I didn’t start out wanting to improve my productivity and efficiency at my primary “employed” job by blogging on the side, but it seems to have happened that way.
This wasn’t so at first, in fact I felt a bit overwhelmed because its like working two full-time jobs instead of one, but now I’ve learned to pace myself and my ability to handle a greater capacity has increased too. I liken it to lifting weights… At first you can only press or curl small amounts of weight, but over time and if you stick to a schedule, your body adapts and is able to handle greater amounts of weight. I believe the brain is like that too. As I think more often and in different ways, why isn’t it conceivable that the brain is increasing it’s ability to think in quicker, stronger and different ways?
Just the other days, I was doing something at work were I followed path that I followed for years, when all of a sudden I though, why not try this different way instead? I wasn’t looking for a new way to do the old task, but the new more efficient way just popped in my head… This is happening more frequently lately, and things that were once intimidating for me are now getting much, much easier.
I think that my side business in blogging has caused these changes. As yet another analogy, I think I was like a 6 cylinder car running on 5 pistons. Yeah I ran, but my performance was just okay and I wasted a lot of energy… With blogging, it seems like somehow that 6th piston has started working too, making me a more productive individual.
In my case, my weakness was communication and writing, but I think that over the course of the past two years, my skill in both has increased! As a bonus, it has really helped me with getting my routine work done. Being on a blogging schedule also helps me with my organization skills at work. It’s truly a win/win.
It’ll be interesting to see where it takes me over the next few years…
Bests,
MR
I think the answer is no for me. I don’t think blogging hurt my day job, I just don’t think it helped.
Perhaps it made me a better writer / communicator at my day job. So maybe it did help!
For me, I’m not the best communicator, so it’s help me quite a bit 🙂
But if you were already strong in those skills (much like you are), then perhaps not so much…
I actually decided to blog with the idea that it would benefit both my finances and my communication (thesis-writing and -drafting skills).
It’s interesting that you feel more productive now because of it! I’m praying the same thing happens to me 🙂
I’m starting to get much more organized.
I hadn’t really thought about it until now. I had the idea all along that my day job has helped give me plenty of skills to help with blogging, but come to think of it there’s plenty of transferability back in the other direction, especially time management, communication skills etc thanks. Good topic.
yep, I just hit me recently, when I was talking both comfortable and smoothly with some of the VPs where I work. Previously, I would shy away from them.
When I was teaching in high school, I had my students read my blog as a warmup. Did that help my job? It helped my students! So the answer is yes.
Cool, a win/win is always great!
Blogging helped me to improve my communication skills as I am careful about my conversational skills and writing skills. Not to mention, blogging also taught me the importance of networking, which is important for success at work.
very true!
I’d have to go with a neutral on this one. My day job has actually gotten a little more challenging. Some of my early morning hours were previously devoted to catching up on email. Now, work has been pushed out by blogging activities.
I have a theory that’s slightly different. I don’t think it’s the blogging per se, but the fact that you put yourself out of your comfort zone for long enough that you adapted your work ethic around it.
I used to job hop a lot (within my company) for this very reason. To challenge myself and learn and to think differently about how to tackle things. If you do the same thing for too long, you kind of get stuck in a rut. If you can’t change your day job, then you have to find another way to challenge yourself. In your case, it was the blog.
It sounds like changing your day job may lead to quite a bit of untapped potential. I don’t know if that’s an option for you, but food for thought.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.