Whether it’s in the form of a how-to guide or a news update, a blog is a vital part of any personality or business’ online presence. It’s a crucial link between them and the public, providing an access point to relevant information in a variety of fields. As a writer for Content Cucumber, I’ve experienced a two-month crash course in blogging that has taught me about how to learn, write, and make sense of things that I previously knew nothing about. By extrapolating these insights into our daily habits, I believe that blogging has some valuable things to teach us about how we live.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY
What do cryptocurrency, designer jewelry, e-commerce, and dogs have in common? The answer is absolutely nothing unless you’re a blogger working with Content Cucumber. In that case, those are all possible writing topics that you could be assigned to research and write about. In truth, I’m not particularly interested or knowledgable in any of these subjects (even dogs, I’m more a cat person myself). Yet I still had to start from scratch and, after some online sleuthing, be able to write an effective and accurate article about each one.
It’s easy to get stuck in the world of what we already know. However, this habit can hinder us from evolving our perspective on things. Challenging yourself to learn about one new thing each day can positively affect the way you perceive other aspects of life. Maybe watch a documentary instead of a movie tonight, or look up the difference between African and European swallows during your lunch break. Feeding your curiosity is easier than ever during the age of the Internet.
MANAGE YOUR TIME
Any sort of writing requires a significant amount of focus and energy. Trying to research, outline, compose, and edit a piece all at once is a great way to waste your time. This applies to any other series of tasks that you might need to complete each day. From mundane chores to work responsibilities, it’s important to stay sharp without tiring yourself out.
That’s why I’m a huge supporter of the Pomodoro technique. By setting a 20-25 minute timer to accomplish a specific task and then taking a five-minute break, it’s much easier to stay on track with your work. The larger chunks allow you ample time to make progress toward your goal while the short breaks give your brain enough rest to keep going. This is a great way to break up an objective into manageable tasks so you can complete them as quickly and easily as possible. Learn more about the Pomodoro technique and other time management strategies here.
USE COMMON SENSE
I’ve heard it said that common sense isn’t so common anymore. While many people don’t always use it, I think we all have more in us than we might realize. I found myself forced to use it while researching for an article on VPS hosting. Now, learning about the intricacies of server mechanisms and website hosting plans is not my expertise, so I had to figure out a way to clearly explain something that I didn’t understand myself.
I ended up boiling the jargon down to simpler terms that I could grasp and wrote the piece that way. I realized that just converting a few concepts into digestible words allowed me to put together the whole article clearly and concisely. Ever since then, I’ve been able to reason my way through many topics instead of completely relying on Internet sources for all of the content. This just goes to show that, instead of Googling everything, our problems can often be solved when we try to understand them ourselves first.
