Breaking the monotony of blogging

Blogging can be a solitary endeavor. More than that it can get very monotonous. Much like anything in life if done often enough and for long enough. It will eventually manifest itself in the quality of your posts. While you are blogging (or doing any other type of computer related activites) it is important to break things up so you can give yourself a break from time to time. Here are a few ideas that will break up the blogging monotony

Listen to MP3’s

This is by far my favorite thing to do while I’m blogging or anything else on the computer. Hopefully you know how to do this without instruction, but just incase…

• You need an MP3 player. Though Widows Media Player (WMP) will suffice I recommend something a little more robust such as Winamp by Nullsoft. With Winamp you’ll have a lot more functionality than with WMP especially once you begin to experiment with some community made plugins. If you need instruction on using the software have a look the community support section over at winamp.com
• You’ll need some MP3’s to actually listen too. Now being a good steward of my little slice of the internet I can’t actually advise you to download (free of charge) MP3’s using a peer-to-peer application such as Limewire.
• You’ll need some noise amplification system, aka speakers, or headphones. That should go without saying, but it doesn’t. I fix computers and I’ve made more than my share of money from people calling me asking why they can’t hear anything. Trust me you feel pretty stupid having a technician show up and tell you to go buy some speakers or headphones and handing you a $75.00 plus travel bill. If you don’t have speakers Logitech puts out some decently priced speakers that work well. Granted they aren’t a set of Bose but they get the job done.
• If listening to music isn’t your thing you can always find an amazing assortment of audio choices over at Live365.com worth listening to.

Please note that I mentioned Winamp because it is what I use, but there are plenty of other players out there which will work just fine. Even WMP is perfectly fine. I just prefer something a little less resource intensive.

Surfing the web

Sometimes I find it a nice break to surf the web at the same time I am blogging. How do I accomplish this? With tabs of course! If your browser isn’t capable of tabs you really need to upgrade to a better browser, though to be fair even the enemy, Internet Explorer sports tabs now days. Here’s some tips that will make your tabbed surfing easier.

• Use keyboard shortcuts to move between tabs. With both Firefox and Internet Explorer the ctrl+tab combination will allow you to move between pages. With your browser window open, and in focus just hold down the ctrl key and tap the tab key. You should see your browser cycling through open tabs
• Open new sites in a new tab. If your mouse has a middle mouse button, usually a scroll wheel, push down on it when you hover over a link and this should open the link in a new tab instead of either opening a new browser or opening that page in place of the current page. If you don’t have a scroll wheel/middle mouse button try right clicking on the link and then click on Open link in new tab. In IE 7 it will say Open in new tab.

Other things you can do while surfing the web include…

• Use Google as a spell checker. Who says you can’t get work done while surfing the web. If your spelling is as bad as mine is you need all the help you can get. Further if you’re a cheap-ass like myself and refuse to purchase any kind of spell check software you can always rely on Google. Well almost always. Generally you just need to type something that looks kind of like the word you want to use sounds into Google and press enter. Google will then spit out a page of results and if the spelling you tried was incorrect it should say Did you mean:blah. This won’t let you check the entire document, but it will help you get past individual words that are tripping you up. If you want to spell check an entire document try out Google Docs
• Play a few games or watch some videos. Sometimes you just need a little downtime while your blogging is put on hold for a bit. There are a ton of free flash game sites out there to play around. One of them is ugotgames.com which incidentally will help to verify that your speakers are functioning properly. If games are your style you can always spend some times over at Ebaumsworld.com, or Jibjab.com playing around. There are literally hundreds (probably thousands) of sites like those around.
• Research your topic. Whatever topic you are writing about chances are excellent that you aren’t the first and therefore you should leverage the advantage of the web by using it for research even while you are writing your posting. With the world wide web at your disposal there is no excuse for not knowing the subject of your article inside and out. No, it won’t make you an expert out of an egg, but it can make the difference between someone with a valid point and a buffoon.

Step away from the computer

Every 15 to 20 minutes get away from the computer for a few minutes. Whatever you do just get away from the computer. It will refresh your mind which will translate into a better post. Some quick and easy activites you can try your hand at while taking your break.

• Take a 5 minute walk outside. If the weather doesn’t permit a walk just go stand on the deck for 5 minutes. Fresh air will do you a world of good
• Read a page in your book. It will allow your mind to switch gears for a few minutes
• Pray. The power of prayer is astounding. Whether you believe in God or not the effects of prayer and how it affects your peace of mind is incredible. Not to mention someone is listening.
• Go talk with a friend or family member in the same house. We are creatures that thrive on relationships and communication. Don’t forsake your immediate local communication for the blogging community.
• Do some exercises. Over at Ross Training there is some excellent information about bodyweight exercises that will make you wish you had never eaten a twinkie in your life.
• Walk your dog. The poor beast would love to get outside and take care of business. Even if the business is nothing more glamorous than sniffing the spot where something else took care of its business.

Do a crossword puzzle.

That’s right, go spend $3 to $5 and get a book of crosswords from the supermarket. Research shows that doing crosswords can actually signficantly improve your IQ. Don’t worry no one will think you’re a dork for doing them. They will however think you’re a dork for living behind your computer and doing nothing else. And sadly, they’ll be right. Even more sad is that you know they’re right. If you can’t find a book don’t worry. You can download crosswords from about.com

What kind of things do you do to break up the monotony of blogging?

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