5 Reasons Why Sometimes I Take an Unscheduled Blogging Break

You may or may not have noticed that last week I only posted once. As someone who posts every single day like clock work I do often worry how my views will be affected if I don’t post, but sometimes I just need to take a break.

In September I will have been blogging for 5 years, blogging at Cocktails in Teacups anyway. Prior to this blog I had a couple of others that I posted to sporadically and I certainly didn’t class myself as a blogger. I started blogging as I needed a hobby, I didn’t think it would actually stick, but here I am. My blog is now my job, well part of it anyway and because of that I often feel like I need to step back as I hit an inspiration-less wall, or sometimes I’m just busy. So today I’m sharing 5 reasons I may take an unscheduled break from Cocktails in Teacups.

1. I’m on holiday
I’ve only ever taken my laptop with me on holiday once, and that’s because I was going away for a month and fully intended on working while I was away (I didn’t). I’m always full of good intentions that I’ll schedule a bunch of posts for while I’m gone but in actual fact I usually have other work I need done for a deadline and my blog ends up being neglected. So I tend to get nothing up two days prior to my trip and then a couple of days after while I’m trying to nail down some work to recoup my expenses and catch up on all the washing. It would be nice to keep a travel diary but in all honesty, I end up being far too busy having fun to bother with it. Hats off to anyone who does manage it!

2. I’m busy with other work
My blog really doesn’t bring in enough money to survive on it alone so I’ll take on some other kind of writing work behind the scenes, or editing photos for big stock image companies. Sometimes I’ve left it until a few days before the deadline so I need to focus on getting that done. It’s a huge headache and stress, and I honestly wish my blog brought in enough that I could bring you new content every day 365 days a year, but right now, I can’t so a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do.

3. I’m struggling with my mental health
This is the reason for my lack of posts last week. I’ve mentioned before about battling my anxiety and insomnia demons, but I also suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which developed on the back of the domestic abuse I dealt with from LM’s father. May is a really bad month for me. I suffer from nightmares, I can’t sleep and I generally feel like i’m in a dark place. I relive every second of May 2012, day by day up until the 27th. But it’s not always May I struggle, sometimes something will trigger it off and because my anxiety is so high I can’t concentrate. I have techniques for coping these days but it takes a while to get my head around it.

4. I’m feeling uninspired
You’d think with so much Disney content I’d never feel uninspired, but sometimes I just miss the place so much that it’s upsetting to write about it in a way that will inspire and help people plan their holiday. Then I can’t find anything else to write about. During that time I usually edit photos to be ready for other posts and focus on my Flickr until inspiration strikes again. Lets face it, all good writers occasionally hit writers block!

5. My laptop has broken
This happened only last year! It is insured but it had to be sent away to be fitted with a new fan along with some other parts. It was away for other a week and during that time I tried to blog from my iPad and failed miserably so I pretty much gave up. I’m fairly sure it won’t be long until my laptop breaks again (it’s almost 5 years old and isn’t in the best of shapes) and maybe this time I’ll have to go for longer without one.

In the past if I was going to take a break I used to post about going on hiatus, now it just happens and I usually apologise for my absence when I’m back. Sometimes time just gets away from me and life happens, but just know I’ll be back.