Friday, November 4, 2011

Post-blog Hyperfocus ~ NHBPM Day 4



Today's topic from WEGO Health for National Health Blog Post Month is, "what happens after you press 'publish'?" prompting bloggers to meditate on blogging itself and their steps and processes.

Since I am posting for this challenge in two blogs, this is my eighth NHBPM post.  I am new enough to blogging that my process has changed since the first posts of the month.

I have only recently discovered twitter, and as each new account gets linked to the others (which I am sometimes aware of and sometimes not) the publishing process becomes a little simpler and a little more complicated, in turns.  This would make my post-publishing steps make me sound like a crazy person so far this month.  Roughly speaking, it is very similar to that described in the well-written diabetes health blog "Sweetly Voiced" with the added complications of linking and unlinking facebook and twitter and learning to use a hashtag on twitter. 

None of these things are truly complicated.  But when you put them all together in the mind of an already ADHD-diagnosed CFIDS patient, you have....hyperfocus.

This is the point when the healthy focus of my blog writing melts away a bit and I often transition into a hyperfocused state that can get me into trouble.

If I am relaxed and enjoying the post-publish steps and surfing around a bit, or if I find a new blog to read soon after posting, this is not necessarily a problem.

If I think that the little things I'm doing all have to happen in order or to the exclusion of the world around me (especially if I would otherwise be with my kids or husband) then this hyperfocus becomes the part of blogging I have to watch out for.

To combat this, I mostly blog about my life as it unfolds and draw in topics that I have to live and enjoy in order to write about them.

So my process in this blog is often: live, take pictures of it (because I hyperfocus with my camera, too), look at pictures, get excited about pictures, show kids which pictures I'm putting in my blog, write about what we did while I'm still excited about whatever recovery strides I may have just made through what we did, and post.  When I couldn't live any kind of life out of bed, it would have been good to be able to create something, but I just wasn't well enough yet.

The more excited I am about whatever just happened, and the more excited my kids are to see the little video I made or which pictures I chose, the less likely I am to check spelling before I post (or in some cases at all).

This is why the posts here that were the best for me and the most fun for my kids are probably not the ones that would sell my skills as a writer or lead someone to follow my blog.

But my life has to take the first seat.

Right now, for example, I am leaving this post to help my husband with something outside.  It's a cold but beautiful morning, but if I allow myself to fall into hyperfocus mode, I will grumble at him, unintentionally implying that despite my improving health, he should keep his role going as solitary household-responsibility-fulfiller, not because I'm bedridden, but because I'm blogging.

There are times when he would fully respect that, but I would like to limit the times that he needs to as much as I can.  Because today, there is nothing (physical or painful) stopping me from coming outside.

Which is a beatiful thing.



Me: Cold and still a little conflicted about selling my first car (the red one....
the car from yesterday's post to my 18 year old self). 
Outside to help Greg get it running.

Greg:  Laughing at me for taking his picture.  But he got called into work while we
were outside, which means he will have to shave.  I needed a picture of his beard
before it was gone (as a firefighter he has to shave for work,
 so a beard like this is rare, but I LOVE it).

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J
I am also participating in my Bread and Roses Blog


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