I think many of book bloggers have been there before. You go overboard with requesting books and your TBR pile is threatening to crush you — there’s no way you can read all of these books in a timely fashion. You’re so busy that you can’t possibly dedicate as much time as you’d like to your various platforms. Real life strikes and you find yourself unable or unwilling to keep up with your reading or your blogs.
Some of you may have noticed that I have barely been posting here. Going from posting six or seven days a week to once or twice has been a very strange struggle for me! As the holidays rapidly approach, real life does its best to interfere, and reading slumps strike, I’m finding it hard to keep my afloat with my blogging schedule. I run this blog, an Instagram feed, a Twitter account, and a YouTube channel, all while trying to keep up with my reading and posting to coincide with publication dates. Also, a social life (sometimes). Sometimes it’s just a little bit too much!
When these things begin to pile up, anxiety begins to rear its head. Blogging is obviously a hobby, albeit an all-consuming one. In order to ease the burden a bit,there are a few things I sacrifice in order to keep on top of things. The first thing to go is my Instagram account, which has suffered a lot over the past few weeks. I just haven’t had the time to post. The rest of my platforms begin to show signs of struggle soon after that. I haven’t posted any new videos in awhile due to illness, and it’s making me nervous! I’m posting here less and less, despite having blog posts written and ready to go.
The one thing I really don’t want to suffer is my reading, but I’ve unfortunately been really struggling over the past month or so. The whole point of blogging is to yammer on about the books I love, the books I’m reading, the books I hated, the new books coming out that I’d like to read, etc. I have so many amazing books that I’ve either purchased or have been sent to me, but I sometimes look at the pile and feel a sense of dread! How am I going to get all these books read? I always try to prioritise proofs and review copies, however sometimes they’re just not what I’m in the mood for. This can result in me just not picking up a book. However, that’s the worst thing for a book blogger and lover. If my reading begins to suffer as a result of blogging, I’m ready to go on a hiatus.
So for the new year, I’m coming up with resolutions to make my blogging life a little easier. I absolutely love what I do here, but sometimes it can suffer when I’m busy. I’m planning on doing things like starting a bullet journal, something I resisted for a long time because it seemed like more trouble than it was worth, and keeping a really up-to-date diary. I’m also going to make a bigger effort to schedule things in well in advance. And writing reviews in a timely fashion can’t hurt! I’ll be cooling it with the review requests until I’ve read down my pile of books. I’ll be reading what I want when I want.
So here’s my question to you: what are your tips and tricks for alleviating the pressures of blogging? To you restrain yourself when it comes to proofs and ARC’s? Do you schedule things well in advance? Do you take hiatuses? How do you prevent the Dreaded Reading Slump? Let me know!
I Should Read That 
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