Fifteen days ago I committed to writing online every day for 30 days.
As I’m now at the halfway stage, I thought I’d take a little step back and consider how things are going.
Why am I doing it?
First, it’s a good idea to remind myself why I’m doing this in the first place.
When I set out on the journey, I had three clear reasons for doing so.
You can read all about them here, but briefly those reasons were:
- To discuss my own ideas in my own name.
- To make writing a daily habit.
- To document the changes I’m making in my own business.
So…how’s it going?
Let’s look at each of those reasons individually, so I can assess progress to date. I’ll even give myself a little mark out of ten for each…
1. Write about my own ideas, in my own name
Part of the work I do is writing words for other people. I enjoy that a lot. But I have long wanted to begin exploring things in my own words, as myself.
I’ve made a stab at this so far, but in all honesty the writing I have done these past two weeks has been very much dipping a toe.
I’ve covered a few areas – wellbeing, publishing, business, productivity, design – but nothing has scratched much beneath the surface. It’s certainly yet to scratch my own itch in terms of getting beyond the basics so I can explore thoughts more thoroughly or in a way that’s more satisfying to me.
That will come. But it hasn’t happened yet.
Score: 6/10
2. Create a daily writing habit
This has gone pretty well to date.
This is day 15 of the challenge, and it’s the fourteenth day on which I’ve posted an article.
I missed a single day – Sunday – which was an intentional decision to take a day off. I’m fine with that. The important thing for me was that I got straight back on the bike the next day, which I did.
Do I feel like writing every day? Yes and no. I always want to write, but I don’t always have the time or energy that makes it the natural next thing to do each day.
This is where the commitment to the challenge has helped, because these thirty days are primarily about making sure I leave with a daily habit firmly implanted in my schedule. So I’ve not wanted to let myself down, even when not writing would have been far easier.
Score: 9/10
3. Document the changes I’m making in my business
This one hasn’t gone so well.
My topics have varied a lot, as I’ve looked to try out different styles and different topics during these first couple of weeks.
I see this time as a free hit. Very few people are reading my articles at this point as my account is so new. I’m taking this as a positive, as I have the freedom to try things out.
Nevertheless, I do want to use this place as somewhere to document what I’m doing. It’ll help me in my thinking, and I genuinely believe it’ll be interesting to others on similar paths.
So I need to focus on more of that in the next 15 days.
Score: 4/10
In summary…
I could do better. But I’m still here. That’s the key metric right now.
The quantity of the content has been almost perfect (one missed day in 15, and that an intentional decision).
The quality has been…okay.
I’m happy with that for now. I know the quality will lift as I continue to hit my marks every day and build a habit.
The fact I’ve found space in my days so consistently is important to me.
Will I continue? Absolutely. These thirty days are a warm-up: limbering up and stretching for the full week ace ahead.
I’m adding a follower or two most days here on Medium, and that’s lovely. The thought of people reading these words gives me the warm fuzzies.
In short, I’m happy.
That’ll do me for now.
Thanks for reading.
