Photo by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash
I’ve been on Steemit for just over a month now, and I thought it would be cool to do a check-in post looking at what I actually did with my time here. I know some folks have targeted social media accounts, talking mostly about one thing—whether that’s fiber arts or family health or cryptocurrency—but I’ve never been that kind of person: I have a lot of interests, so my internet presence often ends up all over the place. (I totally noted that in my original introduction post, too.) It can be hard to follow sometimes, so I like to check in with myself for a concrete understanding when I’m feeling a little lost. So, here goes…
Month 1:
I leapt in, feet first, joined a number of Discords, drafted a bunch of posts, drew some art, read, upvoted, resteemed, commented—and then crashed. In my excitement, I didn’t account for my own needs, and it knocked me out. Because I like to consider my words, and because my writing process requires I take a lot of time to, well, process, I lose a lot of energy in high-speed environments. If I push myself too hard for too many days in a row, I burn out and spend days in this kind of exhausted, listless haze. When I get like this, I totally want to write or even do chores, and instead I just watch too many episodes of Criminal Minds on Netflix. So, moving forward, I’d like to strike a balance so participating doesn’t totally drain me, but I still contribute to authentic community. It’s a work in progress.
During my first month, I got my reputation up to 47, and my Steem power up to 36, by putting almost all of my author and curation rewards into SP. (Any rewards not powered up were donated or given away.) Based on services I use and the recommendations of other users whom I trust, I cast 19 of my witness votes. I made 21 posts, including this one, and over 350 comments. One of my posts got curied, which was both exciting and a little overwhelming. I joined a number of Discord servers, and participated in the Steemit Ramble’s Pimp Your Post Thursday and the STEEM Engine’s first Talk of the Line, and made some pretty great connections with other users and some cool projects. Even though I got a little burned out, I’ve definitely enjoyed my time so far!
Highlights:
- Women’s History Month Writing Contest, which was pretty cool. We got a lot of great entries, and it was really hard to pick the winners!I helped judge @teamgirlpowa’s
- I shared about my ongoing process of overcoming impostor syndrome
- I shared my vision for a free world
- I wrote an original poem for Poets United
- I reviewed a short story called “Fandom for Robots” for one of @didic’s SpecLit Review Contests
- I got my freewrite on, which turned into a fun little serialized thing (latest entry here)
- I made my first piece of crypto-art
- I talked about being an introvert on Steemit and Discord
Shout-outs:
The following people/collectives have been really welcoming and I’ve really enjoyed connecting with them on Steemit/Busy/Discord: @didic, @shawnamawna, @solarsupermama, @malloryblythe, @rachelhanson10, @aislingcronin, @linnyplant, @trucklife-family, @slothicorn, @teamgirlpowa, Steemit LGBT+, @thesteemengine
@ginabot has been amazing, and a total lifesaver for me when I’m low energy. And @mahdiyari’s https://steemauto.com has also been super useful. I use https://steemnow.com and https://steemd.com to monitor my voting power check and make sure I don’t miss anything really important. It’s cool how many great tools have been developed to help users interact here. I’m definitely learning tons about blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies, and I look forward to learning even more as I go along.
Thanks for reading and steem on!
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You reminded me on my very first day when I joined Steemit. Yes it can be overwhelming when you sprint with excitement in Steemit. I used to be able to hit 4 posts a day, but now I am kind of doing 1 post every 48 hours haha.
Steemit journey is a marathon. We got to pace ourselves well, from our daily lives to inspiration into planning, drafting and posting in Steemit; not to mention we engaged with all our friends in the cyber world in this transparent blockchain.
Keep the pace consistent, and take a break once a while with real life fun, you are going to do great. I am almost 1 year active in Steemit now and we even have events, meetups, trainings and keep making new real life friends too.
upvoted
This post made me realize why I’ve been completely drained of energy for the last two days. My introversion doesn’t just cease to exist when I’m online. I have to monitor my social batteries with online interactions too.
It seems so simple but I overlooked this. I’ve made connections and taken on new roles in my steem communities. I’ve been nonstop for a streak of days at a time. Somehow I wondered why my energy was gone. Silly introvert, you have to recharge.
We seem to have a few things in common. I was just re-reading your comment on my post and I came to check our more of your writing.
I’m going to add you to my ginabot so I can keep up. Gina is great, isn’t she?
Hello! I followed you, let's increase the power of Steemit together! I hope you follow me. I'm always glad to have a new acquaintance with good people! ;)
Its amazing how much we do just with our hands and minds.. clickety clack! Poof! An amazing fun filled life. Meanwhile i totally relate to not doing chores...
Haha, yeah... Chores... looks guiltily at the dishes in the sink
Thank you for the shout-out. I’ve been so happy to connect with you and all the wonderful people of @teamgirlpowa. :)
Congrats on getting so many achievements in a single month! You expose my laziness but it’s just too fun reading and commenting on everyone’s posts. I need to knuckle-down and post stuff more, or be more focused on writing my novel. I keep telling myself one more comment, and many comments later...I’m still going. This is an example... -smh-
Hopefully, you’d know your encouragement and inclusiveness meant a lot to me. I enjoy reading about your thoughts and experiences. I’ve not checked your ‘overcoming imposter syndrome’! That sounds like a must read, so I’ll check it out soon.
