A Day in a Blogger’s Life: Why I Started Blogging

A Day in a Blogger’s Life: Why I Started Blogging

by | Jul 25, 2026 | ideas+business

I started blogging to share my ideas but now I’m questioning whether I should continue

I have less than 355 days to save my blog. If that doesn’t happen, I’m shutting it down permanently.

After getting punched in the face with ridiculously high web hosting fees, I’m on a last ditch effort to save my blog and drive more website traffic to it before I shut it down.

My three year term expired and the current cost of running a blog ($1,248.08 CAD per year to be exact) is freaking me out. Shelling out more than $100 per month for a blog where I only post sporadically definitely does not make sense.

I started my blog more than three years ago. Overly optimistic, with lofty, high flying ideas and aspirations, only to find out that it’s hard work. A day in a blogger’s life is full of hard work but I didn’t know it when I started blogging.

This probably happens a lot. Aspirational blogger sets up website only to discover that blogging is hard. Rather than giving up and losing face, I’m trying to save this sinking ship and give it one more go before I completely stop.

 

My goal was to solve a problem for readers

Some people blog to earn money. That might not be the best and only reason to blog, but it’s a completely valid reason.

Some people do it so they can become overnight social media influencers. They picture a day in a blogger’s life as lying on a beach, blithely tapping out blog post after blog post and gaining hundreds of followers as soon as the post goes live. They picture six-figure sponsorships and deals.

But the truth is, blogging hasn’t been a rollicking adventure. If I knew that my reach would be modest, why did I start blogging? Why was I motivated to start one and what was my goal?

Was money a motivating factor? Possibly. I had the greenest of ideas that I could turn this into a side hustle and make myself some money off of it. I thought I would give it a try to flex that entrepreneurial muscle. Because at the end of the day, running a blog is like running a business.

But the main reason I blog is to help solve a problem. That’s one of the reasons that’s consistently touted as the secret to a successful blog.

What kinds of problems does this blog solve? I had an inkling that people would read it and be inspired. You can also say it was naivety and a lot of wishful thinking on my part, but naivety and wishful thinking are what got me started in the first place.

I kept it as a secret blog for over three years, fear of judgement and ridicule holding me back from attaching my name to the website. What if someone I knew read it and hated it?

But like most fears, my fears were unfounded. Most people have the memory of a goldfish. That’s when I realized I was just projecting my insecurities on an imaginary audience. In reality, most people would think it was weird and move onto the next thing.

Do people really care? Probably not. Really, everyone is too busy to care.

 

Reasons that bloggers quit

Most people don’t blog and there’s a reason why. It’s hard to keep blogging when you don’t have a community. You ask yourself, why should I blog when no one else I know is doing it? You don’t have anyone to keep you accountable and that’s the most challenging.

Posting consistently and thinking of new ideas to share isn’t easy. Especially when the rewards are few and far in between.

You find it hard to keep blogging when there are a million other priorities on your to-do list. A day in a blogger’s life is full of struggles but there are rewards and that’s why I started blogging.

Blogging is hard to keep up when you’re talking and no one is listening.

Indifference is a double-edged sword. On one side, it can let you do anything without risking public opinion, but getting people to care is a constant hurdle.

 

I wanted to share my ideas and reach more readers

I’m not even sure that I like the name of my blog. When I first started, I envisioned it as an “ideas and business” blog.

Why did I call it “ideapictogram”? Good question. Instead of answering this question, just Google “idea pictogram.”

In the early days I was obsessively watching Google search rankings like it was the stock market. Depending on where you are in the world, I’m on the first page of Google search results for the search words “The best things in life that are for free“, “The seven benefits of being frugal that will surprise you” and “The smart way to fail: how to fail often and fail fast.” I know. Ironic, right? These are blog posts I wrote almost a year ago and it’s still on the first page of search results.

Granted, I doubt that people are constantly searching for those exact same words, but I still get a kick out of it anyway.

Landing on the first page of Google search results is the gold standard for any blogger. It means more eyes on the blog. If a reader can’t find you, your efforts are wasted.

