I’ve been working on my site a bit the last couple of days, for the first real time in over a year, and I’m going back and forth between whether I want to do an overhaul or just kind of pick up where I left off and keep adding things.
If you’ve cycled out to another hobby and then come back to your website, what do you like to do when you pick it back up after a while? Or if you manage to stay active regularly over the long term, what do you think makes it such a solid hobby for you?
I have too many hobbies and regularly switch back and forth between them. Likewise, I have too many websites and maintain them in turn. There’s always something to do. Keep text up to date; page metadata, too. Add new thoughts, and in particular new links. Get rid of those that point to dead pages. Last but not least remove cruft, because most of my websites are living works and it’s better to make room for fresh stuff. Hope this helps!
theres been a couple of times where when i came back i needed to do major changes (2 times i changed the whole layout, the rest of the times i only changed like, the landibng page or some backgrounds or something) but for now i feel like i have enough different things i want to do on my website that i can easily switch between tasks if i get bored. also i just paid for a domain so i really want the money to feel useful LOL
honestly, i start with what i’ve been up to! i update the small things like my now page, maybe add a book or two that i’ve read to my ratings, maybe if i’m feeling up for it, add a page about a hobby i’ve been doing lately. starting with the small things help the momentum pick back up for me!
last time i had a big break from my site i re-did the whole thing but now i feel like i’m more settled into it’s look so i try to update at least once a month or smth haha. i guess if you feel good about the foundation you can just go about it as usual but if you feel like its outdated maybe its time for an overhaul.
whenever ive taken a long break from something i feel like i literally suck at it all over again even if its a hobby ive done for years. despite really not wanting to i just force myself to make something and usually im happily surprised that most of the bad assumptions were just in my head.
I’m also the kind of person to cycle through hobbies lol. I did do an overhaul of my site the last time I cam back from a year long hiatus, but I didn’t actually change the look or really any assets used, rather I had just learnt CSS grids at the time and wanted to update the code, as well as make my site more accessible.
My site’s “organisation” is already pretty loose, since I know my creative output is pretty spontaneous and random. I’m not the kind of person who finds enjoyment in doing “small” updates like blog posts or movie reviews, even if it’s for the sake of consistency 
. I’ve accepted that my creative drive is like a flock of pigeons, one moment it surrounds me in abundance and another it flies away when I chase it. My site only updates a few times a year when inspiration strikes, and that’s ok!
If that overhaul is something you feel like, if not now, is something you’re gonna do later on, and you’re worried about the hassle of re-organising the extra content, then I’d say just go for it! If not, no harm in starting small and picking up from where you left off.
Are you still happy with the look of your site? If so, just keep adding to it. If you’re not, then think about how you want it to look.
I’m generally happy with my site’s content but now and then get unhappy with the way they look so redesign them. Sometimes that takes a lot longer than I bargained for.
I have lots of interests and so my main site is regularly being added to, but there have been months I have not touched it at all. The upkeep of the site has become part of my life and my own thought is that if I’m interested in something, then perhaps other people may be as well.
the chronic cycle of fixations and other things always haunts me … site-working has persisted because i have so many things i’ve done that tend to have more … uh … active updates? like my now page, my to-do, stuff i update on my front page + stuff like my media log which is always a work in progress and my art gallery. so in a way having something keeps me coming back