NOTE: For anyone that has considered starting a daily vlog, I hope this glimpse into what my experience has been like gives you an idea of what goes into regular vlogging.
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This is my third time trying to do a daily (or regularly updated) vlog and I now have an even more immense respect for those that can keep up with it…bigly.
I, however, seem to run into the same barriers every time I try to consistently produce video content. It seems to emerge at the 20-day mark.
In this case, I had a two week period where producing video would be nearly impossible. I got nose surgery and not only was my face a swollen mess afterwards, I also couldn’t breathe or think straight. Not ideal for being creative.
But, that shouldn’t be a good enough reason to stop, right?
Demian Ross began with the Road to 300 where he would create 300 videos over 365 days. I still have ample time to fulfill that goal. But, the problem isn’t really the time, it’s the priorities.
During my recovery from surgery, I read two books:
These two books made a large impact on me as it relates to thinking about how I spend my time and what my priorities are. I realized that the time I’m dedicating to this video blog is taking away time from other activities. I sat down at my calendar and began planning out my days to align with my life priorities, and unless I plan to fill every waking moment of my life with activities, there simply is no place for this vlog amongst my current priorities.
Beyond the priority aspect of it, there are two other factors: joy and resources.
- I absolutely love writing.
- I absolutely love interviewing people on my podcast.
- Occasionally, I enjoy being on video. I’d more accurately describe my feelings about being on video as a half step above being indifferent.
While I think there’s tremendous value in being on video, I also realize that it’s not a passion. Without passion, there’s less drive to keep moving forward. That drive to consistently produce, is the factor with highest importance when maintaining any content project.
To write requires virtually nothing. Just a keyboard and a blank page. To produce video requires far more energy and time.
For all of these reasons, I’m opting to return to writing as my primary means of communicating my ideas. Beyond that, I have a successful podcast that I should be spending more time promoting.
Maybe one day, I’ll return to vlogging with a 15-20 episode season, but for now, I have no plans to do that.