Sometimes, my blog posts will even show up in the AI powered feature snippets you see on the top of the search results. This is good, I thought. These small wins don’t seem like much, but when it validates my efforts, it gives me a reason to keep on going. It’s the benchmark for a successful blog. Plus, it’s gratifying to have external approval. It’s a great boost to morale.

Some of my posts do better than others but it’s a mystery why. It’s a hit and miss. How-to articles and top ten “listicles” perform best so that’s often the format of my blog posts.

However, some of my posts don’t rank at all on search results. The mysteries of the search engine algorithm is the only explanation I have. Some people would find it limiting to be at the mercy of a search engine, hacking your way to the top. That’s why some bloggers quit.

But I didn’t. I wanted to share my ideas and be creative. A day in a blogger’s life is full of creativity and that’s why I started blogging.

 

I wanted to do something extraordinary

What makes a great blog?

To create a great blog, I knew that I had to learn how to be more consistent when things get boring or too hard. Building a readership, marketing and self-promotion, is a job in itself, a typical day in a blogger’s life.

A blog needs to have a clear focus. You can’t be vague or indecisive, like it doesn’t know what it’s about.

I haven’t been following this golden rule exactly, because I write about topics that don’t necessarily go together.

If your purpose is to get more eyes on your blog, there is a certain way to write a post, rules to follow, and it can stifle creativity.

If I was writing with the sole purpose of landing in Google search results, the number of topics I can write about can feel too constrictive.

I had an idea, I had a vision, I had aspirations. Nothing really killed it all. I still want to do something extraordinary. That’s why I started blogging.

 

You can’t talk about creative writing without talking about AI

AI sometimes gives you less reasons to write and create. For better or worse, I make it a point not to use AI when doing creative writing.

A writer might also be pushed away by the thought that anything they publish will go towards training AI models. Does AI eliminate the need to publish? Will blogging be a lost art? What’s the point of writing when AI can articulate an idea or a thought better than you? There’s a lot of reasons why blogging might become obsolete, but it doesn’t keep me from trying or thinking of creative ideas.

But obviously AI is going to change what a day in a blogger’s life will look like in the future.

 

Save my blog by joining my community and becoming a reader

The countdown is on. I have less than a year. Only 355 days to turn this around and salvage this blog, the toil of the three previous years.

So give it a read. Take a look around. There might be some ideas there that either challenge you or make you think differently. A day in a blogger’s life is motivated by doing something you love and that’s why I started blogging.

Will I save this sinking ship or lose face and quit? You don’t want to miss this so follow this blog to find out.

How to Make Happiness a Habit

How to Make Happiness a Habit

by | Feb 7, 2026 | ideas for humans

Happiness is a habit, one that you can develop if you work hard enough at it. At first, happiness sometimes feels like it’s hard to reach, like a neverending goal that keeps moving farther away no matter how many steps you try to take towards it. Happiness takes discipline. It might sound counterintuitive that it takes discipline to be happy. It can be a revelation that you have to work hard at being happy, that you have to put in the time and energy to achieve happiness. In this way, you can’t be too passive about your own happiness.

To some, it doesn’t come naturally. Happiness requires regular maintenance and practice, like maintaining a fit body through regular exercise and a healthy diet. To maintain your happiness, follow the principles of a balanced lifestyle. Implement regular check-ins with family and friends, and do an audit of each part of your life to find out which areas need improvement and which needs eliminating. Below are some more tips on how to maintain your happiness.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Let go of toxic thinking
  2. Make your health a priority
  3. Make friends and family a priority
  4. Unplug from social media
  5. Choose carefully what you consume

 

1. Let go of toxic thinking

Let go of anger and frustration. Don’t let negative thoughts be the reason that your life feels unfulfilled. First, you have to be more aware of your thoughts. Just like habits form by strengthening certain neural connections, building the required muscle memory starts with recognizing you have a problem. You can unconsciously have bad habits, like persistent toxic thinking that is too focused on negativity. Letting go of anger and frustration is a great weight off your shoulders. It allows you to feel happier and less tied to cycles of negative thinking. Happiness is a habit, which you can develop by letting go of toxic thinking.

