End of Month Review - 30 Day Blogging Challenge (Day 30)

This is also coincides with my 100th post!  Yay!

Today is finally day 30 of the 30 Day Science Blog Challenge. You can read the rest of the months posts here.

Just under two months ago I came up with the idea to prepare a 30 day blogging challenge for science bloggers. planning it wasn't easy, but I tried to make all the topics universal to science bloggers, so that anyone can join in at any time. The goal was to post consecutively for  30 days, responding to the topics given here.  So now that this is my 30th and final blog post in the challenge, how did I do and how did I find this challenge?

What made this blog so challenging?

Apart from a little technical glitch in May (read about it here) , which caused me to delay the challenge till June, the 30 day challenge was easy at times and difficult at other times. I think the hardest posts to prepare were the "controversial topics in science" posts since I had to decide on a topic that was controversial, and would please the readers (which is you!). Now both topics I chose, obviously, had a lot of research and opinions about them, which made me feel so overwhelmed like I was under a sea of research! I spent several hours reading a picking the journals and posts I will be using to back up my post for that day, before I could think of planning / writing the post. (To read them click here and here)

What did I enjoy about this challenge?

I enjoyed each and every topic I wrote about. Each topic is different and I could write about them in my own way or make an infographic instead. I enjoyed preparing each day and clicking that publish button when I had finished the post, keeping up with all 30 days. I'm glad I didn't miss any of the 30 days.

What can I take away from this challenge?

1. If you put your mind to something you can do it-  Posting 30 days was much more challenging than planning the challenge itself (which took a lot of redrafting), but I was dedicated to posting all 30 days on time without any breaks or hesitations. 
2. Being organized is the key to success (in my case)- When you have everything planned out, from the pan of the blog post, when you'll be writing it (or typing it), you'll find everything falls into place without any faults or delays, as long as you keep to your schedule.
3. Writing and posting daily is difficult but rewarding.- Sometimes you get the dreaded writers block, and you don't know what to write and it eels like your brain is a blank A4 piece of paper. It definitely adds to the difficulty of the challenge but once you get over that hurdle and start writing, you start to feel the rewards.
4. I've discovered more science bloggers - When preparing my "Favourites of the Month" I did a little search for science bloggers, where I found a lot of science bloggers, old and new (NEW to me blogs:  Conical Flasks and Dreams & Sassy Science ) 
5. Perfection isn't always important - When your tight for time there isn't as much time for perfection. Most of the time I love to edit and re-edit my post till it's perfect in my eyes, which takes a really long time; but posting daily taught me that not everything has to be 100% perfect and publishing in time is better than missing a day due to over-perfectionism. 

What do you need to have to do this challenge?

You need all four main things: Perseverance, Organization, Patience, Dedication 

I think all 4 words speak for themselves. 

Thinking of joining the challenge? Go for it! It's a great challenge where your readers can get to know you a little bit more and it's really motivating and you can also grow your writing skills and your blog. 

- M