Thank you for all of your prayers and kind comments last week. I just needed a break and y’all were very gracious about it. I never expected such an outpouring of sweet comments and messages. My followers are the best, and you are so much kinder to me than I deserve.
One of the things last week finally gave me the time to do was to sit down and prayerfully think through the daily pressure of maintaining an online presence. It takes a lot of time and work to…
- post blog content five times a week
- study, research, and write original articles and content 3-4 times a week
- write podcast scripts
- maintain a daily presence on seven social media platforms
- create original memes
- prep and travel for conferences
- do guest appearances on other podcasts
…and whatever else I’m forgetting at the moment. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining. I love this ministry and what I do. I just don’t have enough hours in the day to do all of those things with the level of excellence I’d like to. And meeting all of those deadlines – mostly self-imposed – puts a lot of pressure on me (again, mostly self-imposed1). That’s been nagging at the back of my mind for a while, but I’ve been so busy doing all of those things and meeting all of those deadlines that I haven’t really had time to contemplate it.
It’s no big whoop, I just need a little more time and a little less pressure. So I’m going to make a few changes. Some of them, the vast majority of you probably won’t even notice, but some of them, you will.
Effective immediately:
- I’m tinkering with the blog schedule. We’re going to give this a go and see how it works, and I might change my mind later, but right now, what I’ve decided to do is to cut back from blogging five days a week to three, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The Mailbag will move from Mondays to Tuesdays (and you don’t know how it’s killing me that Tuesday doesn’t start with an M for the alliteration – we might have to appropriate some Español and make it the Martes Mailbag :0)
Wednesdays (during the non-summer months), we’ll alternate between the next lesson in the current Bible study and either an original feature article (what I used to run on Fridays – articles on false teachers, biblical topics, current events in evanglicalism, etc.) or other original content (movies, upcoming speaking engagement information, etc. – what I used to run on Tuesdays).
Throwback Thursday will remain the same.
If I have some extra content I want to share with you in a given week, I might throw that in on a Monday or Friday. (Like this post you’re reading right now.)
The best way not to miss anything is to subscribe to the blog via email. If you’re using a computer, you’ll find the subscription box in the right sidebar. On your phone or tablet, scroll waaaaaay down. It’s near the bottom, between the “Good News” video and the picture of the piggy bank. (If you have trouble subscribing, click here for some advice.)
- I’m going to stop posting on my MeWe, Parler, and Gab pages. I’ll keep them open in case I ever need them (i.e. if I ever get kicked off the major platforms), but I’m no longer going to post content or interact. If you want to see my content on social media, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, (I’ll also continue to post first-run content on Pinterest) or subscribe to the blog via email (see above).
- I’m going to stop posting to my stories on Facebook (but not on Instagram). It’s the same content I post on my Facebook page, anyway.
- I’m going to cut back on the frequency of original memes I create and post on social media.
- I will most likely not post blog content during the days I’m traveling for speaking engagements.
- I’m going to take days off from posting content more frequently than I do now: when I’m prepping for conferences, when I just need a day off, etc.
That’s pretty much it for now. I’m toying with a few other minor ideas (there’s one thing I actually want to add if I can figure out how to do it), but I’ll give you a heads up on those when I make up my mind.
Thanks again for your understanding, your kindness, and your loyal readership and social media following.
1I say “mostly self-imposed” because I’m not under financial or contractual obligation for most of my ministry. I don’t earn any income (from advertising or anything else) for blogging, podcasting, etc. The only remuneration I receive is from speaking engagements, and the handful of followers -whom I deeply appreciate- who donate through PayPal and Patreon.
Michelle Lesley 