Getting Started on YouTube

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while may have noticed that since the start of August, I’ve been posting much less often. I used to publish a new post almost every day, but lately there have been days when I’ve posted every other day—or taken two days off.

I used to publish at a set time, too: 6 a.m. But even that schedule started to slip.

So what happened?

Some of you may have guessed: my attention had shifted entirely to making videos for YouTube (haha). Now that September is here, though, I’m planning to put the blog back at the center while continuing to work on videos.

Making Videos While Raising Kids

Back in July, I decided that I’d soon make my YouTube debut. I’d mentioned the backstory in an earlier post: I’d started to picture the kind of car videos I wanted to make. So I jumped right in—and quickly discovered that making videos took far more time than I could have imagined.

The first video I uploaded was only seven minutes long, but it took me a whopping 50 hours to make. I got more comfortable with the editing software after that and didn’t spend nearly as long on the second video, but even then, each one took me three days.

Video editing is fascinating and incredibly absorbing. Once I got going, I could spend hours at it without noticing the time. But working at home with headphones on made it hard to juggle editing and the kids.

I’d be right in the middle of concentrating when one of them would suddenly pull off my headphones, a fight would break out beside me, or I’d hear, “Mom, I need to poop!” Then someone would come over in soaking-wet clothes to announce, “Mom, I spilled my juice!” (-_-) lol

Making a video takes more intense concentration than writing a blog post, so being interrupted just when I was in the zone was incredibly stressful. After calming the kids down, I had to get my head back in the game and rebuild my focus from scratch. I think that’s why every video took even longer than it otherwise would have.

And after all that work, I’d upload the video only to find that my channel still had very few subscribers, and my video library and production quality were both still works in progress. Each video got only around 1,000 views. To everyone who subscribed and watched my videos despite that, thank you so much!

Honestly, I found myself thinking, “Wow, all that work for this many views? I’ve still got a long way to go.” Which, of course, is only natural at this stage.

The thing is, I’m not very good at juggling a bunch of things at once. Once I decided, “I’m making videos!” I put all my energy into videos—and my husband teased me:

I mean, why can’t you balance the blog and videos? Why do you always have to focus on just one thing at a time, Mina? lol

That’s just how I’ve always been, so I can’t help it. Every now and then, I hear someone on TV say that women’s brains are better than men’s at handling multiple tasks at once, and I always find myself thinking, “There’s no way that’s true!”

How I Think About Blogging and Videos

That’s how August ended up being all about videos, and then September arrived. The other day, my husband and I looked back on our blog and video work over the month of August. After talking it through, I decided that I do want to put the blog back at the center while continuing to make videos.

Both blogging and making videos involve sharing something with the world, but when I took a closer look, I realized they mean quite different things to me.

【Blog】＝Reflection: Sharing my car life, including my own (and my husband’s) ideas, values, and outlook on life.
【Video】＝Creativity: Using my own perspective to bring out everything I find appealing and special about a car.

Blogging and video-making seem to draw on completely different parts of my brain.

I also realized just how important it is for me to write: writing helps me reflect, dig deeper, sort out my thoughts, and express them clearly. Of course, plenty of people share their thoughts through video, too. But that’s not the approach I’ve taken with my videos so far.

That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on video. Making videos uses parts of my brain that I don’t use for blogging, stimulates my creativity, and has changed how I gather information. I’ve realized that doing both can open up a whole new world.

So even if I make videos less often, I’d like to keep creating and posting them whenever I have enough footage and time. Which means…

I’m going to post on the blog more often!

…

…

I can almost hear readers saying, “Wait, didn’t you overdo the blogging before and end up completely worn out, Mina?” But lately, I’ve finally started listening to what my body is telling me.

When I notice that I’m overdoing it or getting tired—or that a headache might be coming on—I’m able to take a nap or just switch off for a while. I’ve also started doing yoga every morning to help with stress management, overall health, and weight loss, and it really seems to be helping. I haven’t lost any weight, though.

So I don’t think I’ll push myself so hard that I stop noticing what my body needs, like I used to. lol

Trying my hand at video-making taught me and gave me so much. I’ll keep experimenting and looking for better ways to do things—and work hard as I look forward to the day I can buy a Porsche. Thank you, as always, for following along!