Entrepreneurial Writers: Keeping Motivated During the Holidays

There’s something about the time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas that makes me just not want to do any blogging or website work. Between my job and all the crazy holiday activities, I have to admit, I don’t have much motivation to keep my online magazine/blog running over the next few weeks (not to mention, the lack of motivation I have given my injury prevents me from doing the activities–ballet and running–my blog focuses on.

So I took a few days off (which was much needed) over the Thanksgiving holiday, but now I’m ready to get back at it. Despite not posting over Thanksgiving, I had some of my best number of views in a while!  After all, even with the holidays, it seems like people never take a break from reading the Internet. Here’s some of the tips I’ve done to help me stay motivated as well as as advice from other bloggers!

Take a (Short) Break

If you’re feeling stressed out or overworked, take a break for a few days, especially over the holidays themselves, if you can. Readers will probably understand if you need to take a short break and not post for a few days–because they have busy lives too! Sometimes a refresher is just what you need to get yourself moving and motivated again.

Prepare Some “Best of” Posts

I did this strategy some last year, and it’s something the publication I work for will be doing too. “Best of” posts are easy to prepare in advance and schedule to post over the holidays, and readers love them! You can even come up with a couple of different posts for the different categories on the site.

Read Some Motivational Tips

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of why you need to keep writing, even during the busy holidays. ArtBizBlog has some great tips for this, such as remembering that procrastinating is postponing your success, it takes longer to restart a project instead of keeping going, and imaging how good it’ll feel to accomplish something, especially during the busy holiday season.

Gather Up Some Guest Bloggers

Guest bloggers are great ways for other bloggers to get some exposure, and they can also be a good way for you to publish some content during the holidays. I’ve already started rounding up some guest bloggers for the holidays, and I hope to be returning the favor by guest blogging for some other blogs to keep my blog growing as well.

Read my post about guest blogging for some more tips.

Keep it Simple, Sweet and Short!

Thanks to Blogging on the Side for reminding me of this tip, although I use it a lot when I’m busy! Remember that your posts don’t always have to be super lengthy, especially during the holidays. Keep your topics simple and relevant, and your readers will still keep coming back, even if your not publishing as much as you used to. They also remind you that you may have to re-assess your family time and blogging time if you need to.

Engage in Other Ways

If you can’t manage to sneak in sometime to blog, communicate and share with your readers over social media and other forms of communication, even if it’s just a happy holidays, or sharing links that apply to your readership. You can even consider going an extra step and send out personal holiday cards to some of your closest readers for an added touch and connect with them even further!

 How else do you stay motivated during the holidays?