Over the last couple of years I have started to round up the year with a final post of blogging about blogging. Last year’s post told the story of the 72 posts I wrote in 2023, and this year I am sitting pretty on… well, read on to find out.
Back in June I took stock halfway through the year, and found that I had I published 35 blog posts in the first six months of the year, slightly fewer than over the same period the previous year (43), but still an average of six per month. March was the month with the most posts (thanks to lots of things to say about open education) and June was the month with the fewest (thanks to a deeply relaxing two weeks away and offline).
Since then, I have added another 30 to the total, which brings me to 65 blog posts for the year!
Blog OR DIE! (Hat tip to Jim Groom)
Now in this era of digital productivity, when the pressure to keep all your personal tracking graphs and dashboard trends pointing ever upwards, publishing fewer posts this year than the year before may not look – I am not actually sure what to put here. After all, what, I wonder, would “blogging success” actually look like?!
Let’s just say that for me (and as this is MY blog, it’s me who sets out measures of success), this year has been one of fabulous blogging. I have enjoyed it, I have indulged in it and I have kept my practice alive and kicking!
Over the summer, in the run up to the DS106 Radio Summer Camp, Jim and I had a conversation in which he came up with the slogan “Blog OR DIE!” and we ran with that as the plenary session of the event (and a lot of fun that was, too). Ever since then, the phrase has been stuck in my head as a battle cry for what I want my professional practice to be… and I have found in it both inspiration and motivation to keep going.
So thank you, Jim Groom, patron saint of indie edtech, for reminding (not just) me how important it is to use the voice we have and the domains we own, to shape the open web.
Top 10 posts
And here, for a bit of fun, are this year’s “top 10” posts:
- Post that made me smile: … we did it again.
- Post that I stopped writing: Small things. Celebrated.
- Post that prompted fun conversations: Updating my short bio… or ‘Hello, I’m a dog person’
- Post that was the most useful to folk: How to get your blogging mojo back.
- Post with my favourite cover image: Christmas Jumper Day. A story.
- Post with the most comments: Twenty years of blogging… now on ReclaimPress
- Post that was shared most widely: A milestone moment on my coaching journey
- Post that was read most widely: What happens to our senses in the hybrid workplace?
- Post that had the most successful podcast companion episode: Six months of gold dust.
- Post that I enjoyed writing the most: The joy of not working.
January (6)
- Non-fiction reading for January
- Sunrise blogging – career transition 3 months in
- Origami, walking and a lot of space to think
- The outlook is… meticulously informal
- Preview: World of Learning Summit
- My personal vault. Or what I learnt from a decade of progress tracking
February (6)
- Non-fiction reading for February
- River Taff Meditations… and the joy of working radio
- 4 months into re-inventing Mondays
- Digital Wellbeing and Hybrid Working
- A milestone moment on my coaching journey
- Reclaiming #Edtech4life in Open Education (at OER24)
March (8)
- Non-fiction reading for March
- 5 months into re-inventing Mondays
- All things open, all things fun!
- What happens to our senses in the hybrid workplace?
- Finding my podcast voice
- OER24: The sound of Open Practice in social media wilderness
- OER24: Blogging is the way… open is the way
- Six months of gold dust.
April (5)
- Walk’n’coach into summer
- Behind the scenes of Digital Leadership
- Reclaiming our socials: SUNY Digital Learning Conference 2024
- Analogue v digital. Non-fiction reading for April
- Hybrid Working & our senses: Part 2
May (6)
- A peek inside my monthly newsletter
- Open leadership in practice: Unsung hero skills
- From Record Store to ReclaimPress.
- WiAL Webinar: My Leadership Journey
- Non-fiction writing: May 2024
- Fully fledged coach, ACC
June (4)
- Twenty years of blogging… now on ReclaimPress
- Fresh adventures in podcasting
- A year of teaching Digital Wellbeing
- The joy of not working.
July (6)
- New course coming up… autumn 2024
- The year in blog posts… so far
- Let’s Walk’n’Blog…
- Coaching moments from career transition and crisis support to supporting long term change.
- Summer: a very special (guest) season
- Preview: DS106Radio Summer Camp
August (3)
- What’s the hybrid answer to the ‘post work pint’?
- … we did it again.
- Healthy Hybrid Habits for Managers and Leaders
September (5)
- Event preview: ALT CPD webinar – 25th September
- Analogue into autumn (or fall)
- Updating my short bio… or ‘Hello, I’m a dog person’
- In conversation with Jim Groom
- A Dog Walk – Looking back at a year of Re-inventing Mondays
October (4)
- Mental Health in the Workplace
- Making spaces
- Second Breakfast with Audrey Watters
- Congrats Cohort! Coaching course completion
November (5)
- Small things. Celebrated.
- Autumn ramble: Pocket edition
- How to get your blogging mojo back.
- Critical Cadence.
- Reflect, reframe, regroup. Inspiration for when life is messy.
December (7)
- Celebrating 100 podcast episodes and other ‘centuries’
- Holiday ‘reflect-along’: What’s YOUR measure of success
- ‘Braided’ Blogging: Reflecting on collaboration
- Christmas Jumper Day. A story.
- A thank you… for 2024
- Jolly Holidays on the Open Web
- this post
Thank you, dear readers and fellow bloggers, for another year of blogging – #4life.
Blog OR DIE! You are the best, and 65 posts means I have miles to go before I sleep in 2024. You continue to awe and inspire, here is to an even better 2025 for the blog!