 

2. Make your health a priority

This means exercising, quitting smoking, and having a healthy diet. Physical wellness has a great influence on your mental wellbeing. It’s easy to neglect your health when you have bills to pay and work to do, so it’s worthwhile to remember that healthy bodies make healthy minds. Either eliminate or moderate the things that will shorten your life span like the ones I listed above. Cleanse and declutter. Your environment influences how you think, so create an environment that is more helpful to your goals. Ever look at a cluttered desk and automatically feel overwhelmed by a seemingly simple task such as tidying and cleaning up? Make it easy on yourself and start with the simple things such as organizing your desk and your personal space. Healthy habits help in creating happiness as a habit.

 

3. Make friends and family a priority

Studies have shown that age-related risks such as dementia and Alzheimer’s increase the more socially isolated you are. By improving relationships with the people around you, you can be more satisfied with your personal life. Those with a solid support system are more resilient because they have others they can lean on in times of difficulty. That’s why making time for friends, new and old, can be so important. Don’t work too hard. Humans need play as much as they need work. Everyone needs to realize that work is not the be all and end all to life. Work is such a large part of our lives that you must find something you enjoy doing. It’s true that we need meaningful work to find fulfillment in our lives. The number of people who work really hard will wonder why they have let life pass them by.

 

4. Unplug from social media

Social media is a massive distraction and overconsumption of it can lead to feelings of inadequacy about your own life and self-defeating comparison. Sure, social media can have its fleeting rewards, and momentary joy from likes and peer approval. But these are like empty calories that if added frequently to your diet, lead to harmful side effects. Studies have shown that this type of desire for peer approval can be harmful for your health. Limit screen time; it can help to install an app on your phone that limits the amount of time you spend on social media. Being mindful of your consumption of social media can help make happiness a habit.

 

5. Choose carefully what you consume

When passively scrolling through social media, it’s easy to intake harmful content unless you pay close attention to what you are consuming. Choosing carefully also applies to the kind of people you associate with and spend time with. Making a decision about what you consume leads you to live a life that is intentional. Living your life with intention means that you think about making smart decisions instead of letting others make these decisions for you. This takes a lot of discipline. If you say you will do something, you have to be disciplined enough to follow through on your intention and to do it.

Discipline is the hardest thing to master. There are too many excuses, too many distractions and obligations. But if you want to achieve something great, you have to make a promise to yourself that you will accomplish what you set out to achieve.

 

Happiness is hard work. Just as no one expects to be handed money and have everything taken care of for them, you have to be willing to put in the effort to reap the rewards. Your quality of life can either go up or down depending on how much time you put into maintaining the essential aspects of an enriched and fulfilling life. Setting aside time and schedule in things like exercise and family time is a great start. Living an intentional life where you are cognizant of the reasoning behind the decisions that you make will make you more aware of what needs to be improved and what needs to be eliminated. Happiness is a habit, and requires a mindful approach to maintain for the long term.

The Smart Way to Fail: How to Fail Often and Fail Fast

The Smart Way to Fail: How to Fail Often and Fail Fast

by | Oct 18, 2025 | ideas+business

Failing in business is common. But there’s a smart way to fail, and that’s to fail often and fail fast. There are so many stories about how entrepreneurs failed before they reached success that everyone should think of failing as the normal thing to do.

Failing often and failing fast is a necessity. Learning is the most important way to grow as an individual and as an entrepreneur. When you understand that you are not going to get it right the first time in any project you start, the possibilities open to you are endless. The principles of failing fast are useful in business, but can be applied to all things in life.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Look for safe ways to fail.
  2. Don’t dwell on failure.
  3. Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.
  4. Exercise resiliency.
  5. Try many new and different things.
  6. Have a mentor or guide.
  7. Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.
  8. Have courage and don’t fear failure.

