We've all been talking about a paperless lifestyle and "work from anywhere with a laptop" for years and years. We constantly save useful information in all sorts of formats (documents, videos, infographics, etc.) in the cloud storage for later use. Meanwhile, our inboxes and browser bookmarks are also flooded with "just in case" information. We may or may not use the saved information to help output our creative work. In fact, we often write a blog on new topics as we're required to be more flexible and spontaneous than ever.
How do you cope with your storage, bookmark folder and mail inbox full of clutter? Can you say your web platform is in an organised environment? If not, why write a blog when you are drowning in clutter?
You're Distracted By The Clutter
Promotional emails almost always contain a link or two, so you click one to go to their site. What will happen to the email? You either make sure to go back and delete it right away, forget to delete it, or decide to keep it just in case you read it again later.
You don't need to hear this from me, you know that there is enough "useful just in case" information piling up in your applications to distract you from your busy schedule. And the job to clean up the clutter only makes your life even more hectic.
Content marketing is becoming increasingly competitive, and individual blog sites struggle to outrank authority sites on search engines more than ever before. Bloggers are expected to provide more useful information, which means that they're required to do more research and save all the evidence in case their content is challenged by users.
When I was running a clothing business, American "Top Gun" aviation jackets were some of the best sellers - the kind Maverick/Tom Cruise wore in the movie back in the 1980s. I received a lot of detailed questions, not restricted to the make and the manufacturers but also about aviation jackets in general. As a merchant, I didn't have to give accurate information about the history to my customer. A simple "I don't know" may have been enough. But the jackets were selling very well, I felt obliged to have good knowledge of them.
There were some discrepancies in web information (e.g. some said the original flight jacket was first manufactured in 1945, others said in 1946, etc.) I ended up contacting a couple of specialists. What I was actually doing was overloading myself with a lot of information I didn't know what to do with afterwards.
Are You Easily Distracted, Or Just Disorganised?
So here's the dilemma that you may have;
- Writing thorough content is something you may strive for. Your objective is to make a fair and unbiased, but your own unique judgment whatever the topic you're working on. You want to take in as much information and as many opinions of others as possible to arrive at your conclusion.
- But it's not like you are going to write an encyclopedic article. If you don't start writing "something", soon you'll get agitated or even get on the edge of giving up that particular topic/project.
- Of course, there are giga-tonnes of stuff on the internet, the volume of which you shouldn't be "distracted" by. As you endlessly check similar information from one site to another, then another, you'll soon wonder if you're organised well enough.
- Why write a blog when your mind is in that sort of state? While you're incapable of organizing information in hand, are you capable of sharing your view with others?
There's more than enough stuff online, you know. Enough for you to live twice. One way to avoid the "information overload" is to restrict yourself from saving anything for later, just decide to rely on search functions from now on.
I use my browser bookmark menu only for the sites I need to log in frequently over time. Otherwise, I Google-search and that's enough because the most useful sites are likely to be ranked towards the top position for a good reason. If I go back to find the same page and can't find it, then I decide that the page wasn't meant to be, and I move on.
Not saving anything for later use will help when you write your blog too - to avoid getting stuck.
If you have vast knowledge in the area you're writing about and there's no need for you to search for more information, that's good. But most of us lack the knowledge to create the highest possible quality content. You want to make sure the information you're providing is absolutely correct too. Therefore you do research and see what others say.
Here's where the problem starts. The greater the number of interesting and useful articles you find, the more you'll be bogged down with multiple thoughts. You may start to reconsider your initial blog idea, too.
Decluttering The Space Will Clear Your Mind
While I'd love to find out the best possible information available to me in order to write an article, to stop researching is another way to complete my blog quicker. I don't necessarily like to write a quick blog, I do worry about imperfections. But by limiting myself with the amount of information I can draw the line.
Why write a blog when you are drowning in clutter? I no longer keep any emails older than 30 days - there are some important emails that I shouldn't have deleted, but that's not the end of the world. If I get desperate, I can always ask whoever! No websites are bookmarked unless I use them very frequently. I only read 3 or 4 most useful articles for additional information before I start writing. With this way - knowing that my space is all clear - I now feel much more peaceful when blogging.
So if you feel you're overloaded with information, stop saving anything "just in case", start deleting what you've saved without questioning, and see how you feel. It will clear your mind for sure.
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