Blogging and Burnout

A short time ago I called it a day on my blog SQL Clarity - the blog is still there as I'd say there's a few interesting reads on there, although clearly I'm biased. I'm not entirely surprised that it didn't take too long for me to start blogging again, so here I am with a revitalised approach to blogging and a brand new blog too.

I covered the "why I stopped blogging" in the last post on there but actually looking back that was the tip of the iceberg. In short I was juggling way too many things and heading towards burnout and a few things definitely had to give.

Now I could go on and write a piece about burnout (as the title may have led you to believe) but as it happens there's an excellent article wrote by Kendra Little that for me really hit home and provides some seriously sound advice too. I recommend that absolutely everyone gives it a read.

Over the last couple of months I've had some time away, enlisted some help on the consultancy side of things and refocused my efforts on where they needed to be. I cannot emphasise just how much a complete step back has helped even though at times it's seemed like it's completely the wrong thing to do, again - read the link above.

I started a brand new blog because I wanted something a bit different this time. SQL Clarity had lots of aims at the beginning and some were achieved but some definitely got lost along the way. With that in mind this blog isn't aiming to do that much (I know, I'm selling it well) beyond putting down my thoughts and experiences as I go along with whatever I'm doing.

In September this year (Friday the 13th, typical)  I'm speaking at DATA:Scotland which is my first time speaking at a conference. I've really felt compelled to write about this experience so I'll definitely be putting up posts about this in the near future and in many ways this has twisted my arm into blogging again...but not in a bad way!

I'd also like to say a thank you to my mentor for the conference which as I'm a first time speaker I get to spend time with. I'm not sure if we can "go public" so I'm going to call them Person X, which I actually kind of like and might stick with from now on. Speaking to them has been so useful (even though I've been stretched for time admittedly) but their input has helped way beyond the presentation and for that I am very thankful.

And on that note, I'm calling it a day - for this particular article. Extended thanks to anyone who reads this and until the next time, take care.