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The Third Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 So here it is: My final social media sabbatical for 2018 starting today.

Back in February, I opted to take a social media sabbatical which is nothing more than a fancy way of saying “time off of social media.” This was a continuation of something I did last year, too.

Then, back in December, I took the month off of pretty much every social network of which I was a part and thoroughly enjoyed the time away. But it wasn’t because of anything such as removing myself from something bad.

Over the year, I’ve begun to question what I think about social media as a whole, but I think that time away from it serves me well (that is, me personally – I don’t pretend nor attempt to make this prescriptive for anyone else).

Anyway, with us heading into the final month of the year and with the success that I’ve had in months past, I thought it might be time for me to do this again to close out the year.

Social Media Sabbatical of 2018: Episode III

This time, though, I might remix it a little bit.

Continue reading “The Third Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 So here it is: My final social media sabbatical for 2018 starting today.“

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How to Set a Goal, Part 2: We’re Writing Code Setting a goal is one thing, making a plan to achieve it is another. And that lends itself precisely to what we do for a living.

In the first post in this [two-part] series, I talked about the idea of what it means to set a goal. Specifically, I said it was more nuanced than just setting a goal and aiming for it. Instead, I said I thought of doing this:

  1. set a goal,
  2. make a plan.

And, if you read the first, you know that I gave an example outside of programming (because I tend to do that sometimes).

But why not also look at what this would look like regarding programming? I mean, the whole point of the site is to talk about how to handle WordPress development from a practical perspective.

And this seems like something that intersects with that whole idea, right?

Continue reading “How to Set a Goal, Part 2: We’re Writing Code Setting a goal is one thing, making a plan to achieve it is another. And that lends itself precisely to what we do for a living.“

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How to Set a Goal, Part 1: We’re Not Writing Code Setting a goal is one thing, and it's admirable. But I think there's more nuance to it than that.

I’ve talked about productivity and similar resources various times, though sparingly, since writing consistently for the past eight or so years this October (can’t believe it’s been that long).

Though I try to stay true to the whole slogan that I pronounce (that is, Practical WordPress Development), there are times that I like to share things that I think can’t help those involved in the industry that is tangentially related to software or web development.

Writing

And in this case, that’s what this post is about; however, I’m going to try to break it into two short reads. In short, the purpose of this is what it means to set a goal, how to go about achieving it, and how to do so both regarding working on self-employment, fitness, or otherwise, as well as how it relates to side-projects (and specifically programming).

I’ll start with the former, first.

Continue reading “How to Set a Goal, Part 1: We’re Not Writing Code Setting a goal is one thing, and it’s admirable. But I think there’s more nuance to it than that.“

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The Second Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 I'm taking a month off of social media again. This time, for different reasons than earlier this year.

As I’ve been writing this post, I’ve felt so pretentious when it comes to using the word “sabbatical” as it relates to something like social media.

I mean, I’ve always associated sabbaticals as something that professors, academic types, religious leaders, and higher-ups take. Not just an average dude who makes a living on the Internet.

Sabbatical or a sabbatical (from Hebrew: shabbat (שבת) (i.e., Sabbath), in Latin: sabbaticus, in Greek: sabbatikos (σαββατικός), literally a “ceasing”) is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from one month to a year.

But I suppose, by that definition, it makes sense, right?

Anyway, I started the trend earlier this year, it went well, and I want to keep a consistent theme going at least for 2018, so why stop it during just the second time through?

Continue reading “The Second Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 I’m taking a month off of social media again. This time, for different reasons than earlier this year.“

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The First Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 I'm going to be taking the month of March off of social media. I've my reasons why. But do you have your own for doing this?

A couple of years ago, I started time a little bit of time off of social media here and there just to see what it was like (mainly because it had become such a staple in our lives). I wrote about this a bit last summer, too.

Then, back in December, I took the month off of pretty much every social network of which I was a part and thoroughly enjoyed the time away. But it wasn’t because of anything such as removing myself from something bad.

In fact, it just gave me (that is, not you or anyone else, but for me), room to think.

This isn’t to say I don’t enjoy hanging out with those of you I chat with online on a near-daily basis because I do, nor am I say that using social media is bad because I don’t think it’s an all or nothing thing.

But I do think that there is something to having a social media sabbatical now and again whenever it’s needed. And I’m personally at that point right now.

I know I’m not the only one who deals with this kind of stuff because I’ve talked with enough people to know. So I thought I’d write, again, about it, why I’m doing it, and what I plan to do with the time off.

Continue reading “The First Social Media Sabbatical of 2018 I’m going to be taking the month of March off of social media. I’ve my reasons why. But do you have your own for doing this?“