 

1. Look for safe ways to fail.

Think of ways to get started on your business while taking on minimal risk. Looking for safe ways to fail means that you don’t invest a ton of money into your new project. Minimize the risk by building your business with the least amount of startup capital. This will require some creativity, so look for ways to reduce the amount of money you need to start your business. What you don’t want to do is invest a ton of money in an idea that you later find out isn’t going to work. The smart way to fail is to fail with minimal risk. So start simple and start small. This allows you to fail often and fail fast.

 

2. Don’t dwell on past failure.

If you fail after your first, second, or hundredth attempt, move on. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and don’t dwell on failure. The sooner you get back up, the quicker you will reach success. You’re going to do this often, and you are going to do this fast. So don’t dwell on failure and move on quickly. Perfectionism is the enemy of forward progress. Your attempts are not meant to be perfect.

 

3. Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.

Keep a record of your attempts, especially what didn’t work, and what you can change. A failure ends up being only a failure if you don’t learn anything from it. Forget the failure itself, but remember the lessons. It’s called learning because you have to do something that you’ve never done before. You’re unfamiliar with what you’re doing, and not knowing how to do something can be uncomfortable. But once you’ve done something a couple of times, your muscle memory takes over, and it’s like doing something automatically without much thought. The smart way to fail teaches you many lessons, and as you get better at failing, you get better at learning.

 

4. Exercise resiliency.

If you are to succeed in business, you must toughen up and be resilient. I’ve heard stories of many people getting knocked down by what life deals them, but the most successful people are the most resilient ones who get back up and try again. You should be familiar with failing often and failing fast, because this builds resilience and lets you get back up faster. You become stronger and failure doesn’t break you.

 

5. Try many new and different things.

Business is all about experimenting. You have to try a whole bunch of different things before you can stumble on the one thing that works. Tweak each experiment and you’ll eventually find that momentum that leads you to your goal. That’s why with each reiteration, you’ll get closer to achieving your goal. Nothing works the first time. It’s by repeating these experiments with better knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work that leads you to success. Get as much experience as you can because experience is the best teacher.

 

6. Have a mentor or guide.

A good mentor or guide has a wealth of knowledge that they can share with you. Having a mentor on your side can save you time and energy, because they will tell you when you are taking the wrong step. They will show you the quickest path to success. Having a mentor is a part of learning. With their experience, they can show you the way to success, and the quickest way to get there.

 

7. Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.

Business is about experimenting. Think of these experiments as a maze. Are you going to get to your destination at the first attempt? No. You’ll take winding paths and meander. You’ll get led down the wrong path. But this eliminates the wrong turns and eventually you’ll learn and get to your destination.

The right thing to do is to keep trying. The wrong thing to do is to give up. Failure is not the end, it’s the beginning.

 

8. Have courage and don’t fear failure.

If you are afraid to try something new because you fear what people will think of you, or that they will laugh at you when you fail, just know that everyone’s memory is temporary. If there’s one thing good about short attention spans these days, it means that people will forget what you did and move on to the next thing to laugh at. The smart way to fail is to have the courage to fail often and fail fast.

 

The above tips are smart ways to fail. Like in life, nothing in business is certain, so fail often, and fail fast. That is the only way you will learn, become resilient, and find success. At first, it is painful to fall down and fail. You get scrapes and cuts. But the ones who succeed are the ones who will bandage their wounds and get back up.

Business books to read about failing often and failing fast:
Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich by Doing Boring Things by Nick Huber

Time Management Tips: You Have More Time Than You Think

Time Management Tips: You Have More Time Than You Think

by | Sep 25, 2025 | ideas for humans

How to find time

I know you’re busy. Maybe you have a job, or multiple jobs, a family to take care of, and a mortgage to pay. When you prioritize what you should focus your attention on, the passion project or hobby that you’ve always wanted to spend time on is low on the list. How do you find time to do all of the things that you want to do? The first step is to learn effective time management. When you do this, you’ll find out that you have more time than you think.

The following is an interesting and eye-opening exercise. Record how you spend your time every hour for one week. You can log your time in a spreadsheet to keep it organized. I promise you, it reveals a lot about your habits, some of which you might not even be aware of.

