How easy it is to let the hours, even days and weeks, slip by.
While I knew I had temporarily deviated from my former work schedule a bit, as I will discuss, I was frankly shocked as I prepared this post to see that I had gone three months without a blog post!
I will try not to let that happen again.
Time Flys When You Are Busy
One thing amazes me because I simply cannot understand it at all. There are the folks who sometimes say, “I don’t have anything to do.”
Every day there are dozens of things I would like to do and never get around to doing even though I keep busy all day, every day. Working on this website is only one of them.
When you are busy, time goes by quickly. Mine certainly does. I know I cannot do a thing about this but try to limit the activities I undertake as much as I can and prioritize the ones that I deem most important—like the basic educational areas of this site (even if I have not always focused on the blog).
While I have been busy in other areas of life as well, I have been working on projects related to this site a great deal over these three months.
Aside from the blog, I have posted new articles on the site and updated others. But even more, I have found it necessary to spend a good bit of time working on areas that will only show after some time.
What Have I Been Up To?
Working online is always challenging. The whole world of technology changes so fast it is difficult for anyone to keep up. A lot of what is required to maintain a website like this one is time consuming. But more than that, it takes learning and using new skills all the time.
Getting Personal:
When I started working with websites I began by learning html and then css, later other coding methods. I wrote my sites in the traditional way.
With the advent of modern media formats, this year I spent a good bit of time converting this site over to using WordPress as a CMS (content management system) in order to make the site readable on phones and other smaller devices.
In the last few months I have found myself needing to learn how to use not one or two but perhaps five or six new areas of skills. Frankly, I am still just beginning to work on them. To get traffic to a site these days requires using more and better images (so I need to improve my photography skills), making videos for posting on YouTube, and seriously working with social media sites like FaceBook, Twitter, Linked In, and Pinterest.
I have stepped up from Paintshop Pro to Photoshop (not an easy program to master) for image creation and begun work with Camtasia for video (think YouTube), as well as developing additional skills with Powerpoint for better video input. There is much more, but I won’t bore you with any more details.
All of this has to do with work that goes on behind the scenes for my websites. They will make it possible to do the mechanics of producing better content and reaching out to attract more readers.
It is of primary importance to continue developing the content of the site which is designed to help readers succeed with their money. This is the purpose of the site and a commitment I intend to keep.
But it does no good to do that if I cannot do what it takes to attract readers and present the material in a format people can read. Fewer and fewer visitors are reading on regular computers, even laptops; more and more use tablets and phones. And they look for more graphic interfaces and video to make their reading accessible as well.
Where to Go From Here?
Over the next couple of weeks I will be developing my plans for the new year. I already have a pretty good idea of what I would like to do (at least with my online work), but I want to write out my goals in more detail as a guide to keep me moving in the right direction.
Some areas of work on the site will still not be apparent for a few months but others are beginning to show up on the site already. For example, I will be updating many articles with new images very soon, and have already in some cases. My Nikon D200 will have to start earning the investment I made in it!
One thing I want to do is to look carefully at the content of the site overall to make sure we are not neglecting anything important. You can help out here if you notice topics that are not covered adequately or clearly enough to provide the help you need. Just drop me an email at [email protected] with your recommendations.
One specific area I would like to work on is the inclusion of more practical tools for implementing the concepts taught on the site. Many people find the use of simple worksheets to be helpful, for example.
Conclusion
Yes, time flies when you are having fun. But it passes by quickly whether you are enjoying your life or not. I fully recommend keeping busy doing positive things that can bring you happiness.
Sometimes I may keep myself all too busy, but it is a choice. And offering the personal finance education made available on this site is an area of great satisfaction to me because I know it can help a lot of people, especially in these challenging times of economic unrest.
