“The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is a widely acclaimed best seller self help book written by Steve Covey.
The 7 Habits he puts forward are:
- Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
- Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
- Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
- Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
- Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
- Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
- Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
Now let us see how these 7 habits can be effectively applied in blogging.
Habit 1: Be Proactive
The magic mantra for bloggers is definitely to be active and be proactive. Active in delivering contents, active participating in discussions, active in interaction with readers, active in updating oneself and proactive in various blogging activities.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in mind.
From blogging point of view, we can infer the end as a short term goal. End of the year goal or any time limit you set for yourself. You can have a vision of how you want your blog to be. For some the vision could be how many visits you would like after a particular period, for some it could be how many subscribers they make, for some it could be increase in comments… The vision could be different but what is important is to have a vision in mind. It will help you work towards a goal and keep you blog-active.
Habit 3: Put First Things First:
Management of time, effort and energy is very vital for bloggers especially when most bloggers are multi-tasking with job, home and blogging activities. It is very important to organize, prioritize and schedule so that you don’t get into activity trap. Refer: Tips for bloggers to avoid activity trap
Habit 4: Think Win/Win:
Let your blog and thoughts be win/win for all. Write the right subjects you are comfortable with, one that gives you mental satisfaction and also provides your readers with a good read. Its a win-win situation for all. Good Win/Win blogging style helps you increase your readership, goodwill and the benefits of blogging.
Win/Win : A blogger as well as reader benefits.
Lose/Lose : You lose as a blogger. Your readers waste their time and energy reading it.
Win/Lose: You win as a blogger with some aggressive promotion or advertisement or by any crook and hook but the reader finds the content not worthy a read. It is important for you to indentify with your correct reader base and build relation with them.
Lose/Win: Ok, you have great articles. Your blog has stuff in it. Your readers enjoy it but you fail to leverage the goodwill and the power of your blog.
Be smart. Develop a habit to cement a Win/Win situation.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood:
Understand as a writer : It is a vital habit to make you a an effective blogger. You need to understand what you read, have a grip on the subject that you deal with – If you cannot understand what you write, don’t expect your readers to. So make it a habit to write on matters that you understand.
Understand as a commenter: Opinions differ. You cannot expect everyone to agree with you. One can always agree to disagree. So understand all the varied, diversified comments you may get for your posts. Understand and respect the other’s view of point. Listen to them, people will listen to you too. Refer: commenting etiquettes for bloggers
Developing this habit helps in building the positive goodwill of your blog and you as a blogger.
Habit 6: Synergize:
With millions of bloggers around, everyone vies each other for eyeballs. Many bloggers write on similar subjects but very few bloggers stand apart even if they touch the same subjects. How ? They have mastered the habit of creative cooperation. They have synergized their thoughts and interactions with readers in a creative manner that result in an refreshing thoughts and look of their output. Synergize your thought waves in a positive manner, navigate your way through the negative comments and roadblocks (road-blogs?!). Stand apart from the crowd by synergizing your output and interactions in a positive and creative way.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw:
Blogging should be part of a healthy lifestyle. So for being an effective blogger, you need to prepare yourself mentally, physically and technologically. From the blogger’s point of view:
- Clear, healthy mind and body increases the quality output of your content. Invest time and effort in cleansing your mind and sharpening it.
- Try to update yourselves with the various technologies related to blogging. Atleast a basic information and knowledge helps you stay ahead in the race. Join forums, read articles, observe other blogs you will learn automatically. You don’t have to be a nerd to understand the basic science of blogging.
- Be a good reader. Good reading helps open up your mind and thought process. It gives way to new ideas and trigger for your future posts.
- Be a good observer. We are bombarded by information through multitude of platforms. Be a good observer, there is always a story hidden for you to be discovered and retold in your own style.
Happy Blogging!
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Are we seeing a book in the future, Mr R? I have to start calling you Mr R. Cant show disrespect to the future Deepak chopra of the blog world.
i agree to mani
deepak chopra of the blog world
Please don’t insult LR by comparing him with Deepak Chopra
@ Mani , Chetan
lol …. thanks guyz ! but I would prefer to be just LR of the blog world , may be DC can identify himself oneday as LR of Self help
@ Ambi
lol …. I know how much you like DC :p
That I don’t like his ‘teachings’ should be obvious. But it is nothing personal
Let me modify “That I don’t like his ‘teachings’ should be obvious” to “That I don’t agree with his opinions and the counsels he gives, should be obvious”
So, Ambi have not let alone DC also!
Bah… you are no fun at all.
What’s the fun in agreeing to everything?
Flowery esoteric-ism is a big no-no for me.
seems ‘disagreeing on everything’ is a calculated-rule for you…! and what is the meaning of ‘Flowery esoteric-ism-just wann’a brush up my vocab…
You were too quick to judge me on that discussion with Radha Chandran where you termed my comments as insignificant… but did not provide a basis for that claim. I see that you still haven’t changed your stand.
To be frank, disagreeing on everything is not what I do or what I did. I know the difference between mindless arguing and argument on sound basis. If it was otherwise, damn me if I am able to convince anyone of anything!!
Regarding the ‘flowery esoteric-ism’ – I just made it up. I know several people speak so eloquently on a topic esp. related to spirituality, but ultimately they have no meaning or don’t make sense. Like they are just whispering or forceful like ‘OH YEAH! YOU can do it!!’, making words sound like honey on ears, being sensational. Imagine this said by someone with eyes narrowed down, hands waving slowly all over the place, saying ‘you are strong, if you think you are strong’ or ‘you are God, you just don’t know it’ or ‘what is good and what is bad… it is all in the mind’… that kinda stuff.
@ LR-I meant as successful as Deepak Chopra.Sure wish the same too
@ Ambi- I knew you hate him and thats one of the reason I mentioned DC to see your reaction,one gem of your comment. BTW, a bestseller can be made simply of your comments.
@Mani:
Definition of success is subjective.
And no, I don’t ‘hate’ DC or anyone for that matter per se. My ‘agitation’, as you once termed it, has got nothing to do on the personal platform.
If you ever do a bestseller with my comments, just let me know before hand… so that I can negotiate the % I can get. Lol!
good.concise piece. What i feel is that we have to read and write with open mind. And understand our limitations -I know I cannot be a Chetan Bhagat or Deepak Chopra or Ambi ji!I have to ‘know’me and then put my point of view with consistency….
I see an end (goal waala end) in this blog.
When I saw the topic, I guessed the author. great. I enjoyed all the seven points. At the moment, I am wondering why my comments have gone down all of a sudden
@ Mani
I was jus kidding !
And thanks for the huuuuuuge wishes !
@ Ambi
I think as Mani said if not book atleast I think we should seriously consider “Ambi’s punches” category :p Give a serious tought about it…
@Sharat
Love your conversations with Ambi ! Entertaining !
@Bharathi
Lol! Who’s going to do the compiling?
What are Mani and me for ? :p
oh be ssured of that. I dont usually forget words. that too stirring words. I think Rajan can testify to that.
The way you put it… sounds like I have stirred a hornet’s nest.
hmm… nice one. Will definately look forward to a book coming up on this by you.
Cheers!
Tavish
Hi Tavish !
Welcome to GingerChai! With the support and motivation of GingerChai co-authors and readers, may be one day I may end up authoring a book on this !
All the Best Mr. R