After you do this, did you learn that you spend time mindlessly scrolling on social media on your phone or watching Netflix? Continue reading for more time management tips.

 

Sticking to an hourly calendar increases your productivity

Ironically, when I used a planner to time-block my calendar, I found that I had more free time than I thought. When you stick to a schedule, you’re being accountable for each hour of your day. This is a time management tip that makes you realize that you can check things off your to-do list and still have extra free time.

Do this exercise because if you don’t keep track of what you do with your time, you won’t know whether you’re spending it wisely. When you do this, you are more aware of how much time you spend being productive versus how much time you waste.

Using your time wisely and being productive makes you realize that you do in fact have more free time than you think. You just spend it doing wasteful things like scrolling on your phone.

To be more productive, eliminate any type of activity that wastes time. This eliminates distraction so you can focus on the important tasks.

If finding a spare hour or two here and there is tricky for you, it could mean getting up an hour early in the morning.

 

Make to-do lists and stick to them

People who are efficient with their time make to-do lists and stick to them. They have agendas and planners. They spend their Sunday nights planning out what they will do for the rest of the week.

They are extremely organized and have their schedules down to a T. Their time runs on a schedule, which they don’t deviate from. But life happens, and if they do deviate from their to-do list, they find ways to quickly catch up.

I’ve started to get back into the habit of planning my day ahead of time. I have a planner and write down what I’m going to accomplish every hour. I found that it helps me focus. It even helps me finish my tasks faster. The spare time that I have, I use to work on my personal projects.

 

What if you are tired by the end of the day and just want to watch TV?

It’s understandable if by the end of the work day you just want to relax and unwind. But why don’t you try taking a walk after dinner instead of spending your evening watching TV? Or read a book on a topic that will help you achieve your goal? Or watch a tutorial? There are so many other ways to be productive in your free time, while still enjoying what you are doing.

 

Deadlines are important

When you are trying to reach a goal, give yourself a deadline. This is a time management tip that works well. Put it in your calendar. It will motivate you to get it done. It’s true that if you’re given only an hour to get a task done, you’d use the whole hour. But if you gave yourself only half an hour, you’d manage to get it done in half the time. The remaining half hour is yours. You have more free time than you think.

Having a deadline is similar to giving yourself only a set amount of time to complete a task. At first it takes a lot of discipline not to get distracted and check your social media. But it takes practice. The more you shut out distractions and focus on your task, the easier it gets.

 

Time is valuable

Like money, treat it as a valuable resource. You don’t have all the money in the world, and you don’t have all the time in the world, either. So would you waste it? No, of course not! So don’t spend it doing things that don’t matter. Cut out activities that waste time. Focus instead on that hobby that brings you joy, like learning a new language or learning how to play the piano. Once you figure out your own time management practice using these time management tips, you’ll discover that you have more time than you think.

The Top Five Best Things in Life That Are For Free

The Top Five Best Things in Life That Are For Free

by | Sep 8, 2025 | ideas for humans

One of the first blog posts that I published in my ideas+business page was aimed at educating you on how to sell what people want. It got me thinking on how to follow up on this important topic. Not everything is sell, sell, sell! There are in fact things in life that you can get for free. Not everything comes with a hefty price tag. So for this post I thought it would be useful to share the top five best things in life that you can get for free.

Everyone likes free stuff. Ever get frustrated by learning that something is not actually free? For example, signing up online for services requires you to give them your personal information like your birthdate. Definitely not for free.

While coming up with this list, I found myself leaning more towards the things we take for granted, the everyday things that we don’t appreciate enough.

These are mostly things that you would think about while trying to fill a gratitude journal, and are not tangible items we can own. They do not have monetary value in the usual sense. They don’t belong to anyone; they belong to everyone.

No one owns these, it’s free for people to enjoy. There’s no need to look for bargain prices, and there’s no haggling required to enjoy these things.

 

The Top Five Best Things in Life That Are For Free

1. Fresh Air
2. Water
3. A Walk Outside in the Park
4. Friendship
5. Freedom

 

1. Fresh Air

For those of you who are lucky enough to live in unpolluted cities, fresh air should top your list of the best things you can get for free.

