A list of 15 actionable psychology life hacks that will help any blogger be more creative, get more work done and live life fuller.
Blogging can be a hard nut to crack and it is common for bloggers to become uninspired, bored and simply tired if they don’t start getting recognized or talked about for all the hard work they’re putting in.
Thankfully, triggering these 15 amazing psychology life hacks, which are seated deep in the human conscious, will help you effectively handle moments when you feel like giving up; in turn making you a better blogger.
Hack #1 – Celebrate Small Successes with Positive Reinforcements
If you have been blogging for a while now, you will know that it is very easy to quit your blog and bid goodbye to your goal of becoming a popular and successful blogger, but it is hard to stay persistent and hold on to this goal.
By positively reinforcing yourself for every small step taken towards your goals, every little achievement, be that may starting a new blog, or writing a new post after a long gap, or getting a mention on a popular website; you are basically training yourself to continue taking such steps.
And how do you reinforce your actions positively? Give yourself a pat on the back, buy yourself something you like or just spoil yourself with your favourite food.
Takeaway: Celebrate every little success and you will be more likely to be rewarded with successes again.
Hack #2 – Banish Self-Loathing
Do not give yourself a hard time by punishing yourself for every time you’ve procrastinated writing that blog post or when your blog went unnoticed or you didn’t win the accolade you were expecting to get.
Blogging isn’t such an easy thing to do and the very fact that you are trying your best, constantly pushing yourself to get better at it should be good enough reasons for banishing all forms of self-loathing.
Takeaway: You will only end up feeling more miserable and less likely to continue working towards your blog if you give yourself negative experiences in the form of punishments and self-loathing.
Hack #3 – Be Emotionally-Intelligent
At the end of the day, we are all social animals.
We get affected by the actions and reactions of other people and the way we handle such emotional turmoils defines how effective or ineffective we are. Emotional Intelligence is all about recognizing and managing one’s own and others’ emotions and feelings.
If you are working on your blog, let’s say you are choosing a nice theme for it, or writing a new post, you need to be in the correct frame of mind. You cannot write a happy post if you have just had a fight with your partner or sibling.
By adopting simple emotional intelligence techniques like tackling the problems that are troubling you emotionally before proceeding to other tasks, or scribbling away all your feelings on a piece of paper and throwing it away before proceeding to blogging, you will become a better blogger.
Takeaway: It all starts with your emotions and feelings and what you do to manage them.
Hack #4 – Adopt a “Me with the World” Strategy
Every single blog post you write is like a tiny droplet of water in a giant ocean. There are millions of people out there, writing amazing and inspiring blog posts every single day and there is no way you can compete with all of them.
Even if you succeed to become a more popular blogger than most bloggers you know, you will always come across bloggers who are doing better than you. You might just end up feeling joyless.
Instead of competing against them and holding grudges against those who are doing it better than you, adopt a “Me with the World” strategy.
Think of yourself, your blog, as a medium to help people, entertain them, live a better life and find more joys out of their lives. Your words can move mountains.
Takeaway: Look at the larger impact you can create rather than competing with a small group of people.
Hack #5 – Set Apart Time for Blogging
Most people blog out of passion and it likely that they have other commitments in life like a course to take up, a job to do and/or a family to take care of.
A lot of times when bloggers give excuses like writer’s block, for not being regular on the blogging front, they are basically just procrastinating due to their own inability to manage their time well.
A successful blogger understands the importance of setting apart time for blogging because once you have set apart an hour or a day per week or month for simply blogging, you really cannot give yourselves any excuses.
Takeaway: Do not get distracted or change your schedules at the last moment. Let this time be only for you and your blog.
Hack #6 – Do Not Multi-task
In this day and age of social media and mobile apps, getting notifications and messages from hundreds of apps, profiles and multiple inboxes is very common.
If you blog and simultaneously remain active on these profiles and apps, you are basically multi-tasking and therefore, getting distracted way too often.
This will affect your thought-process, the way you write and your overall blogging experience. This will also take you longer to complete your blog post and you are also more likely to delay the post for another time.
Staying distraction-free is a smart choice you will make towards becoming a better blogger. You can also make use of online blogging tools to help you stay distraction-free and more committed to your blog.
Takeaway: When it’s time for blogging, put your phone on silent mode and make sure your email inboxes and social media profile tabs are not open.
Hack #7 – Surround Yourself with Supportive People
According to American entrepreneur and motivation speaker Jim Rohn, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
The kind of people you hang out with, the ones you confide into have a big impact on how you view yourself and your life.
If you spend time with people who poison your spirit or dull your shine, or let’s say those who don’t acknowledge you for putting up so much effort in your last blog post or who criticize your work or appear jealous of your success; you will soon begin to get disengaged with your work as well.
On the other hand, spending time with people who encourage you, appreciate you and support you with ideas and help will motivate you to work harder on your blog.
Takeaway: Choose your friends and support wisely!
Hack #8 – Go Through Blogs that are Better and Worse than Yours
This is a simple psychology hack that always works. When you feel like you are a failure of a blogger and everybody else has mastered this art except you, check out blogs of complete newcomers.
Notice the grammatical errors, the uncouthness of the blog layout and theme. This will instantly make you realize that you are really not that bad and you can always get better at it.
