Yes, perhaps it is slightly ironic to have a work log on the topic of the blog that contains the work log. Maybe it is only myself that finds that strange. On to the business: I have been thinking to myself, in the small gaps of time that I have had over the last month, how do I put more value into the posts I am writing here. These work logs are great, but they do not seek to accomplish a specific goal and transfer any great piece of information. They do not service the needs a visitor searching the internet for a solution to a problem of theirs. So what to do about it.
Well, first, I’m not going to stop writing these work logs. These work logs have been critical in helping me to document what I have been up to, even if I am doing that just for myself. I imagine being able to refer back to these in the future will be very useful, almost as a form of mental state documentation to go along with the project documentation.
Second, I think the best thing to do is review what I am working on and where this intersects with the interests of the site visitors. This intersection needs to also be understood more thoroughly, is a visitor staying because it’s educational? or is it simply because it is entertaining? (later sounds like a bit of a stretch). Now, I am no genius market researcher, but with visitor metrics from this blog, my old one, and my YouTube channel, I should be able to get an idea of what stuff is more readily engaged with.
Third, and this builds quite heavily on the second step, I feel that expanding the categorization of writing will be important. That is, have ‘serious’ writing (tutorials, instructions, tear downs) in one place, and work logs in another. I do not want the work logs to create noise for users who are trying to find specific information. I suspect that messing around with categories and the main page of the site will be the best for accomplishing this.
Fourth, and perhaps finally, I want to become much more specific in referencing supporting materials. This builds slightly on the point above, regarding users trying to find specific information. A big part of why I have always enjoyed creating reports and reference documents is because of gathering all the citation and reference material. It is a great feeling to have have assembled a document as robustly as you know how. Browsing through the appendices and feeling like there is so much back up for what you have written. I would like to reach a point where I am getting this kind of enjoyment out of writing on this blog. Both because it does provide me enjoyment, but it makes the material much more useful to those visiting the post if there is further reading and other useful links for them to explore.
AND…I suppose it would be pretty great if I could get infinite time to work on all the projects. Baby steps.