Since creating jablifestyle.net back in April 2016 I have posted new content, either a blog or book review, almost every week. However, in recent weeks, and moving forward, my approach is changing. I wanted to share with you what has led to this change in approach, what content I’ll be sharing in the future and also take the opportunity to review the best of what I’ve shared to date. 

My reasons for starting this blog haven’t changed significantly over the last 17 months, as a reminder, this is what I said in my first ever post on 10th April 2016: 

‘The theme which permeates each of these 6 categories [Personal Finance, Productivity, Fitness & Gym, Technology & Products, Books and Travel] is ‘millennial self-improvement’. I initially decided to write this blog as a way for me to note down all the knowledge and life-hacks I was constantly picking up but almost immediately forgetting, I felt that the best way for me to remember them was for them to be written in an easily accessible and logical format…. this blog!’ 

Evaluating my blog against this criteria, I’m proud to say it has been a massive success. I’ve learned so much on self-improvement and having the blog has helped me to be accountable and ensure the things I started, enjoyed, and saw real value from I stuck with and were not simply ‘flash in the pan’ ideas. 

Before I started this site I considered creating it for a number of years, which meant there were a number of things I was keen to share my perspective on, and even more areas I felt could be beneficial to me but that I needed to research more – both reading & experimenting – before I could really judge. 

However, after writing and sharing more than 60 posted in the intervening 17 months I have found myself drafting posts because I felt creating ‘content’ was what was required of me and not because I had a burning desire to understand something better or truly believed incorporating it into my life would help me lead a happier, more productive and meaningful life. I never wanted to be in a position where I was creating posts for the sake of creating posts, which weren’t adding value to my life or someone else’s. 

After 17 months of active experimentation and investigation I have decided to take a more relaxed approach. So, the next period of my life – and this blog – will be more focused on fine tuning and continuing to re-access the things I’ve spoken about over the last 17 months to ensure I am getting the greatest value from them. This doesn’t mean I think I am the final product. I am definitely not that delusional! There is still so much I want to learn, improve upon and challenge myself against, but with the foundations set – the core skills, systems and understanding – I will take more time and focus on accessing what I want to investigate and experiment with.  

As a direct result of this there will be much less content for me to share, and therefore I’ll be sharing on a completely random and infrequent basis. That definitely doesn’t mean I will stop publishing completely, I still love the exercising of writing down the things I learn and my unique perspective on different fads, but I don’t want to be yet another blogger who releases content for the sake of releasing content.  

The second main reason for this change in approach is that I’ve concluded I don’t want to make any money from this blog. Unfortunately – or maybe not – I don’t enjoy any of the promotional stuff that is required to get a blog/website big enough to make money.  This is something I wasn’t sure of when I started the blog, in fact I envisioned I would want to start monetising after the blog had been running for around 1 year, but now I can say with 100% certainty I don’t. There is so much content available today, and bloggers are having to spend more and more time showing off, publicising themselves, sucking up to others etc. to make it anywhere. That isn’t me, I’ve tried publicising myself on different social networks but I just don’t enjoy it. In hindsight, this was completely naïve, I really thought enough people would see my content by osmosis and I’d organically grow an audience, but the reality is times have changed, maybe 10 years ago that would have worked, and my blog content isn’t niche enough to get that osmosis. I should highlight I’m not moaning about my situation or being critical of others, some people love the social media side of blogging and love reaching out to people out of the blue to see if they can come to a mutually beneficial position (e.g.. guest blog writing) however that just isn’t me and I’m happy with that.  

Although I haven’t earned any money from the blog I have learnt so much over the period, therefore I am seeing the money I’ve spent setting up and maintaining the website as an investment in my own skillset, from that perspective I’ve had an incredible Return on Investment (ROI). Specifically, the main things I’ve learned through the process of this blog are:  

• Discipline & Perseverance – I have a full time, very demanding job and I set myself the target to create/update/publicise etc. this blog purely on 30minutes effort 6 days a week. For more than 17 months I have achieved this 90 – 95% of the time, that has proven to me I have a level of discipline and perseverance I wasn’t sure I possessed. 
• Ability to always be able to make time – Related to the above, I realised that I could make a small amount of time each day available for something no matter how busy I was. When I was working very long days or away with friends I just had to wake up early or sacrifice 30mins of watching TV, anybody can do that. I’ve learnt that if you want something badly enough, or love something enough, you can always make time for it, no matter how busy you are. 
• Quickly go from research to end product – I have significantly increased by ability and confidence in analysing large amounts of data quickly, picking up the most important/interesting points to me, and converting that into good(ish) quality prose that others will want to read. 
• A great personal repository of everything I’ve learned – This blog may not get a consistently high readership, but I now have a great repository of everything I’ve learned, places I’ve visited, and books I’ve read. I can access it almost anywhere in the world, and it is somewhere that friends, family and one-day children can look to find out more about me and what makes me tick. 
• Basic website creation & maintenance – Before starting this website/blog I had no experience with website creation, I am definitely not the most advanced person in that department today, but I know the basics, these skills won’t be forgotten and are very transferable, I have no doubt I will use them again in the future.  
• Basic Social Media presence – Whilst I’m not good at building and maintaining a social media presence that is because I don’t enjoy the tasks it involves, not because I don’t know how to. These might not be skills I want to use myself in the future, but there is skill and knowledge I have picked up which I can share with others.  

Finally, as I take this time to re-think how I use this blog it gave me a great opportunity to look back over the previous 66 posts and highlight some of those posts which I believe have had the greatest impact on my own life, and if you haven’t already read I’d highly recommend: 

1. Millennial Money Fundamentals – http://jablifestyle.net/2016/04/30/millennial-money-fundamentals/  
2. Forming Habits & Routines – http://jablifestyle.net/2016/05/22/forming_habits_routines/  
3. Passion – Constraint or Enabler – http://jablifestyle.net/2016/05/22/forming_habits_routines/  
4. Simplest Productivity Hack – http://jablifestyle.net/2016/12/18/simplest-productivity-hack/  
5. Weight Loss Fundamentals – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/01/17/weight-loss-fundamentals/  
6. The Power of Perception – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/02/05/the-power-of-perception/  
7. New Habit: Morning Gym Routine – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/03/19/new-habit-morning-gym-workout/  
8. Don’t Underestimate Incrementalism – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/04/09/dont-underestimate-incrementalism/  
9. How to retire early as a Millennial (2 parts) – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/05/21/early-retirement-part1/ & http://jablifestyle.net/2017/05/28/early-retirement-part-2/  
10. How Millennials should future proof their careers – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/06/18/future-proof-career/  
11. Should I become a Homeowner – http://jablifestyle.net/2017/07/02/should-i-become-a-homeowner/  

I hope that this blog can continue to add value to those who read it, and the new format makes sense and is understood. I’d also love to hear your view on the posts which have really resonated with you, please comment below. 

 

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