I hate when people talk about how busy they are, as if they are the only people with who have things going on and should receive some sort of award for pressing on. They say “I’m so busy” but I hear “I can’t prioritize my life and it totally stresses me out.”
If you’ve been paying attention to PDITF over the last month and a half, you’ll notice I went from a solid five-day a week posting schedule, to a much more sporadic three-ish times a week. I refuse to let me life be so busy it steals my joy.
With the launch of MANteresting, the sale of Girl Ninja’s car, the hunt for a new car, a few trips to San Diego, and being a best man in a wedding, something had to give. That something just happened to be this blog. I’d give you some lame half-hearted apology, pretending I’m going to get back on track and stick to five days a week of posting, but truth is I probably wont be in the near term.
It’s been wonderful having a few nights a week where, instead of getting on the computer to start typing, I’m actually spending quality time with Girl Ninja (watching movies, traveling, or going on dates with her). I’ve been blogging on PDITF for a little over three years now (wow, didn’t even realize my 3 year anniversary was a few weeks ago) and have posted some 830-ish different articles. Sometimes I literally sit in front of my computer screen for an hour trying to think of something to write about. Reducing the number of posts I do has helped give me a little sense of freedom.
What’s more, MANteresting continues to kick butt and is shattering all sorts of expectations. Our Alexa ranking is stupid low for being only two months old (25,000) and our traffic is stupid high (had 30,491 visits on Sunday, 34,296 visits on Monday, and 38,774 visits yesterday). If you are unfamiliar with the internet these numbers mean nothing to you, but if you are familiar, you know just how insanely high these stats are for a site our age. Moderating content, responding to emails, working on new features, and managing social media has been where the majority of my focus has been these last few months. Fortunately, the hard work is paying off.
The other primary reason I’ve been so distracted as of late is the sale of Girl Ninja’s car. Being a one car family is definitely doable, but extremely annoying. On the nights we don’t have something in our calendar, we are test driving cars, going to dealerships, speaking with car brokers, and scouring Craigslist. Until we find a suitable ninja-mobile, I’m afraid things in my personal life wont be slowing down. We found a 2007 Highlander that meets all of our needs for $17,500 (54k miles), but doesn’t necessarily have all the “luxuries” we would like; things like heated seats and leather interior (which obviously will make a similar vehicle $1,000+ more expensive). We’ll be deciding in the next 24 hours if we want to purchase this car or keep hunting.
So that’s my life in a nutshell. Sorry if you could care less about these things and just wasted a few minutes of your precious day 🙂
Amazing stats for Manteresting – Congrats 🙂
Leather seats and kids…absolutely the best $1,000 you will spend this year. And you will thank yourself every time you clean up kid, uh, whatever it is that they get on seats. My sister convinced me of this fact and I am appreciative on a nearly daily basis.
Wow, congrats on Manteresting! with everything going, it’s understandable why you’ve been blogging less. the upside for us is that you have some great post material when things wind down a bit 🙂
You’re under no obligation to post five times a week or even once if you so desire. No one can reasonably expect you or anyone else to keep up a blog permanently. I’m sure we all enjoy having you around, but if and when it’s time to move on, you move on.
Those are impressive stats! Sometimes life picks up, it’s good that you are prioritizing everything instead of trying to just power through and ending up exhausted and unenthusiastic, though I do miss a daily dose of those stick figures.
AWESOME stats on MANteresting! Congrats, my friend!
You’ve had a lot going on lately; I certainly don’t blame you for wanting a little quality downtime with GN; you should be spending time together, and if the blog has to be put on the back-burner once or twice a week, so be it… we all know you’ll post again. Keep making your marriage a top priority!
Happy car hunting! BTW, this 1/2 Scottish Canadian’s lovin’ your Braveheart reference!
Good job with Manteresting!
So happy for you on the Manteristing project! Plus, it’ll be fun to say we knew you when.
My wife wants the Highlander in White, but leather interior. Our biggest battle might be the luxuries. 🙂
Congrats on Manteresting! Good luck with the car hunt.
I had no idea you started Manterest.com! Way to go dude. Just compared to some other sites on Alexa and you ARE killing it! How did you attain such awesomeness you stealthy assassin?!
Never sacrifice quality over quantity. It has what made your blog so good. I can totally understand how busy you are, but just wait until you have kids. However, I do get a sense that you do get enjoyment out of your blog, try not to burn out by forcing yourself to do something that you will not be happy with. Maybe you should start to outsource household chores or other tasks that take a great deal of your time.
Being busy is a good thing! It means you are doing something. When I wanted something done in companies, I always gave it to the busiest person because he/she knew how to get it done.
“I hate when people talk about how busy they are” <– Amen to that! Man, you're not kidding!
Uh dude, your stats for the new site are insane. Totally insane. Great job !
I’m one of your biggest supporters even if I don’t comment here regularly, but I’ve re-read this post a few times (and the subsequent comments including the one I’m responding to) to make sure I’m not too far off base by saying the following: By posting this, aren’t you in fact saying how “you’re so busy”??
Making a blanket statement as you have here about people mentioning being busy rubs me the wrong way because I don’t think every case is the same. Yes, there are certainly people who fit your profile and use “I’m so busy” as an excuse, but what about those who are truly ambitious or whose circumstances require them to be “so busy” that they *sometimes* lose sight of various priorities in their life temporarily? I certainly fit into the first category and I think you do as well….
I don’t want to continue on because I respect you (and I don’t want to open a can of worms or send personal attacks as some other commenters have done here before), but I do hope you’ll re-consider making blanket statements in the PF blogosphere.
All this said, congrats on Manteresting. It’s amazing what you’ve done in such a short amount of time. Keep rockin’ it, Ninja.