Somewhere in December 2019, I removed the cobweb from WordPress’s login screen and logged into the account. I had been inactive for over an year. I had not posted anything in 2019 up until this moment. I logged in and the stats caught my eye.
I had not posted anything but I had an overall views of 1197 which was better than 2018 with 13 posts. I read about 30 books in 2019 most of which are self-help genres. So with renewed motivation, I decided to write more in 2020 and most importantly to see if I can make money out of it. I am merely exploring options for my potential secondary income stream should my current main job would become unstable few years down the line. (I should add that from what I am seeing so far, the future looks bleak.)
I wanted to follow some process this time. I have been devouring productivity videos on YouTube. Inspired by those, I decided to put some method to the madness. I signed up for the free version of Notion and created a kanban type page for Blog Ideas. I created the columns – Idea, In Progress, In Review, Scheduled, Published. The article would move from Idea to In Progress to In Review and so on.
I started listing down any topic that came to my mind and grouped that under Idea column. I had about 42 ideas. That was not bad to start with. I used the tool and followed the process diligently for few days I believe. Nevertheless, I started posting more and interacting more on the blogosphere.
I checked the tool today to gather some inspiration to write. Instead of browsing the topics themselves, I started thinking about the tool and the process itself. So, here is what I figured out.
- I had 42 ideas initially
- I published 5 of those 42 ideas.
- I published 22 in total this year. (This will be 23rd)
- The 17 other posts, I drew inspiration from somewhere else.
- I still have 37 ideas that I can write about.
- I have no idea or motivation now about what to write about those 37 ideas. Those ideas don’t spark joy in me at this moment.
What the heck I am trying to say in this post? Nothing. I am just saying write down whatever you think. It may not be useful now. May be it will be useful sometime later or maybe not. Just go with the flow.
By the way, if you are serious blogger with a niche carved out for yourselves, just ignore this post. Peace.
That felt good to ramble without a topic.
Pointless & Prosaic 
Sada you got me hooked – I want to know more….I just write my generated idea on paper or on ‘notes’ on my phone..and then try and re-visit to see if it has a future. Keen to know what ideas you got knocking around and if I can help in any way….
Sure. Check your inbox 🙂
Will do, thanks.
Oh! I have tried doing this on One note. It was lovely to start with it. But then I couldn’t keep up with the schedule. I needed an app like Notion. So that I can manage the ideas in a simpler n easier way.
In fact, I think you should just change that line about niche bloggers. I have seen niche bloggers using this kinda blog plan a lot. Their lives depend on it. And for organised bloggers too.
Also, your image is too small to view it on the blog. Had to right click to open it in a new tab so that the text enlarged to a readable font size. See if that can be fixed. 🙂
In my experience, one note, notion, evernote, excel – all are but tools. If we don’t have discipline, none of this matters 🙂
Thanks for pointing it out. I tried playing around with the image size. Couldn’t resize it much. Have to take another screenshot. I will be cognizant of this next time.
Yes they’re tools but tools need to be in place too. Discipline is definitely on top but tools should not be demotivating you.
Yeah it’s too wide. Probably add a disclaimer to right click n open it in new tab to view it properly. Or maybe cut it into two pieces and post separately? Whatever suits you 🙂
Gone back to the old size and added disclaimer. Thanks!
🙂