Thanks for being you on Steemit and keep steeming on!
Thank you for connecting and being so chill. It's been lovely chatting with you.
It's not laziness, it's thoughtfulness. 😉 You leave really great comments and put a lot of thought into what you write here, and it shows. ❤️
Good work and I love to draw too. Thanks for sharing, hehe. I'm Oatmeal Joey Arnold. You can call me Joey.
Maybe you can travel through our discord and tell what you think? Id love your input! Its a server intended to help new steemit users!
Steemit is more about community and growth not just money.
Nice to hear about all the hard work you put into steemit @tessaragabrielle ! I didn't see your original post so I'm glad you posted once more :) Will follow u!
Thanks for reading! I figured a follow-up post was warranted, to reflect on things. 😄
Welcome on board to land of possibilities, i can see you doing well, keep it up@tessaragabrielle
Thanks!
Hello! I followed you, let's increase the power of Steemit together! I hope you follow me. I'm always glad to have a new acquaintance with good people! ;) Upvoted! ;)
Looks like you have been having a fantastic journey! Keep it up! :)
Thanks!
Whoa! It's been only a month? You really achieved a lot and I thought you've been here a bit longer. I had seen the curie recently; good job on that as well :D It's nice to have you on steemit and discord :)
Yep, just one month—weird, huh? 😄 Thanks for welcoming me to the platform—I've enjoyed getting to connect with you here and on Discord!
So good having you on here and connecting with you @tessaragabrielle, I always appreciate your feedback and support. Thanks so much for the shout out xxx
Thanks for the welcome, and likewise! I enjoy your writing and comments. 😄
You had an awesome first month! I did not even get GINABOT until my fourth month! Indeed it is a life saver and during my low energy points I let it take notes and just read the notifications when I am feeling social again.
I love your highlights and don't push yourself too hard about needing to post at least once a day.
It is a marathon not a sprint :) Go at your own pace!
I'm really glad I found ginabot early on. :)
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I'm definitely not going to post every day, but I'll try to post pretty regularly going forward, and see where that gets me. I always try to remember that: marathon, not a sprint!
I loved reading about your first month on Steemit. I do not stick to writing about one thing either. I never know what I am going to write about! I also wore myself out. I just started feeling the effects about 2 weeks ago. I am working on finding the balance now. You have had some great accomplishments as well!
Thank you for reading, and for sharing your own experiences. :)
Saludos desde Venezuela, bienvenido a esta nueva red social.
¡Muchas gracias!
This account of your experiences has really inspired me. You have been so active and so dedicated to this platform, and I commend you for that. ❤️ I always feel a little rush of excitement when I see a new post of yours in my feed. The things you write are so intellectually and emotionally engaging, I always have something new to ponder about after I've read one of your posts.
Aw, what a sweet comment, thanks! I definitely feel the same about your posts, and I'm really glad to have connected with you on here. :)
I'd say you haven't burned out just letting the coals simmer a little bit, no need to keep the fire stoked to hot.
Congratulations on receiving a Curie, those are not easy to come by. I look forward to seeing more of your work, variety is the spice of life, writing about one thing all the time would get boring very quickly so keep with your plan of tackling different topics.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts! I have a wide variety of interests and hobbies, which naturally leads to talking about many different things. My blog and social media presence naturally reflect that eclecticism, and I think it lets me connect with lots of different people I might not otherwise have met. :)
Very true, I am all over the board on subjects and have met a variety of folks because of that as well.
You have achieved a huge amount in your first month - congrats on that :)
Thanks!
That's really impressive for just over a month. I've been sort of stalled at 44 for a couple of weeks now, but after 2 months of pretty intense activity, I went on a bit of a hiatus for scheduling reasons and for a project I've been super into and not ready to post about yet. But anyway...You really did dive in. Keep up the good work! What do Ginabot and steemauto do?
Thanks! I got my reputation to 47 so quickly from being curied, I think. It seemed to happen right around then, at least. And also because of helping run a #teamgirlpowa contest.
@ginabot is a notifications bot. You register with her on Discord, then you go into your settings and you can follow tags or other users. Whenever someone makes a post with that tag, or whenever one of the users you follow makes a post, you get a little notification in Discord with a link to the post. You can also get notifications when a particular user is mentioned, when you get upvotes, and so on. Here's an intro post about it: https://steemit.com/ginabot/@ginabot/ginabot-the-best-notifcation-service-in-the-steemiverse
steemauto allows you to automatically upvote posts by particular users, or follow a curation trail (for example, whenever @teamgirlpowa upvotes a post, I upvote that post, as long as I have a certain amount of voting power). Here's an intro post about it: https://steemit.com/guide/@scrooger/steemauto-full-guide-and-how-to-register
I am with you in the variety if topics! I find having a lens (the monthly theme thing is new for me) helps with focus.
I am so glad you're here, it's been a pleasure to get to know you!
Thought I had replied to this before, oops. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Having a monthly theme is a pretty cool idea. I've definitely enjoyed reading your posts about self care!
Thank you 😊.