being a book blogger is a life in itself! That’s why we need to go back to basics sometimes.

*starts singing ‘I’m going back to the staaaaaaart’*

Here are a few signs which may indicate you need a holiday!

• Watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians suddenly seems like a good idea (never ever thought I’d put this name of a gif related to it on my blog. Everything happens…)

• The mere thought of blog-hopping is exhausting

• You check your stats several times a day and get depressed by the numbers (ps: stats are evil, be careful)

• Cleaning the house seems like a wonderful and exciting activity!

• You beg your brain to come up with blog post ideas, and feel restless and sad you can’t find anything cool or interesting to say

• Getting comments makes you both happy and sad, knowing you’ll have to reply and check the person’s blog, and you just can’t be bothered

• Even the infamous Twitter doesn’t look appealing any more with all the blog love shouted at you every minute of every day

• You google the recipe for a Mojito… then a Sex on the Beach… then a Big Bertha…

• Having to prepare a weekly post bores you

• You look at your books with suspicion, the cloud of having to write a review hovering over the bookcases

• You listen to country music (I often do when I write :p but half the population of the world doesn’t!)

• Your mind is fascinated by flies on walls

• Laundry day is every day

• NetGalley announcements don’t make your toes curl anymore

• Opening your emails inbox becomes scary. What if a review request is hiding in it???

• You feel the need to try all the nail polish colors in the OPI catalogue

• You just don’t feel like doing anything book-related for two days!

Don’t worry! It happens to the best of us!!

So before you reach the point of no-return and delete your blog: take a deep breathe.

Ask yourself if blogging is making you happy or on the contrary, is it making you miserable/stressed out? Take a step back. Books won’t disappear. We won’t disappear.

Why not enjoy a day, a week, a month, to rediscover the world in a different way, read solely for pleasure, and just be happy?

You’ll come back to blogging with a buzzing mind and flowing ideas. Or not. Whichever way, it’s okay.

Blogging is a hobby, not a life-sentence!