On the other hand, when you start feeling arrogant about your blog, check out some of the really popular blogs in your genre or community.
This will instantly put your feet back on the ground. At the same time, it will inspire you to work harder as you will realize that you still have a long way to go.
Takeaway: If you’re going through self doubt – go through the work of rookies or your competition who are doing a mediocre job. If you’re going through self-arrogance – see the blog of someone better than you and put yourself back on the ground.
Hack #9 – Let People Know What You Intend to Do
I once began a gratitude project on Facebook in which I posted about one good thing that happened to me on that day.
But before I launched my project, I posted about my intention to do it with all my friends and followers. Of course, I received a lot of supportive responses.
But there was one more thing that was happening which I wasn’t aware about then. The same people now expected me to post daily and they actually looked forward to see my posts. The day when I was too busy and forgot to post something, I got several messages asking me why I did not post.
By letting other people know about what I intended to do, I became more committed to my work and also found my own champions of success.
Takeaway: Involve other people into something that you want to do. The expectation they will have from you, will make you more committed to finish it.
Hack #10 – Take a Break
When you do something you are truly passionate about, you can actually work on it for hours and hours on end without feeling the need to stop.
But the moment you start feeling uninspired, tired and sleepy, your eyes start hurting, your brain feels fuzzy and the next sentence will just not come out of your head on to the screen – step back and please take a break.
Takeaway: Take a break because if you over-push yourself today, you will not want to work tomorrow. You will be too demotivated to go back to your blog.
Hack #11 – Set Deadlines
As stated in one of the points above, most of us blog out of passion. We all have other things to take care of. Which is why it is easier for a blogger to lose motivation in the midst of all the other things that we have to do in our lives.
One of the most effective ways to stay truly committed to your blog is by setting deadlines for yourselves, and sincerely sticking to them, no matter what. Once it is set, it becomes a priority for you to complete that task and your mind forces you to act on it.
Takeaway: Deadlines make you more accountable to your work.
Hack #12 – Visualization
Imagine yourself writing on your blog, struggling with issues and working out solutions, getting noticed for your blog, being recognized, monetizing it.
Imagine getting thousands of shares and hundreds of comments on your next blog post.
Imagine people interested in knowing what your next blog post will be all about and appreciating all the hard work you put into your blog.
Takeaway: Imagine, because you can really turn your imaginations into reality.
Hack #13 – Record Every Thought
Inspiration can strike you anytime.
A sparkling blogging idea can hit your mind while taking a shower, reading a book, watching a movie, listening to a song or taking a stroll in the park or just going about your daily shenanigans. Note it down as it comes because your memory is just not so sharp to record every single thought or idea.
If nothing else, share it with a close one or a friend and discuss it. This will enable you to recall it when you actually get to writing it down.
Takeaway: Keep a notepad handy to scribble away stuff or use mobile apps or digital tools to make notes.
Hack #14 – Use the Halo Effect
Some of you may have heard of the Halo Effect, a cognitive bias in which people form a positive impression about a person or a thing based on a few characteristics that they appreciate.
Let anybody who lands up on your blog have a great first impression about your blog, so that they not only keep coming back to it but also promote it in their own networks.
Some of the things you can do is to create a really awesome landing page for your blog so that people associate your overall blog with the awesomeness of your landing page.
Takeaway: Make sure that the first couple of posts are really strong so that your readers develop a positive impression about you and your overall blog and keep coming back to it.
Hack #15 – Leverage Social Proof
Social Proof is all about using your current social influence to get new readers to share your posts.
If your blog has very less shares, likes and comments, a reader who may genuinely like your post might not share it as he does not want to be singled-out.
So what can you do to leverage social proof?
Try to get influential people to share and comment on your posts, join communities that support and promote each other’s works, request friends to promote your work, display your existing social media share stats on your blog and make it easy for people to share it.
Takeaway: If readers can see that your blog post has already been shared by so many readers, they are more likely to share it too as we all have a need for conforming.
Now, which one of these psychology life hacks will you use to become a better blogger? Do you have a favourite among these? Do share in the comments section below!
(Authored with the help of Pranav Sukhija)
Images Courtesy: TheHword, ReBloggy, IntentionalWorkPlace, Pinterest, DeliaCreates, CompaniesBehavingAwesomely, ImgBucket, RedCross, CatshyCrafts, The Self-Compassion Project, Writing.Wikinut, BuzzQuotes, KISSMetrics, TurnInbound
FAQs
Blogging refers to self-published writing, photography, and other media online. In the beginning, blogging was used by individuals to create diary-style entries, but it has now been incorporated into many businesses’ websites.
You can share your knowledge and expertise with the world by blogging. You can use your blog to share your insights if you’re an expert on a particular topic. Why not start a blog if you’re thinking about it?
There are some disadvantages to blogging that you should take into account:-
i. You may invest your time, sweat, and soul and get nothing in return.
ii. Time and effort must be invested up front.
iii. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.
iv. Having passion isn’t enough.
v. If done incorrectly, blogging for your business can actually hurt you.
Shubham is a digital marketer with rich experience working in the advertisement technology industry. He has vast experience in the programmatic industry, driving business strategy and scaling functions including but not limited to growth and marketing, Operations, process optimization, and Sales.
