Entry #1: Learning About Blogs

I’m not sure what my opinion of blogs was at their inception but, maybe by osmosis, I’ve developed the same generally cynical response to the term “blog” that so many others have. That it’s trivial and it’s more reading than I’d like to do. If I were to dig a little deeper and be more generous to what I could think of blogs, I could say I appreciate how personal they can be, and, by extension, how varied the opinions and subjects expressed can be. How they can be small, passion projects. 

In this conception, they are more interesting. It still takes more effort than I’d like to put in to read them, but because of how diverse blogs can be, I don’t think I’m justified bucking off the entire medium- reducing it to vain, unimportant rambling. I’ve looked at three blogs, two of which my sister tipped me off to. She enjoys reading and, regularly, has helpful advice on organization, managing stress, and being more productive. My aversion to blogs has kept me away from a lot of this information that seems like it could help me out.

 If only briefly, it may help to take a look at a few of these blogs. Here’s my general take on three blogs, what they’re all about, and what I personally liked or didn’t like about them.

The first blog I examined (and probably enjoyed most) was zenhabits.net. The site’s design is very understated, almost as if it were a largely undeveloped blog, but it only serves to bolster the general themes surrounding the site. It seems intentional.The font at the top is softly colored, partly faded in grey with a baby blue colored “breathe” next to it, reminding the reader to pay attention to their breath, remain calm and grounded. Everything on the pages are completely centered, giving entries an almost hypnotic appearance. The author’s tone is calm, sympathetic, and informative. Despite the almost spiritual focus, there is also plenty of practical, logically ordered advice, often organized by lists, numbers, bullet points. This is often advice that will benefit anyone in any of their many roles in life, spanning their personal, professional, interpersonal life. In “A More Deliberate Way of Living” the author, creating a numerical list that advises the reader to prioritize, give undivided attention to tasks, use containers with notes on them to organize where to focus your energy. I like this type of effort, I like the writer’s tone, I like the formatting of the site generally. However, much of the more spiritual metaphors and language don’t resonate with me especially strongly, though I don’t think the writer is insincere in using them, which I appreciate.

The second blog I examined was called Getting Things Done, a blog kept by management consultant and writer, David Allen. “Getting Things Done” is a methodology by Allen. Allen says the GTD method “enables greater performance, capacity, and innovation. It alleviates the feeling of overwhelm—instilling focus, clarity, and confidence.” The tone is largely straight-forward, mostly down to earth, which the occasional levity one might expect in a small lecture. This is reflected in the color scheme of black, gold, and white which is appealing but not distracting. The focus on productivity is likely intended for an audience interested in becoming more productive, likely in service of their success primarily, but also to alleviate stress or free up time to relax. In Allen’s “Make It Up and Make It Happen” he opens by saying “There are only two problems in life. Isn’t that nice to know? You only have two things you ever need to be concerned about. Not only are there only two problems—they are really quite simple. Ready?”. Its eye-catching and a bit sarcastic- but not really. Allen lays out the “problems”:

“Problem #1: You know what you want, and you don’t know how to get it.

Problem #2: You don’t know what you want.”

Allen relates this to separate hemispheres of the brain: the impassioned, artistic, creative left brain and the cold, logical, analytical right brain. He says the left brain “makes up” what we want and the right brain figures out how to get it. This is eventually related back to some of the central building blocks of his GTD philosophy, an aspect he calls “knowledge work athletics”. While I enjoy his attention and find him to be pretty readable, some of this feels like advertising for the GTD method instilled by his book or his coaching. This is completely understandable for any number of reasons, even if the information were free the method may be dense. For myself, I would be more likely to set something like zenhabits as my homepage: free bits of wisdom and advice from beginning to end, as opposed to little tastes that feel like marketing. However, by reading enough of Allen’s smaller blogposts, I think there is likely something to be gained for most people, myself included.

The third blog I looked at was the blog of entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuk. His blog is found in a tab on his eponymously named site, garyvaynerchuk.com The blog has a bold, modern design. Large, capital letters. Sharp edged fonts. Vivid colors.Large pictures. Clicking the blog tab leads you to an archive of the most recent posts, every link to a post looks like some sort of ad you’d find in the middle of an article. The articles themselves, however, are more immediately understandable, and visually understood as organized; ordered and paced with occasional pictures. Vaynerchuk’s audience is clearly made up of entrepreneurs and “influencers” looking to grow. It almost blends inseparably corporate and the personal aspects with a special focus on becoming a brand unto yourself. For the most part, Vaynerchuk’s tone is motivational, occasionally taking on an assertive “I’m just telling it like it is” tone. Much of Vaynerchuk’s content relies around advising readers to concentrate on building a brand, getting yourself out there, surrounding yourself with successful people. Some read more like listicles, like “18 MOMENTS TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU SHOULD POST 100X PER DAY”. The article is written by “TeamGaryVee”, who seem to write much of the blogposts along with Vaynerchuk himself, and centers around a quote by Vaynerchuk:

“If you are not producing 100 pieces of content … every single day you are leaving the greatest opportunity in the world on the table.”

The 18 reasons listed in the article are all quotes that link to a keynote speech by Vaynerchuk, from which the quotes were derived. It seems like much of the blog content is designed to redirect the reader to other, more long-form content by Vaynerchuk. Overall, after a quick glance, I get the impression that there is good advice to be found on Vaynerchuk’s site, if you fit into his niche. Vaynerchuk seems to be advertising to the aspiring entrepreneur, influencer, or personality. If you are outside of his niche, you may find some helpful info but, overall, the content is going to have to be sifted through. I like that the content can be helpful to Vaynerchuk’s audience, I don’t particularly enjoy the visual style/branding. Then again, I’m really not in the demographic for this type of material.

I’m not sure I learned much about blogs, but I did somewhat change my opinion of them. All the blogs I looked at, on some level, are “self-help” blogs, but many minor and major differences geared them towards some people over others. Personally, I found the zenhabits blog the most potentially helpful. I think I could even see myself reading it at some point, even if some of the more spiritual language doesn’t really jive with me.