365 Days of Writing
Back in 2013, I set a radical goal for myself: Write and PUBLISH something every single day.
I didn't hit my goal fully, but I look back on that year and have over 300 published posts to show for it. Some of them were a paragraph long, others were 1,000+ words. My intention was to write more—to sit down and do the work, day in and day out, no matter how I was feeling or how many people were reading.
Looking back, it's one of the best goals I've ever set for myself. That year of writing transformed my life in myriad ways, but I wanted to share a few of the big ones.
It unleashed a well of creativity. The more I wrote, the more ideas I had. The more ideas I had, the more creative and inspired I felt. This seems antithetical—don't you run out of ideas at some point? Writing every day exposed a truth for me: Ideas don't come from us, they come through us. The more open we are, the more ideas flood through.
I moved from passive to active consumption. I used to passively consume content, listening and reading with surface curiosity. My passive thinking sounds like: "Oh, that's interesting," "This is well-written," and "I agree/disagree." My active thinking sounds more like, "Is there a gap or flaw in this thinking?," "What is the context or set of biases behind this perspective?," and "What hasn't been captured that might be equally, if not more, important to the main idea/argument?" It's almost like I started to read well in order to write well. It ultimately made me a more thoughtful consumer of information, which was an unexpected surprise.
I realized I don't really know what I think until I write. Writing every day made me a clearer thinker. Thoughts in the mind come fast, but a bit shallow. Words down on paper take longer, but create depth. Writing things out forced me to ask myself the important questions: What do I really think? What has informed my thinking? What if the opposite were true? What is my personal bias or blind spot as it relates to this topic? Is my point of view true all the time, most of the time, or just some of the time? Writing has made me more clear and confident about what I think.
It helped me build self-trust. Committing to a year-long habit is no joke. There is enormous power in keeping the commitments you make to yourself, and writing almost every day back in 2013 instilled a deep self-trust within me. Over 365 days, I became the kind of person who believed in the power of my promises. Building a strong bond with my word was the biggest benefit that came from writing daily. It infused virtually every area of my life with more confidence, risk tolerance, and pride.
While I've done a lot of work-related writing since the end of 2013, I haven't done much personal writing—and I really miss it. I know if I want to return to creative abundance, thought clarity, active information consumption, and—most importantly—self-trust, I've got to get back to regular personal writing.
So, I'm giving it a go again this year. My big, audacious goal for 2021 is to write AND publish every day. No word goals, no specific rules—just write, and share.
Here are the guardrails I'm putting in place to infuse this process with joy and ease:
Morning writing blocks. I am blocking out an hour to write every morning before I move on to my other responsibilities for the day.
Accountability buddies. I've locked in two accountability buddies to write with me every weekday morning. With one of them, I've set specific weekly writing goals. If I don't hit them, I owe him $50/week.
No word goals. I can publish 200 words, or I can publish 2,000 words. My only rule: I won't publish anything that feels like a "shortcut" or "cheat." Thoughtful content only.
Beyond midnight. I'm a night owl, so I imagine I may occasionally write and publish content right before bed. I'm not holding myself to a "by midnight" goal. I just have to hit publish every day before I go to sleep.
Drip publishing. One of my fears is writing a bunch of short posts and not giving myself enough time to work on more complex or comprehensive pieces. To combat this, I'm giving myself permission to drip-publish "sections" of a longer piece over multiple days. I can always go back and edit, pause to write about other things, or delete ideas that no longer fit. But, I'm going to let myself truly experiment with writing and editing in public.
Multiple platforms. I will publish most of my writing on my blog, joyhuddle.com. But, I will also count writing on other platforms, like newsletters and social media. One caveat: my social media writing has to be blog post-esque. In other words, an Instagram caption or Tweetstorm alone won't count as sufficient for my daily publishing goal.
Notion writing tracker. I will update a public Notion page each day, where I track my daily writing and publishing progress.
Any thoughts or words of encouragement? I'm here for it! Shoot me a DM on Twitter at @melissajoykong or send me an email at joyhuddle@gmail.com.
I can't wait to write and share with you every day this year!