What's the next action

The next action: Closing up shop

21 02 08 - 20:52 - Bookmark this post

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but I have come to the conclusion to stop this weblog.
It may come as no surprise since my writing here has been on an alltime low the last couple of months. Like I said, I thought about it a lot and it comes down to one thing: You got to do what you love and what you do best. And during the last year, my focus has changed to other areas in the field of (amongst others) personal development. There are a few reasons for this conclusion

Since september 2007 I have been working on a new Dutch website called lifehacking.nl. Ofcourse on the subjects of lifehacking and GTD, amongst others. Together with a growing group of authors we are building a new community in The Netherlands and I am very proud to be part of this. Ofcourse this would not have been possible without this weblog. Because I have been writing on this blog, I found out there wasn’t really a Dutch version of the different lifehacking/GTD/personal development weblogs. So after meeting up with some people we started making plans and starting Lifehacking.nl. It has been very succesfull the last couple of months and we are working on expansion. So you need to make choices on where to spend you time and resources.

The blogosphere around GTD has grown exponentially the last year. I have to be honest, I don’t read them all anymore. It’s too much. There are a few very good weblogs on this subject which I follow every now and again, but I find the field too crowdy. Too crowdy for me to try to stand out even more, get more original content and improve that way. Is this a way of giving up? Not for me. I made a concious choice to leave the US-centric area of GTD/Personal Development blogs and try to grow the “scene” in The Netherlands and in my native language, Dutch.

One thing that kept me in doubt whether I should continue or not, is the enormous readerbase on this weblog and with it, some nice advertising-money every now and again. Not the kind of amounts that makes me travel to some nice beach in the sun, but at least a new book every now and again and the server and domainname is paid for. But thinking about it some more, if I should continue because of the monetairy rewards alone, where would that leave the passion for writing? It has come to me that I find it harder to write with great passion about GTD in english and finding new subjects to write about (see reason 2 as well). Writing and continuing this weblog just because of the advertising would not be an option. Especially when the passion is gone.

So this is it for Whatsthenextaction.com. It has been a blast to writing this weblog, finding my way in GTD and personal development, meeting new people from different countries. My thoughts and articles really gave me insights for my own on how I could grow as a person. I am very thankfull for every single comment, email, skypecall with each and everyone of you. Thank you all for your interest and your conversation. Perhaps we’ll meet somewhere online again!

Peace out!

I’m sad to see this blog close but I completely understand why you’re doing it. Although I don’t know Dutch and can’t judge the quality of your (relatively) new venture, I’m sure it’s going to be a success based on what you’ve done here.

All the best! When it comes to blogging, it’s important to have fun :-)
Mirko - 21 02 08 - 21:37

It is a Pitty – with Capital ‘P’ – that this is the end of a great source of information about GTD.

Thanks for all your efforts Frank!
Fred Zelders - 21 02 08 - 21:46

What a pitty, indeed. But I can easily switch to Dutch ;-)
Frank Janssen - 21 02 08 - 23:33

I’m actually new to GTD, having come across your blog on a random search. Even though you are moving on to bigger and better things, I intend to read the archives. This, in turn, may lead to your books. Lots of good stuff here!
enrique - 22 02 08 - 00:22

Sorry to see you “go” Frank. Thanks for all the great content. Fortunately, I will be able to read lifehacking.nl as well! ;)
gtdfrk - 22 02 08 - 07:50

All the best in your new venture. I think nich market is the way to go. Better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond – not that you were too little a fish ;-). Have you thought of selling the website as is, or are you keeping the site going as a resource?
judyofthewoods - 22 02 08 - 11:59

Kill your darlings, it’s not easy but it’s wise.
Sanne Roemen - 22 02 08 - 13:43

Sorry to hear about that, but it was “in the air”. You leave a big archive, so there’ll be visitors coming for a long time I guess. Or are you going off the air soon?

Anyway, talk to you soon on Twitter.
Lodewijk van den Broek - 22 02 08 - 19:47

Thanks Frank. I started my GTD journey a few months after your blog started and it really provided me with a lot of help, inspiration and ideas.
Thanks too for setting up the GTD feedburner network.

Best of luck in your future ventures.
rob - 23 02 08 - 11:14

Best of luck, and thanks for all the great articles. Much appreciated. You’ve been a great model for me too.
Matthew Cornell - 24 02 08 - 00:04

Sorry to see you go.

I do understand your decision as my mantra goes- “do more of what you like and less of what you like”.

What surprises me is that you still seem like you’re interested in the topic and in the concept in general that you couldn’t get find a way to enjoy this site more. Maybe if you can remove just the parts you dont like…
Summy - 25 02 08 - 02:59