How much time have I spent on blogging?

I have 44 posts and over 1,300 views so far.  Quite a few people asked me if I spent too much time on blogging.  They thought that I had to set aside many hours to write my blog.  They were surprised to know how little time I spent when I shared my blogging experience with them.

I wrote my first blog Software as a Service – Your Gateway to Affordable Enterprise Grade Software on March 22nd, 2010 and second one Use Outlook to Improve your Productivity on April 8, 2010.  It took me a while to write these 2 blogs.  I decided to change my blogging strategy; a strategy that I learnt from my first degree.

Not a lot people know that my first degree was on pollution control but most of you probably remember reuse, recycle and reduce are the foundation of pollution control!  Well, 3Rs is my current blog strategy!  Confusing?  Let me use my latest blog “How can your critical data stand out in the report?” to explain. 

I discussed with an accountant about his reporting strategy.  He spent too much time to prepare and format reports.  I showed him how conditional formatting can speed up his reports formatting processes.  I prepared a very small Excel workbook for demonstration and the accountant said it was very impressive.

After I went back to my office, I had written the blog while my memory was still fresh!  It took me less than 20 minutes!  I reused my demonstration and recycled the same materials into my blog and hence my effort on writing blog is significantly reduced.

Same as “Google Docs? Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps?”,  I went to a networking event and discussed the pros and cons of Google Docs and Microsoft Office Web Apps with another IT consultant.  He preferred Google Docs which I agreed it was a better product.  However, I pointed out some limitations of Google Docs, i.e. advanced formats cannot be maintained.  I summarized our discussion in the blog.  How long did it take?  Again, it was something less than 20 minutes.

And most of the time, I wrote my blog at coffee shop (or clients’ office) while I wait for my clients.  If I have an appointment with my client, I always try to be earlier.  The waiting time is long enough to write couple paragraphs.  I wrote the first three paragraphs of this blog at Tim Horton yesterday.

How much time have I spent on blogging?  Really not a lot!  Why don’t you write a blog to share your experience and knowledge when you wait for your clients next time?

Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.