*peers in*
Uh, well, hi everyone. Long-time, no speak! I kind of fell off the blogging wagon last year and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get back into it. The funk started in May, when I took a quick break to go on holiday, and it stayed that way throughout the summer when I somehow got a social life and I ended up being busy every weekend and most evenings. I’ve missed blogging a lot, but I just didn’t have the time nor the motivation to get back into it. During the run up to Christmas, however, I kind of gave myself a kick up the backside and decided that I had to make time to do something that I loved again. So here we are.
I’m not an overly laid back person, so I don’t think a laid back approach to blogging would be for me. I wouldn’t enjoy not having some sort of schedule, or a lack of posts written in advance, so I’m not going to do that. The plan instead is for me to post up to five times a week (instead of the rigid schedule of five to seven posts per week that I was following before), and set aside days dedicated to certain types of posts. I think this’ll encourage me to actually keep at it.
As well as failing at blogging last year, I also failed at reading. My original goal was to read 100 books, which hasn’t been a problem every other year, but in 2016 I “only” managed 50. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with this achievement. Fifty books is still more than most people read in a year or even three. But most of those books were read between January and May, before the funk happened. It’s more than a little frustrating. This year I’ve set my goal to just ten books, although I do anticipate reading a little more than that. Hopefully without a massive goal looming over me, I’ll stop myself from getting annoyed at myself.
But, that’s enough negativity! 2016 was actually a pretty awesome year. I stepped outside of my comfort zone and got to know lots of new people, including a new group at work full of lovely people who I spend most of my time with. I met someone who became my best friend and, later on, my boyfriend. And I finally passed my driving test! It only took about ten months of lessons, and I passed first time with only two minors, which I’m dead chuffed about. So now I have a car and I’m no longer restricted to my village!
So overall, 2016 was fantastic, despite the reading slump and blogging funk that I managed to get myself into. If 2017 turns out to be as good, though, I certainly won’t be complaining!
*waves* good to have you back
Welcome back, nice to read you again! 😉
I can relate to this post A LOT because my 2016 was very similar to yours. I tried to read 100 books but failed (even though I at least reached 96 but that’s still not even remotely as many as in the previous years…) which is mostly to blame on the second half of 2016 and due to very similar reasons. But I don’t regret anything and absolutely agree that last year was amazing and I’m happy to see someone else who had a great time last years with all the people hating 2016 so much 😀
I also want to be a bit more relaxed when it comes to blogging but was surprised when I read about your plan to *only* post 5 blogs per week, that still sounds super stressful to me XD
Congrats on passing your driving test and may 2017 be as amazing as 2016! 😉
Welcome back! I hope your break from blogging leaves you feeling motivated and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got lined up. It sucks that you felt unmotivated to vlog for a while, we all do it, but it sounds like you’ve been busy IRL. Congrats on passing your test… I may learn to drive one day so I don’t continually wait for buses and trains… but not today.
Eeeee welcome back!
I’m so glad you had a great year despite falling off the blogging and reading wagons. I was mostly posting monthly recaps and occasionally top ten Tuesday posts so it wasn’t all that hot for me, either. I was also in a weird slump for most of 2016 and ended up reading 53 books and totally failed my goal of reading 100. But yeah, still a lot more than what most people end up reading in a year. My slump seem to have apparently ended in December so I’m so looking forward to reading all the books I was planning to in 2016 and a ton of new releases.
Oh god, I also finally managed to get the hang of the driving thing and is it about time or what. Yay us!
Glad you had a good 2016, and its nice to see you back! I missed you around the blogosphere!