First of all a huge thank you for the overwhelming response to my post this Monday! You guys have truly shown and reconfirmed just how awesome our bookish community really is. ❤ ❤ ❤ And it’s one of the reasons I would never be able to quit book blogging completely. So to all of you out there:

So many people have left their kind words and tips and advice and I’m still feeling warm and fuzzy inside whenever I think about it. Thank you all for being so awesome! ❤ ❤ ❤ To be honest, just writing that post has been a form of therapy already, but I’ve decided to use the feedback to make my own plan to get back on track. This is mostly my personal view on ‘getting my mojo’ back and I by no means claim this is the perfect or right way of beating a slump… But I’m just putting it out there in case it will be useful to someone else suffering from something similar.

So here we go… My 5 Step Plan to get my mojo back and beat that slump!

# STEP NUMBER 1: SLOW DOWN #

One of the reasons I ended up in a slump in the first place is that I’ve been all over the place stressing out over getting those books read in time and write all those reviews before the deadline… And both blogging and reading has started to feel like a shore or even a job without pay instead of a fun hobby. Think headless chicken running around like crazy… That would have been me after a few months of dealing with an ARC overload and deadlines.

So I’ve decided to do the wise thing and just slow down. No more forced blogging and pressure to get those posts and reviews written on time. I’m going to start writing posts only when I truly feel like it and hopefully that will make me enjoy writing down my thoughts again. I don’t think this part will be noticed much on my blog though, because I’ve always used the help of scheduling posts and I’m hoping I’ll feel like blogging at least a few times a week to get those posts ready. But if I don’t, I’m going to remind myself there is no pressure to finish those posts.

Slowing down blogging does mean it will take me longer to respond to comments though… My 100% respond policy and visiting back won’t change, but it might take a while for me to do so. Also, I probably won’t be able to do as much blog hopping as I would like… I hate not being able to follow all those excellent bookish posts, but I also know I really need some time off as well.

# STEP NUMBER 2: ARCS #

Step number two is all about those ARCs and taking care of them. As I’ve stated in my post on Monday, one of the reasons for my slump was the overload of ARCs on my plate. And this will be one of the points I will focus on as I’m trying to get back on track. Because to truly beat my slump, I’ll have to get control over my ARCs. I currently have 10 pending Netgalley ARCs and a few others as well… And I’m going to try and take care of them in different ways.

First of all, I’ve decided to just read the most urgent ones and leave the rest of the titles for September, even if this means not meeting deadlines. I’m suffering from an ARC overdose right now and the only way to remedy that is to take a break and read my own books. It’s going to be hard to ignore deadlines since I’m a perfectionist and I know I’ll feel bad, but I just don’t see another way.

The second step will be bringing back my Netgalley shelf below five titles and keep it that way no matter what. It’s going to be HARD to control my requests, but it’s the only way to be able to start reading my own books as well as ARCs (as much as I love receiving those). I might allow one or two extra titles, but only if the publish dates are not too close to each other (max 3-4 per month).

# STEP NUMBER 3: READ OWN BOOKS #

One of the things that will hopefully make me enjoy reading again is turning to all those poor neglected titles that have been collecting dust while I was reading my ARCs. I want to start reading more of my own books and at my own pace… I’m always a fast reader, but during the last few months I’ve tried to read even faster just to be able to finish those ARCs in time, and it’s taken the fun out of reading. I want to stop focusing on the goal to read x books per week and focus more on simply enjoying what I’m reading no matter how long it takes to finish a book.

And this is where another thing comes in: I’ll be selecting mainly titles I have been wanting to read for a long time, titles I’m excited about, books by favorite authors or even rereading those books I’ve loved before. Hopefully stumbling across a lot of great reads in a row will speed things up and make me fall in love with reading just for the sake of reading again.

# STEP NUMBER 4: SOCIAL MEDIA #

This one is going to be tricky, but in order to be truly able to slow down and get back on track I’ve decided to limit my social media use. I’ve only actively started participating on Twitter, Instagram and Litsy this year and while I love the communities, it also takes a lot of time to keep up with them. Don’t worry, I won’t disappear completely! But I’ll be less active on Instagram as I plan not taking as many photos and I won’t be able to like and comment as much as before. My Twitter use will mostly be the same as I always share posts during my blog hops, but I won’t be able to read other Tweets as often as before. And Litsy… Again I won’t be as active, but as it’s more informal I’ll still be spamming the feed with my cat photos whenever I feel like it haha.

# STEP NUMBER 5: ME TIME #

One of the reasons I needed a break is that I started to notice I was neglecting my personal life in order to keep up with my blog. So the final step will be to start focusing more on taking care of myself and not worry about deadlines and getting those posts up. I’m going to pick up exercising actively again (although I admit I partly blame the winter weather for not speedwalking/running as much as before xD ) and be more focused on eating healthy. No more making excuses not to do both due to blog deadlines or books I need to finish! Healthy body, healthy mind right?

 

Wow this has turned out to be a way longer post than I had in mind haha. This will be my 5 step plan to get back on track… Any comments? Again I don’t claim this to be the best or only way to beat a slump, but it felt good just getting it all out there. And who knows, some of my rambling might actually be useful to someone else suffering from a slump. 😉

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