Blogust #6 - Blogust Hype! 15:30 | 09-08-2026 | Sunday Hello hello hello! Today I want to try and recruit some people for the Blogust train. The second week of August is only beginning, and it's not at all a bad time to join the challenge, to put out more thoughts on the internet! I have come to love the process of typing and sending out a little part of my life into the The Wires and I would love to see more people's thoughts come back to me the same way. But first a little intro! What is Blaugust? Blaugust (which is the more widely accepted spelling and possibly the original) was started as a self-challenge in July of 2014 by blogger Belghast. The challenge was originally to post 31 times and the 31 days in August. Today the challenge has evolved quite a bit to be more inclusive of a full-range of effort into blogging. Making 31 posts is not really a challenge that can adapt to a variety of lifestyles/time-commitments and so the blogging community has come up with many variations of the challenge. The official challenge has the following available badges who participates: Newbie Blogger Award - For any newcomers, regardless of their post count! Bronze award - At least 5 posts this month Silver award - At least 15 posts this month Gold award - At least 25 posts this month Rainbow Diamond - All 31 posts completed! To sign up for the official challenge, you can go here and go here for more information. Everyone with an available link to their current blog should sign up here, at least get your Newbie badge in. I would lovge to get one of the official badges, but in my heart, I also include the following goals, which other bloggers should feel free to appropriate for their Blogust target: Spirit of Blogust - You blogged more than you have posted in any other month of this year. Shipuichi award - At least 10 posts this month (shipuichi is a Japanese allow of bronze and silver) Topical Island - 10 long posts this month that are a deep-dive on a particular topic (bonus points for posting about current hot-topics?) Electrum award - At least 20 posts this month (electrum is a mix of silver and gold) Micro-blogology - You micro-blogged everyday since you joined the challenge (bonus points for posting a picture with it for every post) An Argument Against The Perfect Score I have added the last one specifically so a few of my friends who are on micro-blogging platforms can experience the joy of the blogging festival too. The reason I wanted to come up with these extra awards was because I have always struggled with perfectionism harming my ability to participate in nice things without feeling like I have taken up an impossible goal upon myself. And I have seen that kind of stress in Blogust related discussions too, and I know that this event is more about dusting off your website and finding joy in expressing yourself in your own space, than proving that you can hit the post button 31 times. I am hoping that the new awards will encourage everyone (and me) to engage with their blog on their own terms and still feel rewarded. I would also love to hear on other blogs if people have made their own custom targets for fun. I say we should all learn a little from Mister Obama- I don't have any badges readily available for my home-made awards, maybe I'll look into it in the coming weeks. I would also recommend visiting Indicator's blog for more updates about the challenge and some themes and prompts. In other news... I have found a good neurodivergent hack for working around the Dread that is brought to me by my To-Do list. When I was going throught the umpteenth ADHD help video, I found in the comments this nice lady's advice to use a "To-Have" list instead of to-do's. So instead of writing down 'Make my bed', you would write 'A clean bed'. I tried doing this and it was so immediately helpful, because this brings the focus to the reward from the task rather than the unpleasant step required. I can't believe it was so simple all along?! That's all for today and I will see you all very, very, soon as always. Love, Aeish <3