To appreciate fresh air and feel gratitude for having limitless amounts of it, take a break from work or from studying and go outside. Breathe in deeply for a count of three, and exhale for a count of three.

Feel that? It’s fresh air, and you don’t even have to pay for it. No one can put a price tag on it, so have as much of it as you want.

I know what the next thing you’re thinking. How long will it be that fresh air is free and available to everyone? What if you live in areas where pollution is rampant, the air quality is low, and you can’t safely breathe it in unless it’s filtered?

My point is, this is a call to protect the environment. Take public transit or bike if you can, instead of driving your car. Protect the environment so that everyone can share and make use of it freely.

 

2. Water

Water is closely related to fresh air. It comes from the environment. Clean water is free, and I don’t mean the $4.50 one litre of bottled water at the grocery store, but the one from the tap.  Okay, we have to pay our water bill, but you get the point.

Clean water is not available to everyone. In underdeveloped countries, clean water is scarce and hard to come by.

Everyone has turned on the tap for some water, and admit it, sometimes we’ve wasted that water. It’s something that we take for granted, so much so that we don’t realize when we waste it. It’s available instantaneously, like magic.

When something is freely available like it’s a normal, everyday part of our lives, it’s easy to overlook how lucky we are that we have clean water.

So next time you turn on the tap for a glass of cold, drinkable water, appreciate the fact that you can have it whenever you want it.

 

3. A Walk Outside in the Park

It’s free to take a walk outside in the park. Unlike having to pay for a fitness class, taking a walk in the park is free exercise. It doesn’t cost anything, and there are numerous health benefits.

During a busy work week, take some time during your lunch break to get outside, and bring a friend so that together, you can refresh your minds by breathing in all that free air.

Walking is a meditative exercise, and you only need fifteen minutes to reap the benefits. It makes you calmer and more focused. It gives you more energy to tackle all the things that are still in your to-do list.

You may have heard that sitting down is the new smoking. So do yourself a favor and increase your longevity by getting up, going outside, and talking a fifteen minute walk with a friend.

 

4. Friendship

This leads me to the next thing in the list of best things in life that you can get for free. Friendship should be given freely. Whether you meet in person or over the internet, being sociable can extend your lifespan and protect you from neurodegenerative diseases.

So call your friends or relatives that you haven’t kept in touch with over the years and invite them for a walk or for coffee. If you can’t see them face to face, have a FaceTime call. These people are important in your life, so cherish your friendships and keep them alive. It’s like watering a plant; your plant, or friendship, will die if you don’t take care of it everyday.

Cultivate the friendships that make you happy, and share your interests, hobbies, and everyday activities with them. Joining a social club or group is also a way to cultivate new friendships.

A good friend doesn’t have to be a rare commodity if you work hard at finding those who support you during bad times and share your joys during the good times.

 

5. Freedom

The last thing on the list of the top five best things in life that are for free is freedom. If you live in a free country, you probably don’t think of this everyday as something that we should appreciate. But you should realize that some people in the world don’t have freedom, or have ever tasted it, or have had it taken away from them.

Our gratitude for freedom needs to be something that we add to our gratitude journal everyday.

We can breathe in fresh air, drink clean water, step outside in the park without fear for our safety, and be friends with anyone that we want, without being punished for it.
So take care of the environment and take care of each other so we can prevent ourselves from putting a price tag on these things in the future.

You can see the point I’m trying to make with this list. The only way to keep these things free and available to everyone is prevent them from being threatened by our own carelessness.

The future is hopeful. Humanity doesn’t have to play a part in threatening these resources and making them scarce and enjoyable by only a privileged few.
There are actions that people are taking right now to protect the environment and each other.

By taking the time to appreciate what we can get for free, it will give us a reason to keep things free and accessible to all, because as soon as we put a value or price tag on them, they will no longer be free to everyone.

Putting an ownership on something that was once for free is an injustice. There doesn’t have to be a hidden cost to freedom.