How was it to publish an article a day during a lockdown?

My story of writing 1 article a day as lockdown challenge

I was writing in 2008. I started by logging my experience in India. I thought it would be cool to diary my stories. I knew it would be intense, and a few years down the line, it will be cool to read it. I also had many people who were interested in my experience, but I couldn’t reach them all daily. So I started blogging.

While I traveled a lot and loved to share about trips, I never earned a dime from it. And people around me encourage me to use this skill professionally. My colleagues encouraged me to share more of my knowledge because it is beneficial for the world.

It was hard to start. It was outside my comfort zone. When you write about a hobby, it is one story. But when you write professionally is a different story altogether. My writing must be perfect, interesting; it must be life-changing. So I started. It was about two years ago.

Lockdown comes in March 2020, and I needed a challenge. It was time to share my knowledge FINALLY, and I knew there will be no better time than now.

Elevate your writing: How was it to write an article a day during the COVID-19 pandemic?

How those around me have seen it:

What I expected:

How it really was:

It is damn hard

I was every night at midnight still writing about my articles, after starting them at 5–6 PM. I was stalling about it.

What am I going to write about today? I had titles, but they didn’t work out. I did not remember at all what I wanted to write on that topic.

How did I succeed in writing 1 article a day during the COVID-19 pandemic?

I really cannot that after this experience I have any advice for you, but I can tell you what it worked for me:

• Start a weekly series about a topic. Open multiple articles and brainstorm over them. Add the meat on the bones, do the drawings, fine-tune — the longest part.
• I have multiple titles and some stretches. I kind of always had this. I had many topics ideas to
• Allowed myself lazy days: days in which I write something short a topic. I was concerned they might become a weekly habit, but there were just 1–2.
• Translate an article in French at the beginning of each week. It changed everything: I could post Monday morning and then work on the block posts for the entire week. And it was good for me too — French people read less English and living in France, writing in French becomes a critical challenge for me.
• I read a lot. I reviewed my notes from previous work, blog posts, and articles.
• I didn’t add exceptions. It is my career guide for the last 4–5 years. One exception brings another one and another one. It might sound inflexible, but one small thing adds up, and by the time you noticed, you missed your goals. I never add exceptions. Never. Not even one day. I don’t miss meetings; I don’t miss working days, I don’t miss deadlines, I don’t postpone. I didn’t miss any article. Good, bad, lazy, late at night, I did it on the day, not tomorrow, not later. No exceptions.
• Drawing structured my articles. Sometimes I found it hard to structure an exciting piece of content, but when I started to draw, it made it more clear.

My gains after eight weeks of writing 1 article per working day:

?? I got a lot of positive feedback and appreciation.

?? My drawing skills improved tenfold.

?? I built a sound knowledge library that I’ll use in future work.

?? I started to build an audience. On Medium, my articles jumped from a few hundred views to thousands

What was your COVID-19 lockdown challenge?

Share your experience in the comments. ??