5 lessons from 21 consecutive days of writing and publishing

5 lessons from 21 consecutive days of writing and publishing

Today will mark the 3rd week of daily writing and publishing online. I’ve been posting to both Linkedin and Medium.?

?The reason behind my new habit? Anger and frustration.?

?I was angry and frustrated with constantly talking about how I wanted to pursue my writing without taking any action.?

?I was angry and frustrated with reading about the experiences of other talented writers who were braver than me, putting out their work while I sat on the sidelines.?

??I was angry and frustrated with thinking about how much time I’d wasted over the years when I could have been writing and putting out work.?

So I decided to make a change.

?This wasn’t the first time, I can’t even count how many times I promised myself, “Starting today, I’m going to write 2,000 words a day” or “I’m going to write every day and put out a book in 30 days.”?

?I regularly set these big benchmarks for myself. I’d struggle to complete them for a few days and then quit. Then start again a few weeks later.??

?This pattern revealed two things. First, writing is obviously important to me if I keep trying to make it a daily habit. Second, my approach is stupid, and I need to change.??

?So instead of writing the next great American novel in a week or whatever, I decided to challenge myself to something manageable without stressing about expectations.??

?Writing a book is a great goal, I plan to start writing one, maybe even for NanoWrimo, next month. But it’s also an overwhelming task when starting out.

Toxic hustle culture preaches big goals, but I’ve come to realize how smaller, attainable goals can help build momentum before aiming for the bigger ones. Not that there’s anything wrong with an ambitious target, they can be motivating. But, they can also be used as an easy scapegoat.??

?Ironically, the big go-getter goal can easily be turned into an excuse for procrastination. So I changed things up, and I realized the only thing I should focus on right now is writing daily, just the habit, no specific outcome.?

?I also realized if I want to write and share my work, I’m going to start from square one, so I might as well publish daily. Because everyone starts somewhere, so why wait??

?Publishing daily also offers a small but empowering sense of completion. It’s a small win that helps keep you motivated to continue.??

?I wrote my observations last week after crossing the two-week mark, so I thought I’d expand a bit and list some tips and lessons on building a writing habit now that I’ve crossed 21 days.?

1. You don’t have as much time as you think

?This can vary depending on the person, but I’m currently working a new 9–5 corporate job. In fact, I started this daily writing habit a week after starting the job. I’m building the discipline to write after work, and it’s shocking how quickly time goes by.??

?You have to move fast and be mindful of how easily you can lose track of time. The first week or so I was scrambling an hour before bed to finish my writing, now I sit down as soon as I finish work and get it done.?

2. Find what works for you

?Everyone preaches the whole wake up at 5 am and do deep work thing. Sounds cool, but I hate waking up early because I hate going to bed early. Literally, I despise it, I struggle enough just to get to bed to sleep enough for my 9–5, no chance in hell I’m going to sleep even earlier.

Nothing against the 5 am, and 6 am risers. If going to bed at 9:30 pm and waking bright and early makes you happy, then great, but it makes me miserable. I’m a night owl.?

?I write better in the evening, thats just what works for me. Find what works for you. It’s important because you want to create a routine that supports your goal of writing daily.?

? 3. Don’t overthink it

?If you’re just starting out, you’ll most likely have no audience. I for sure don’t.?

?It sucks, it makes you feel bad when other writers get thousands of claps, and you get like maybe two, if you’re lucky. But it’s also helpful because you don’t have to stress or overthink what you’re writing. It lets you focus on the craft without added pressure.?

? 4. Test things

?I’ve tried a few different types of articles so far. I realized the denser, highbrow marketing articles about strategy haven’t performed well. Meanwhile, content catered to other writers has gotten more engagement. That’s useful data because I still don’t even know what I specifically want to write about. Trying different things and seeing what resonates with others helps you figure out what to write about and your writing voice.??

?5. Something is better than nothing I’m a perfectionist with my academic writing. When I was in school, I constantly stressed about writing the best paper I could.

?But writing online is different. Maybe it’s the lack of a grade, but I think it’s better to write go for consistency than stress over putting out the best possible work you can when first starting out.

Writing daily is hard and sucks. It’s easy to get discouraged, and it’s even easier to let perfectionism knock you off track.

Striving for quality is important as a writer, but when trying to build a consistent habit, you have to embrace quantity over quality. better to do something every day consistently and make it a routine, even if you suck at it at first.??

If you’re trying to start a daily writing habit, prioritize putting out the work even if you know it’s not your best because perfectionism can easily drain your time.

Bringing it all together

?I plan to write daily, I want it to become a consistent part of my daily routine. But I don’t know if I’m going to publish every day, I’m definitely going to finish a full month, maybe two.

?I strongly urge anyone who wants to pursue daily to just start, you have nothing to lose. While I haven’t gotten any followers or made any money from this yet, I have the satisfaction of proving to myself that I can write and publish a decent piece of content every day.

Plus, now I have 21 samples I can choose from for my portfolio to get freelance writing work.?Don’t overthink it, just sit down, come up with a topic that speaks to you, write and hit publish.