While catching up with my neglected RSS-feeds (that's getting to be a regular habit of mine, while too busy chasing deadlines I tend to save the 'thinking blogs' for a quieter day), I came across yet another healthy reminder of how to (not) go about blogging.

I readily admit that I often feel guilty about not blogging more - mainly because this blog, although a blank sheet when I started, has very much turned into my (public) notebook on the changing media landscape, and there's just so many interesting changes going on I'd like to record, for myself more than anybody else - but because I write so much in my professional life, it just becomes too much if I turn blogging into yet another chore. So I have to leave it aside for a while if it'not fun, if I can't use it as a welcome break inbetween all my looming deadlines and 'have-to-dos'.

I also realise that I've linked to a similar quote by Jeff Jarvis before, but I don't think it can be stressed enough, so here goes:

When I was in London, I sat with folks from the BBC in an afternoon devoted to blogging, and the woman next to me was troubled, bearing weight on her shoulders from having to fill her blog and manage her blog. To her, the blog was a thing, a beast that needed to be fed, a never-ending sheet of blank paper. I turned to her and said she should see past the blog. It’s not a show with a rundown that, without feeding, turns into dead air. Indeed, if you look at it that way, you’ll probably write crappy blog posts. I’ve said before that if I think I need to write a post just because I haven’t written one, I inevitably come out with something forced and bad. Instead, I blog when I find something interesting that I’ve seen and I think, ‘I have to tell my friends about that.’ You’re the friends. So yes, I said, it’s just a conversation. And reading — hearing what others are saying — is every bit as important as writing. It was as if scales were lifted from her eyes and weight from her back: She’s just talking with people.