A Reflection on Writing Daily, Posting, and Habits

I committed to writing every day some time ago. However, I’ve been posting on and off for the last couple of months. My goal was to write every day because I understand the benefits of writing. For example, writing increases my ability to notice and reflect on everyday things. Writing helps me think things through. Also, I like the struggle and effort required to express things succinctly and concisely.

Writing doesn’t mean necessarily publishing, however. A form of writing every day could be journaling. But posting to my blog adds a level of realism to what I write, even if I have few readers or none at all.

I’ve realized that the reason why I’m not writing every day is because I associate writing with posting, and many times I don’t have something I think worth sharing. So I sit down in the morning and write down some ideas, but when I see there is nothing that qualifies minimally as a post, I don’t publish it.

However, if I spend some time the day before deciding on what to write about, I always write and publish. And the ideal time for deciding what to write the next day is when I do my end-of-day review. But that is not always happening. Kids, I suppose, but mostly my fault.

So, if I want to publish every day, I need to consolidate the habit of daily reviews, and make the decision of what to write about the next day part of the review.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that it’s been a long time since I published a long-form post. And it’s because I’m “hurrying” my writing to have something to publish. Even if I have a lot of notes and material to write something long-form, I settle for short-form.

Writing long-form has a different workflow than everyday posting. It requires giving things more thought, spending time on research, ask others for their point of view and feedback. It means choosing a topic that I think it’s worth spending time trying to express a position that may help others. It’s more work, but worth the time.

This year my goal is to publish one long-form post a month. Can’t wait till the end of the year to see the collection of articles.