Post everyday

What does publishing a blog post daily for a week do to you?

Till and I completed the 7-day as I described in Writing challenge. I set up this blog just for that. Now, what’s next?

It’s a tiny challenge, obviously. Its impact is more than tiny. Thank you Till! I’m grateful that you introduced a catalyst to my development.

I started taking journal writing at the beginning of March. The goal was to get the words down. I set up a calendar heat map chart to display the number of words. I got some sentimental analysis around what’s written. However, ideas were scattered. There was no quality bar for what I wrote each day.

When Till suggested I publish something daily, I could relate to the “Build in Public” movement. Why not? I’ve realized a few things now that I’ve done it for a week. The “publishing” act introduced a paradigm shift.

It created a superficial bar—the good-enough bar that proves effective. I now have a daily target: get whatever I write in decent shape and ship it before the day is over. Then, I start anew the next day. Sometimes, I review what I wrote to correct a thing or two, but the pressure is little: I have already shipped it. It’s been beneficial to have closure at the end of each day.

Writing in public is not for anyone else; for now, it is for me. I accept that I’m a beginner and a work in progress. Starting with low expectations is liberating: I don’t have to worry about the catchy intro or the punchline ending. Just write, complete, and publish. I also don’t worry about researching, linking to articles, or finding relevant images to embed in the post. It’s just plain English. Avoid bullets. Write in complete sentences. Let it flow.

Even though I wrote for myself, having an accountability partner was instrumental. I’m super thankful to Till for the idea and for leading by example. I know I’m not yet at his level, and that only makes me pleased about what I can learn.

I want to continue. How should I go about deciding on the audience? I didn’t think writing in public was for me because I worried about how the content would get indexed, people would find some laughable ideas, and I may be embarrassed reading my own words out there in public. However, I also believe controversial or contrarian ideas have the potential to stand out. Who do I write for?

I should start talking to a person who’s not me. I’ve been talking to myself. I don’t have to call the target person out in my writing, but I should have the person in mind to keep my flow consistent.

I am not trying to grow my audience (although it’ll be nice one day). Instead, I should focus on increasing my comfort level about writing without fully knowing what I’m doing. In other words, growth happens outside the comfort zone.

I intend to tackle writing like fitness. I’d love to take it from habit to identity. Fitness taught me progressive overload. I have been able to gradually increase the demands on my body to make gains in muscle size, strength, and endurance. A week of writing has been similar to a week of running. Now, I need a new manageable goal for writing. I want something competitive but not too much. Otherwise, I would get addicted and overspend time on writing. Embrace delayed gratification. With longer-term goal setting, I can also have some room to cut myself some slack to avoid fatigue, burnout, or demotivation.

So yeah, it’s been good. Look forward to another week of posting.

Next: Prep for outdoor ride