Guess Who’s Back?
Queue The Eminem Show, because guess who’s back… back again? Yeah, that’s right — me. Ning Choi. A regular guy whose life has been hectic for around a month and a bit.
You might think it’s because I am some secret businessman who negotiated the sale of Chelsea Football Club or because I am Robert Lewandowski’s agent, searching Medium for potential clubs to transfer my client to, but the reason why I left here, unannounced, for around a month is a lot pettier than that. No, there haven’t been any drastic changes in my life, and yes, I’m back again… sort of? Oh well, I guess now is the time to explain why I ghosted you right?
What happened?
Well to no one’s surprise it has to do with university. More specifically, exams. Did I know I had to do end of semester exams? possibly. Did I study for them? again, maybe. Did I totally forget about how much workload studying for them actually was? Totally. So the situation is that amongst other “responsibilities” as an ”adult,” I kind of had like 4 weeks or so to knuckle down and pull up my grades with exams that ranged from 30% to 50% of my grades for 4 individual units of work. Needless to say, creating a daily or weekly 5–7 minute article was the last thing on my mind.
Let’s face it, despite the tags and the comments, I couldn’t even open up my phone at times because I knew, that once I did, I would get the itch to write again. And by this stage, the less procrastination the better. So, unannounced, complete radio silence was my best bet.
Some valuable lessons
In actuality however, this wasn’t entirely true. I did still provide myself with an outlet, in the form of my Instagram because I figured, that if I can’t post on Medium, I can post short-form and grow my Instagram following, purely from my phone. So that’s what I did. Full focus on football, from 400 to 1000 in 2 weeks. These numbers were something out of a fairytale. Incredible what a little consistency could do. While I was losing out on what little potential “income” I was gaining from Medium, I was making it up with a growing community of like-minded football lovers. While in my brief foray back to purely producing for Instagram, I learned a few more things that I will take with me on this journey of mine:
- Instagram is changing for the worse for writing. A post will come on that soon.
- Connections are invaluable and a community is something that needs time and effort in fostering.
- I’m lazy…
It’s true. I’ve been trying to fight it, but I’ve come to realise that when it comes to creating content, I’m either very slow and perfectionist or just too lazy to start. I know that I’m self-disciplined and can get it done, but the battle is actually starting. That has been the bane of me in everything I do. So instead of fighting that, I’ll look to embrace it instead. This leads me straight onto a major change to the way I will be pushing out content on here for me, anyway, and a promise to you guys.
Change is coming
As my following grew, I realised that most of my followers on Medium are not from Instagram, instead of finding me on here, which is fair, I mean, after all — they’re different platforms. Also, I learned something from a friend of mine recently along the lines of “everyone has their preference.” So, with this in mind, and the prospect of doing less work while delivering more content calling my name, I’ve decided that to keep consistency on both platforms, I will be using some of my ideas for Instagram posts here and vice-versa. This way, I do not need two completely different frames of mind to create the same amount of content across both platforms. In other words, I will be recycling content ideas.
Before you storm off angrily, pump the brakes for a bit. Let me explain how this benefits not only me but in actuality benefits you guys as well when it comes to content on here. Firstly, having one mindset is great, so I don’t have to switch writing styles as much, meaning that it is objectively easier for me to create. This should, in theory, mean more stuff for you. Secondly, with the Instagram word limit, being 2200 characters, acting as a major restriction for me to express my views, I will use Medium as a platform to expand on almost every single post that I do on Instagram. It means that Medium will get a more detailed insight into my content and considering that there are paying members on here, I think that’s a fair deal. It also means that my research doesn’t exactly go to waste looking at you, my fullbacks post. Finally, this change only applies to football content, of course. This means that other posts about whatever else will still exclusively stay on Medium, for you guys only.
A promise and final words
Now to that promise. It’s simple really. Before I head off, inevitably, to another round of examinations and final project, which will be roughly in 3 months or so, I will make a post detailing what will happen and when I’m planning to be back on the board the Medium train. This means that something like this, where I ghost you guys for 3 weeks will never happen again. Oh, and another bonus, I’ll have another life update post between these extended breaks for you.
But for now, I’ll log back into Medium, turn my email notifications back on and will be busy, creating content for you guys once more!
Hope you enjoyed this post!
If you did, all I ask is for some applause to show your appreciation. A comment too if you wish?
Finally, before I leave you, are you looking for a passionate writer with unique posts to fill your feed? Do these pieces pique your interest?
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Much appreciated,
