Many years ago (and yes I do mean years) I used to find time during the year to write an average of one blog article per day. As is quite self evident from navigating through the blog archive I’ve not been achieving this posting rate for quite some considerable time.

I used to explain away momentary relapses in blogging by stating that I was waiting for something good to say and a poll on my website affirmed that this was the correct thing to do with over half of respondents preferring to wait for a post to appear that they wanted to read rather than wading through mindless drivel. That being said, I can hardly do myself any justice by inferring that I have had little useful to say while posting has been more sparse. As friends and family with whom I’ve dined out over the past few years will confirm, I’ve always had something to say about most things going on in the world!

Two years ago at WordCamp I explained to a packed conference room some tips and tricks for filling your blog by contributing to it’s content via posts made on other social sites thus keeping your personal web space up to date with your life but without having to make a concious effort to blog. While I’ll not stop doing this as the varied content is a nice touch (especially with the photos) I’ve come to realise that something is wrong with relying on this approach to fill the pages – it lacks reason and direction. Essentially, I’d forgotten why I turned to blogging in the first place.

I turned my previously static HTML based website into a dynamic blog back in 2005 shortly after I’d joined the University of Leeds School of Computing. As my life was in a fair state of turmoil at the time it seemed a logical thing to do, to have a place online where updates could be frequent and varied and not limited to a specific structure. Once I’d gotten settled at the SoC however, I found that my blogs settled down too. I found focus and energy in my work and my blogs were both a personal reflection on this fact for myself and a window onto it for the wider world. Essentially blogging was both an affirmation of and a driving force behind my positivity.

OK, so strong stuff then. Well perhaps not. I’ve realised recently that I’ve got into a bit of a habit of dwelling for too long on the things that go wrong and not taking enough positivity out of the the things that go well. While out walking the other day in the evening sunshine I was thinking about ways to better channel that “get up and go” attitude and I remembered my blog – how a tough day in the computer labs would soon be forgotten by passing amused comment on the party from the previous evening or by reflecting on a trip I had planned in a few weeks time.

Who could say no to an opportunity for an outlet for forward thinking? While I can’t promise I’ll manage to get a post up every day in this new concerted effort as the post title suggests, I can offer assurances that I’ll look to be tending towards 30 posts in a month in the not too distant future. Article ideas on a postcard….