Tuesday Tips: Don't be afraid to delete.

Good grief.  Tuesday’s post didn’t go up as planned, and neither did yesterday's post.  Sorry!  This is why I hate relying on the auto schedule.  Womp womp.  Anyway, so you'll be getting two posts today.  This one (from Tuesday) and another one later this evening (from yesterday).

I had a smile plastered on my face while I was reading through the comments of my post yesterday.  I’m seriously thrilled that you’re all still hanging around here and I’m so glad that you shared your updates with me!  I can see that everyone’s been so busy with the holidays and we’re all ready for some relaxing time with our family.  I don’t know about you, but it’s times like these where I wish I were a teacher so I could get breaks just like the kids do.

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy for our blogs to get pushed to the side and put on the “not right now” list of things we need to get done.  I mean, hey, mine’s been on that list for the past few months!  It’s all good, bro.  Real life comes before blog life and we have to prioritize accordingly.  The down side to that is once you get back to your blog, you’ve got a list of shit to do that makes Santa’s list look like a post-it.

So what do you do when you’ve got a space that needs a lot of organizing and updating but no patience or time to get it all done right away?  Well, I don’t know what you do, but here’s what I do:  start from scratch.  Yep.  Get rid of it.   

Okay, not all of it (unless you want to), but at least get rid of all the things you don’t absolutely need.  All those ads and buttons that have been hanging around your sidebar all year?  DELETE.  Unless they’ve been paid for, just get rid of them.  You can always go back later and re-add them if you need to.  It's just easier to start with an empty space than to try and organize or prioritize an already cluttered area.

Also, that profile image and intro blurb?  DELETE.  Okay, maybe keep the photo, but delete the blurb and rewrite it and make it fresh and new again.  Reintroduce yourself to your readers and followers.

Hmm...what else?  Basically, just try to strip things down to the bare minimum.  Delete all the old info and go back and update it later when you have more time.  I'll be deleting and updating here and there throughout the next couple of weeks so that by the time 2015 comes, I won't have to stress out about doing a massive update to the whole thing.  The design will probably stay the same but everything else should be fresh and new.

What about you?  What updates do you have to get done before the new year arrives?  What's your strategy to getting it done?