12 Things I Learned After 20 Weekly Blog Posts

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This week is my 20th consecutive Monday writing a post on Medium. While it isn’t that long, round numbers are worthy of reflection.

I hoped for the symmetry of 20 thoughts for 20 weeks but 12 will have to do.

Things I Love

1. The Deadline. The arbitrary Monday morning deadline has magical motivational powers. A blank screen is intimidating but a looming deadline is a powerful catalyst. Admittedly, there are some weeks that I procrastinate and post something rushed that I am not totally proud of. But the point isn’t to be perfect every week, the point is completion and consistency. “I don’t need time, I need a deadline.” — Duke Ellington
2. The Woke-ness. A weekly deadline to to write a blog post definitely wakes up your mind. As I read articles, listen to a podcasts, watch a random documentaries about studio musicians on Netflix or learn a song on the drums, I [try to] fully engage in that activity. Both experiencing it for what it is and reflecting on how I feel about it, and why I feel that way or maybe how I can apply it. This engagement has translated positively in just about every aspect of my life.
3. The Creative Outlet. There aren’t many opportunities to express yourself creatively as an adult with a traditionally non-creative job. Now that I have a taste of that outlet, I appreciate the value for my mental health. I find myself searching out new ways to incorporate more elements of creativity where I find room. Especially at work.
4. Having Something Interesting To Say. In order to have interesting things to write about you have to do interesting things [or in my case, consume interesting things that other people seem to be doing] and not scroll social media all evening. The challenge is to not regurgitate everything I read all the time [guilty], but actually digest information and form an opinion. I especially like reading a few books on the same topic and taking pieces from all of them to have a Frankenstein of plagiarized material to preach from a soapbox.
5. Reading. This goes back to the motivation of a deadline. Reading a small chunk each night has gotten me through quite a few books in short order. In the past 20 weeks I’ve read: Rework; The Definitive Drucker; Catcher In The Rye [DNF]; Lord of the Flies; Make Your Bed; Of Mice and Men; Murder on the Orient Express; Peak Performance; and am working on The 4-Hour Work Week. That probably equals the number of books I read in the last five years.
6. Medium.com. I love this platform. The simplicity of the site. The white space. The formatting. The ease of incorporating media and links. The daily dose of inspiration from other writers sharing their thoughts and ideas. And the endless room to hit enter for emphasis.

Like this.

Things I’d Like To Do Differently For The Next 20 or So Weeks

Photo by: Mike Tinnion from Unsplash.com

1. Create a Better Writing Structure. The first few weeks I was pretty good about starting a post early in the week and refining it over the weekend. But as of late, I have regressed to not starting until Saturday or in some cases, Sunday morning. I hate that feeling of posting something half-assed because I procrastinated. Even if no one reads it. “System over will-power.” -Tim Ferris. Will-power is fallible. In the same way that I have created a non-negotiable deadline of posting Monday mornings, I need to create a similar structure for writing and editing throughout the week so I don’t get to Sunday morning with a blank page. New rule. The first draft needs to be completed by Thursday night. [Starting next week]
2. Carry a Notebook. In the times I have written notes throughout the week, the writing process becomes much easier. Whether it is a quote or thought on something I read; it helps when you have a place to begin. I occasionally use the notes app on my phone but there is something satisfying about the analog, moleskin notebook. Our whole office is on the Bullet Journal craze. I’m tempted to give it a try.
3. Be Brave. The shame from a half-assed post limits my enthusiasm to share posts with any regularity. I hope the new writing structure will increase the quality of the posts and thus my pride in them. I don’t really have any reason to share widely, but when I write something that I think someone would enjoy, I plan to send it to them.
4. Be Brave, Part Duex: Interviews. It feels awkward to ask to interview someone for my blog with my somewhat limited readership[Hi, Nick]. But I like talking with interesting people and the idea of conducting an interview so I think I’ll try it.
5. Play With The Format. I’d like to cover more topics with a quick-hit style commentary [hence, Condensed Consumption] but I always default to giving too much context and it gets too long before I can cover much ground. I need to work on isolating one or two take-aways and skip the non-essentials.
6. Continued Evaluation. Writing these posts has been cathartic and completely worth-while. I definitely don’t have things down, yet but I enjoy the process of cranking out a post each week and refining things until I am proud of it.