Why I Stopped Refreshing My Stats
And you should too.
I started writing on Medium as a hobby. In the beginning, I would spend days writing, rewriting, and polishing an article before hitting the publish button.
The process of writing itself was the reward for writing back then.
But as time went by, it soon became an obsession. I would spend all day trying to come up with story ideas, submitting to big publications, dreaming about becoming famous, constantly checking my email, and refreshing my stats every few seconds.
In one word, it became stressful.
A couple of nights ago, as I lay in bed, the thoughts running through my brain were “I need to come up with ideas”, “How do I get more followers and views?”, “How do I write stories that get curated?”, “How do I get published in XYZ publication?” etc.
A mounting mix of excitement, anxiety, and stress led to a full-blown panic attack which jolted me awake as I was slipping into sleep. The fear of going through another bout of insomnia kept me awake all night.
This made me really take a step back and think.
“Why did something that started as a fun hobby become a source of stress around which my life revolved?”
