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I have a problem: I need to maintain and extend two blogs, two WordPress plugins, and start work on a new piece of code for a web application.
I have to blog and program…
…but blogging and programming seem to require slight but important differences in how I work. Blogging requires a different sort of attention than programming. This difference is suggested by the following observation: most bloggers do not program, and most programmers blog only once in a while, if at all.
Reactionary blogging
So much of what I read about blogging success seems to require “reactionary” behavior. Successful bloggers have to stay on top of everything, all the time. Having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) seems to be an advantage for successful bloggers.
Successful bloggers must:
- Regularly keep an eye on trending topics.
- Watch traffic on a regular basis.
- Manage business systems for advertising, affiliate sales, etc.
- Maintain the blogging system, i.e., WordPress.
- Promote on social networks, bookmark, leave comments, promote promote promote.
These activities require a lot of thin “time slicing.” You don’t have to pay much attention to any one thing for a very long time.
Successful blogging also seems to be as much about figuring out which way the wind is blowing, and staying with it. When some new technology comes along, you need to be ready to exploit it as fast as possible.
Actionary programming
Programming requires action, forethought, planning and long spans of concentrated attention. I call this “actionary.” People with ADD, otherwise brilliant, sometimes have a hard time sitting down long enough to be effective on a long term programming project.
You have to commit to a course of action.
You have to eliminate distraction.
For example, I’m not paying any attention at all to Google Buzz. I’m using that time to work out database schema for hrecipe microformat plugin. Am I missing anything? I don’t know. I do know that Jason Calacanis (mahalo.com) believes Buzz could seriously cut into Facebook’s market share for such conversations. He said so in an email this morning.
Perhaps I should pay more attention to Google Buzz. What should I give up?
Blog and program together, if possible
Blogging and programming together can be very difficult, unless you limit the blogging topics to stay very close to your programming. This isn’t always possible. How many people really want to spend an relaxed morning pondering a few thousand words on symplectic integration? Three or four, maybe.
However, I’ve been moderately successful (in terms of search results) blogging a bit about WordPress and PHP programming. It’s a natural fit here on Website In A Weekend, and I’ll be doing more of it.
Of the two, I’d have to say blogging is substantially easier for me. But I get far more satisfaction from a beautiful, easy-to-read, well-written piece of code.
What’s your experience?
Do you have experience doing both? Would you like to discuss it?
If so, please tell us about it!
What about other activities that might conflict with blogging? Tell us your experience with those.
Would you like more? Send me a letter...
{ 13 comments }
Excellent article. I completely agree with you regarding the attention spans needed for blogging and programming. I try to do both but not always in the right *mode*. This is a problem I’ve had for about a year now…
Damian´s last blog ..Get Your Goals (And Life) On Track With GoalsOnTrack
I’m getting around some of it by very strictly controlling my context. I have little rituals I go through when shifting gears. Which work fine until I get tired, then it all goes out the window.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How to Read Your SEO Metadata Like Google (really fast)
Yeah, I always wanted to be one of those people who can get by on 3-4 hrs of sleep but I usually need at least 6. Being tired sucks unless you have a really comfy place to sleep
Damian´s last blog ..Get Your Goals (And Life) On Track With GoalsOnTrack
Yeah, I need about 6 1/2 myself. Any less than that, I accrue a bad deficit.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..iPhone Blogging – Writing is so last millennium (& the Last Week in Review)
I agree; they are very different. Blogging and writing activities tend to flow out the keyboard with fresh Ideas. Programming, however, requires laser sharp focus. You know the drill, miss a semicolon and that new calculator page spits out all kind of ugly error messages. Find and insert the one missing semicolon, and you da man! it works.
My writing can range between a million points; from “that’s clear, I get it” all the way to “what was he trying to say??”
Programming is binary mostly, either its in debug (i.e. broke) or it works!
marshall | genverters.com´s last blog ..Power Budgets[5] Online Calculator Gets You Started
Programming often gives me an internal sense of satisfaction far different than writing.
Actually, that’s not true when I spend as much time on writing an article as I spend writing a piece of code. But writing well isn’t rewarded as well as writing quickly.
So I try to write well, but quickly.
Programming has to ship as near to bug free as possible. Most of last week I did a lot of pondering before releasing, and still ended up with two reported bugs.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How a 9 Day Denial of Service Attack Affected Blog Traffic
I was a programmer before I was ever a blogger or 3D person actually, though I don’t do it so much any more. There are days where I’d find blogging easier, and days where I’d find more technical things (like 3D. Seriously) easier; tends to vary with me.
Glad the two are fairly interlinked on my own blog though, makes the whole thing much easier.
Heather´s last blog ..Three Sites that Play with Colour
Programming first was my experience as well. Writing non-programming (or no-technical) blog articles is a but different. I have to think about story rather than facts.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: How’s Your Blog Traffic Lately?
While programming was first, this is a lot easier for me – you can inject more of your personality into it with stories and tales… different discipline though definitely.
Heather´s last blog ..Three Sites that Play with Colour
I have this “TQM” at work in which I write codes for databases and just simple UI. I’m more inclined on doing this before, not until I started indulging myself to blogging. I never bought any premium theme for my blog, instead I modified the codes. Very time-consuming task, and unsatisfying. Checking the codes at w3.org will just give you 300+ errors (embarassing), yet still works. I ended up with a layout which I think good enough. I’m not sure though if big “G” really considers efficient coding on SEO. I’m doing on writing some contents now, but still have plan of redesigning the layout by end of March.
I agree, programming is actionary…
Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign
You might want to invest some time into learning Atahualpa theme if you want to stay with free themes.
Watch for Dave Thackeray’s article here in a couple of hours.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Consistency – A 7th Characteristic of Trust Building (Everyone can do this)
Dave –
I understand and fully agree that coding and posting content are two sides of the same coin – but I am sure that those fully functional in both disciplines are few and far between. I have a natural (or perhaps not – maybe it was developed) predilection towards content. I find it takes more of my time than some of my colleagues who seem to be able to publish stellar stuff written in under an hour. Small step by small step I am learning a bit about programming but it is not a major priority for me. It is the main reason I subscribe to Wordpress Direct which may not be perfect but it sure makes life a lot easier for me. It may be costing me in terms of PR or other important stats – I don’t know. Even as it is I often find that at the end of the day I have not completed all the tasks for the day (maybe I put too many to start with).
So for me it is the blogging that my attention is focused on.
Valentina´s last blog ..Sunday Morn Musings: Reading and Independent Thinking.
I’m really bad about overloading myself.
I do like both, writing and programming. When I have everything in balance, I can do both effectively.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..iPhone Blogging – Writing is so last millennium (& the Last Week in Review)
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