It looks like the most hackneyed writer’s trick you can imagine: restart a blogging habit on new year’s day and see how long it lasts for.
In this case, however, appearances are deceiving.
Three things have happened in the last six months to lead to this blog post.
Google stopped supporting Feedburner, the service I was using to make it possible for readers to follow this blog. Although the feed stopped working in June, I had no urgent need to address the matter as I hadn’t written a new blog post since January 2021.
In November, two different blogs I read shared the same piece of advice from a writer who advocates for writing less, but writing more often. The advice struck a chord. For the last eight weeks I’ve maintained a near-daily (and, for me, hitherto unheard of) habit of note-taking/journaling/writing/whatever you want to call it. Most of it was brain-emptying stuff; some of it warrants sharing on here.
The end-of-year break from work provided a natural pause, and time in which to do some much needed website maintenance - including finding a new blog subscription service. After much research, I’ve found one that looks like it will work for me, and will hopefully work for readers too.
Cliched writing/blogging image that in no way reflects my actual writing habits.
If I have done everything right (which is by no means guaranteed) then anyone who already had an active subscription to this blog should still have one. Hopefully you are reading this post in your email inbox, and you are happy to remain a subscriber.
Of course, if you would prefer to unsubscribe then that option is available, and I appreciate you having followed in the first place, whenever that may have been.
All being well, 2022 will see the resumption of regular writing appearing on this website. I’m not attempting a well-meaning-but-destined-for-failure new year’s resolution; nor am I attempting a blogging challenge where I post something every day (neither you or I have got that kind of time, I’m sure).
What’s in my head is a plan - albeit not a clearly defined one - to carry on sharing what’s important to me in construction, the industry that has now employed me for a little over twenty years.
And, as I move into my fifth year of being self-employed, I also want to share my renewed interest in working in a more effective and focused way.
This is not an effort to become some ‘productivity guru’. I learnt a lot about my working habits during 2021; I’ve also become more aware of just how noisy a world we live in. ‘Mindfulness’ and ‘mental health’ can sound like buzzwords these days, but they’ve always been a theme of this blog, and they’re themes I intend to continue exploring.
Despite my protestations about the date’s lack of significance, I can’t write a post on January 1st and ignore it completely. So, whether you are a new or existing reader: thanks for reading, and happy new year!
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