Is Blogging Stressful?

Several years ago, one of the most widely circulated stories among bloggers is The New York Times’ In Wide Word of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog ‘Til They Drop.   Chances are, you already read it, had it emailed to you or heard about it.  The story alleges that bloggers can kill themselves blogging in the hunt to report the Next Big Thing.

The Next Big Thing is crucial to bloggers trying to make some money.  The Next Big Thing often brings in more traffic and thus gives the blog a larger chunk of revenue share.

The Reality of Blogging

I hate to disappoint you, but blogging is not stressful in and of itself.  In fact, I find it to be a real relief from my daily stress.  I have two personal blogs that don’t generate money and have worked on blogs for clients that did make money.  The only stress I received was blogging for other clients. (“Hmm – wonder if he’ll bother paying me this month?”)

There does seem to be a difference between the blogger interviewed for the New York Times article than for "normal" bloggers.  The former — and most stressed out kind — are journalists where the deadline was always yesterday.  Don’t let their job pressures dissuade you from writing a diary, journal or blog.  Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper (or a computer screen) is one of the most economic and effective ways of managing stress.

The Word “Blog”

Just the word "blog" is can make you relax.  It’s such a ludicrous-sounding word.  I know blog is short for "weblog", but that’s not what I thought of when I first heard the word ‘blog" years ago.  I thought it was a sound you made when a vine or a tentacle wrapped around you.  You know — "Have I ever seem a giant squid around here?  Nah, there aren’t any giant sq — blog!" 

So, just thinking "I’ve got to go work on the blogs now" can put at least half a smile on my face.

Help In Survival Situations

I used to have a book on wilderness survival written by an ex-SAS guy, John Wiseman.  In it, you learn things like how to survive in the woods after your airplane has gone down or how to find drinkable water in the Arctic.  And you know what one thing he recommended for surviving difficult situations where you are stranded in the middle of nowhere?  

If you guess, "keep a journal", pat yourself on the book and go have a cookie.   If you kept a journal (ordinary or written blog") in survival situations, you can keep track of what plants are edible, any significant landmarks to remember and how long you’ve been stuck out in the middle of nowhere.  He also says that it helps as a stress reliever and to give you a sense of purpose ("I can’t die yet — needs I must blog!")

So, if you don’t believe me, you can take it from John Wiseman.  The act of blogging is not stressful and it can help you overcome stressful situations.  Blogging for money can be stressful, depending on how goofy your client is.  But even then, you don’t have to deal with the client face to face.  But you can always blog about how annoying blogging is, as long as you don’t name any clients and incur a lawsuit.