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I’ve decided to take a break for a day or so and hit the challenge again in a flurry at the top of next week. Why? Well with all this commenting on other peoples’ blogs, I’ve actually neglected my own writing. I want to get back in the groove again.
So my recommendation to myself on Day 21 is to take a break, smell the roses, check back over the ideas in the notebook and my del.icio.us stash and map out some tasks for June.
I agree. I took my break for a few days after reading lots of new blogs and commenting like a crazy person. I walked away and did my own writing and that felt great, so enjoy, Kate and come back soon.
Bonnie
@Christine Martell
http://seesmic.com/videos/E82dYgYQtw
@Bonnie K
See the above video comment!
And have a relaxing break both!
PS Re Seesmic I got caught up in the reply to you Christine and the thread got posted at Sesmic HQ not here. Oh well.
Christine is all over the place with Seesmic now!
OK–so Kate and Christine–what is it with this Comment Challenge that you aren’t digging. I know that when we did the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Challenge, we ended up wanting to rip out Darren’s throat by the end, so maybe it’s just that 31 days of anything begins to be a drain. Or is it something with how we structured this one? Or the activities themselves?
Let me know what you think because I like the Challenge idea, but think that it’s not working as well as we’d like. Thoughts?
Michele, I think the title of my post goes to the heart of things. It’s the length of the challenge rather than the concept itself … which is great.
I found some of the tasks seemed a little less relevant to me than others … that’s normal I guess for each individual. Basically though, the constant commenting was ‘distracting’ from my own research and writing.
Ideal length of a challenge for me? I’d say 10 focussed days. Having said that, I’ll be baaack after this my mini-break.
Umm, Kate, I think I might agree with you. I feel like I have got a little bogged down with commenting issues that were circulating around and making things worse. Having taken a little time out to put perspective on things, I feel much better and keen to get out and about commenting again.
Woohoo feeling more productive already! {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/TpXSdSqDWL_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Woohoo feeling more productive already! “}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/avebmgn3wr”}}}
Kate, I agree that the length is a problem–it’s also a problem in terms of coming up with activities! I think that if we did 5-10 day challenges, we could actually be more focused and relevant. If people wanted, they could then string together a few shorter challenges to create a longer one. I think if we end up doing this format again, we definitely need to think in shorter chunks.
Michele. I think this would work actually. We all seem to be such busy people as well! I hadn’t thought of the problem of coming up with new and relevant activities. Of course … and kudos to you and the team for doing this.
I’m actually feeling ready to rock again after my enforced break. I’m also thinking of how I can make the last week even better in terms of my own work-flow in this challenge.
I found that after the first week of the challenge I wasn’t able to keep up. I wasn’t (and am not) stressing about this. I don’t feel guilty about it. We all have very busy lives and it is hard to commit to an ‘extra’ for 31 days solid. So we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about falling behind 🙂
I have grown tremendously from the challenge and I know that I will get to doing almost all of the tasks eventually.
@Michele, my first thought when you and the rest of the organizers pitched this challenge was “Holy cow, they’re going to have to come up with 31 tasks for us!” And all this on your free time! So a big thank you to you and the rest of the organizers (Sue, Kim, and Sylvia).
With regards to format for a challenge like this, another option might be one challenge a week. Or at the beginning of a month post 5-8 challenges to complete over the course of the month. Or start with one week of challenges followed up with one challenge a week, or…
I have found the challenge to be a great inspiration for my blog posts; sometimes we get writers’ block, and this challenge has given me many a reason to write up a new post. I’ve also connected with so many new people. Lastly, I think that the challenge has helped me to become a better blog citizen–reading lots of new posts, writing more comments (and hopefully more thoughtful comments…)
I heart the Comment Challenge 😉
I’ve come back to this thread because of the use of seesmic which I think is just awesome for connecting with people. So I’m going to have a play with it for day 27 of the challenge. I am a tad behind, but I’ve stopped stressing about that – this challenge is all about my learning, so I need to accept that its OK to do it in more than 31 days.
{seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/N5J7BmcllL_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:” “}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/Eo8MG2QrMZ”}}}
May 23, 2008 at 12:44 PM /
More bad hair and vacation needed {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/CURK94jH44_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”More bad hair and vacation needed “}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/E82dYgYQtw”}}}