Putting Out Content Has Become Tough – Coronavirus Writer’s Block

Over the last 18 months, I have made it a priority to pump out as much content as I can for YD&NB. It’s been a rewarding process to track the numbers and I’ve learned so much as a creator and blogger. Hopefully, I also helped a few of you out along the way.

But over the last month, I’ve just been stuck. I’m in a rut, brain dead, at a creative standstill.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and assume I’m going to stop blogging or producing content online, let me stop you right there. That is not happening anytime soon (never, if I have it my way). Despite my desire to keep going over the last month, I have been struggling. I have plenty of content ideas, but I can’t seem to put my fingers to the keyboard or press record. Some may call this writer’s block but it’s deeper than that. The willpower hasn’t been there.

I’ve read almost every David Perell article there is but nothing has budged. Side note if you want to become a better writer then you need to read David’s work.

If you know me at all, I hate the excuse “I’ve been busy”. In my opinion, no one is ever too busy, they’re just choosing to do something else. But honestly, I’ve been pretty busy over the last few weeks. I guess what I really mean is that other things have taken priority. My girlfriend and I bought our first home together (home buying, moving, and all the little things that go into it is never-ending), my work responsibilities have increased exponentially, and my routine has been all but forgotten because of the virus.

That’s what I want to focus this article on; routines.

I’m a creature of habit. I build a routine and when I follow that routine, I can get into a flow and achieve more, much faster. You may be able to relate. Because of these routines, I have more time to do the things I enjoy. Right now it seems like I’m only doing the things I enjoy (golf, YouTube, playing Minecraft) and not near enough of the things I should be doing.

Since the beginning of the lockdown, social distancing, pandemic panic, whatever you want to call it, I have done a couple of things (or maybe I have NOT done a couple of things):

I haven’t worked out once.
I have eaten restaurant/fast food more often.
I watch way more TV and YouTube.

I feel like quite the hypocrite since a couple of weeks ago, I put out a post describing the exact opposite. That post mentioned that this could be an opportunity to have the most productive time of your life and to put your previous work energy into other self-improving projects or places. I have definitely been putting my energy elsewhere but nowhere that’s directly beneficial to my life.

I don’t know though, maybe I’m being too self-critical. These are hard, unprecedented times and I do think that we should all cut ourselves a little slack. Nobody is perfect.

None of us thought we would still be stuck at home or that all our favorite events would be getting canceled well into the summer but that is the reality. We have to order everything to go and QuikTrip can’t even serve Taquitos. Handshakes have turned into elbow bumps and we must wait in line to go into the grocery store like it’s a high profile club. I thought this whole thing would blow over by now but I don’t see an end coming anytime soon.

In the last month alone we have seen a stimulus package, rates cut, emergency quantitative easing, the stock market crash and also show a major recovery. There has been more happening financially in the last month than in the last couple of years. But let’s be honest, who actually trusts that the government has our best interests in mind?

It’s a crazy time.

Brutal honesty coming right up for you. I’ve struggled internally about wanting to share these thoughts with you all because I know that I’m in a privileged situation. I absolutely despise the word privileged, but there’s no other way to put it.

I have a job.
I’m healthy.
All my friends and family are healthy.
My hours haven’t been cut.
Overall, we are physically and financially doing okay.

People are getting laid off, losing their businesses, and worse losing a loved one every single day. Knowing those things are happening and that they will probably get much worse before they get better makes it really hard to put out content. People that recently got laid off don’t want (or need) to learn how to house hack a duplex. They are just trying to survive.

Putting those words together is frustrating because I know its a contributing source of my writer’s block but it also feels so trivial compared to the big problems people all over the world are having right now. Again, maybe I’m overthinking all of this.

I don’t know when things will get back to normal. Maybe they never do and this is the new normal? Who knows. It has been extremely difficult to stay positive at times. We all had our routines, things we enjoyed doing, people we want to spend time with, and now? We just can’t. We’re fighting an enemy we can’t see and can’t really control. And the only way we know we’ve succeeded is if nothing happens. Talk about a pain in the ass.

My plan forward is to start building new routines to get back into the flow of things. I can happily say that it won’t include any Instagram booty workouts. Instead, writing like this. Where it is just me getting my thoughts on the screen and not trying to target a specific search term to bring in traffic. It will be a slow process but something has to change.

So I guess this is a blog post about how I can’t write a blog post. Either way it was something I needed to get off my chest.

Thanks for reading.

If you liked this post then please share by hitting the icons above and if you want to read more articles here are my latest: