This post is part ramble, part explanation, and request for feedback. I've been dissatisfied with my hiving lately, I keep wanting to post and engage more but lately it hasn't been happening nearly as much as I would like. There's plenty of reasons for this but I want to get into a few and see if any of y'all have similar experiences and how you deal with them.
Perfectionism
It takes me forever to write anything, it can easily take an hour or more to write a single paragraph and even a short blog post with just a few photos and paragraphs is an hours long process. That sort of pace puts a definite ceiling on how much posting and engaging I can get done, with the recent changes in work I've had even less time available for the hive and this has really put a crimp on my hiving.
For me, finding the right word or turn of phrase is one of the biggest stumbling blocks. I'm always trying to get a sentence or paragraph to say exactly what I mean and nothing more (or less), which usually takes an inordinate amount of time. I hold a particular history professor whose favorite phrase was "Be more specific!" to be partly to blame but I did plenty of this before I ever took their class. Anybody else struggle with this? Any cheats or suggestions for short circuiting that loop or speeding up the process?
Procrastination
I'll write this section later...
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Somehow things seem to have a knack of getting put off and then just keep dodging completion. I use several different front-ends for posting, mainly because each one has a different, half completed post that had to wait for a later day and it still ain't come. Usually the more I try to force something the harder it becomes to get done (with both photography and writing) so coming back to something later is often a better choice...if I ever make it back to it. My attention span and a jackrabbit loaded on amphetamines have much in common, which doesn't help things...
Posting
I've spent much of my time on here trying to do a post a day but that sometimes makes it feel like a chore and takes some of the fun out of it. When I back off some and try and post a little less often it makes it easy to get out of the habit of posting and then I have trouble getting back into the swing of things. Do y'all run into this, what do you usually do?
On a related note, what do y'all do in regards to voting on comments? Until recently my vote wasn't worth enough to make a difference so I largely didn't (with occasional, usually random exceptions). I've always been uncomfortable with the perception of commenting just for an upvote (if I'm commenting it's for the conversation) but at the same time enjoy rewarding something that really contributes to a conversation. Do y'all upvote anything that's on topic? Just what goes above and beyond? Nothing at all?
All photos are from my visit to Shaker Village at the beginning of this year (that reminds me, I'm still procrastinating on writing a proper post about that). I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes runs into snags, I'd love to hear how y'all deal with it when you do, drop me a comment if you've got a minute (or an hour)! Until next time, smoke'em if you got'em!