It’s day 10. The final day. It’s time to reflect upon how things went, and lessons learned.
For me, that starts with looking at a basic question: how did I do on each day? My very analytical mind kicks in. Here’s how I did:
Day 1: Just Hit Publish
I did some free-writing to kick things off. I literally set a timer for 10 minutes, and just spewed. A bit of my views on work-related things slipped in there since I’m a bit of a workaholic.
Day 2: Why do I write?
This post is one that I will revisit, over time, to both flesh out the reasons I write and to make sure to prune any that aren’t valid for me.
Day 3: Thoughts on the optimal writing environment
This was just a start. I will also be posting more about my quest for the good writing environment.
Day 4: Rest
A quick breather.
Day 5: Patterns?
Spent time pruning the list of categories. I also combined some categories and tags and even converted some categories to tags. It’s not super lean yet, but is getting there. Spring cleaning started early.
Day 6: About Page
Went ahead and further refined my about page. I think it’s good for now.
Day 7: Analytics
An easy one, since I’m already using Google Analytics. I double-checked it’s working, but somehow didn’t get around to posting. I should remind my self better when there’s a deadline looming for the blog, just like for things like work and social engagements. Lesson (re)learned.
A brief, unavoidable intermission took place at this point. It delayed posting for a bit over a day since this site’s database server was down.
Day 8: Goals
I set a few goals. I think they’re challenging, but doable. The basics are laid out.
Day 9: Open Day
“Just write”
That’s what I did, sort of. I wrote about a writing tool, the fountain pen. It used a prompt from another great resource, the Daily Post Blog. That’s brings me to…
Day 10: Reflections
Today’s activity is simply this: I’d love for you to reflect on the last 10 days and write about how you feel completing the 10 day workshop. Naturally, some of you will also introspect a bit, asking yourself some of the “meatier” questions about where you’ll take it from here, how this has changed your perspective on writing and blogging, and why you feel the way you do.
Done! I think I’ve made improvements, and they will continue.
Here’s the complete challenge: 10 Days to a Better Blog!