Well, that didn’t go as planned.
I started Blaugust 2025 with the grand intention of writing 31 posts for the 31 days of August.
Now that the month is over, I realize how absolutely naive that goal really was.
Reality check
Between work, making the most of summer before my 4th and final year of undergrad begins, getting started on my final year design project with my group, and my daily routine, I pretty much only had weekends for any large blocks of writing time.
And I didn’t even get close to 31 posts.
Not even remotely close.
The pivot
My goal this last week became much more modest: write as many posts as I needed to hit 5 posts total in August.
Why 5? Because that would get me the bronze award. And since this is my first year, I’d get the Newbie Blogger Award by default.
But even that turned out to be too much for me.
So there I am on the very last day of the month, rushing to take my half-baked ideas and turn them into full-baked posts.
It’s not exactly the thoughtful, consistent writing practice I had envisioned.
My awards for Blaugust 2025
Bronze Award - Publish at least 5 posts during August 2025
Newbie Blogger Award - First-time Blaugust participant (automatic)
Not exactly the haul I was hoping for, but hey, participation awards count too, right?
What I actually published
Here are the 5 posts I managed to get out in August 2025:
- A late start to Blaugust 2025 - Getting involved in a new month-long blog challenge, with only half the month to go.
- UofT Work Study Jobs Dashboard (2025-2026) - Another year, another custom dashboard for work study job postings.
- It’s ok to take it easy sometimes - Rest isn’t lazy. It’s part of living well.
- You can just do things - The simplest truth about life that we all forget sometimes.
- Blaugust 2025 Retrospective - Bit of a bust. (This post!)
That’s it. Five posts. Not 31. Not even close to the daily posting I had dreamed of.
But you know what? They exist, and I’m actually pretty happy with each of them.
What I learned
Writing consistently is hard.
Especially when life gets in the way.
Work doesn’t care about your blog schedule. Summer plans don’t pause for your writing goals. Final year projects don’t wait for convenient blogging moments.
I think I underestimated how much mental energy goes into producing quality content on a regular basis.
The rush job
This whole final week has been me frantically trying to flesh out blog post ideas I had scribbled down in my notes app weeks ago.
Some of them turned out okay. Others… well, let’s just say they definitely feel rushed.
But at least they exist now, which is more than they did a week ago.
Maybe next year
Maybe I’ll do better next year.
Maybe I’ll plan ahead more. Maybe I’ll have a better handle on my schedule. Maybe I’ll set more realistic goals from the start.
We’ll see.
For now, I’m just glad I participated at all, even if it was messier and more last-minute than I would have liked.
Sometimes showing up imperfectly is better than not showing up at all.