MAKE APP Magazine

Mmm…

The stats so far:

I’ve published 23 posts.

Started on April 9th 2016 (now its June 9th 2016).  Exactly 2 months.

Should I be disappointed that I didn’t publish 30 posts in 30 days?

No, I don’t think so.  I do feel slightly down, but that’s just me being hard on myself.

My main focus though is to get to 30 posts, no matter how long it takes. Obviously the sooner the better.

I think a better name for this would be the “30 Post Blog Challenge”, because that is the real goal for me.

What have been the benefits so far?

I think overall this has been a tremendously useful experience.

Some of the benefits I’ve seen:

Helps me learn about topics I’m interested in

There are some posts where I found that I needed to do research.

For example:

Masterminds Groups for Entrepreneurs

Sending App Reviews to Slack: Comparison of Services

These posts really helped me to consolidate my knowledge on certain areas.

It’s also really useful for me to summarize books that I’ve been reading and distill them down to a few key action points.

For example:

With Winning In Mind by Lenny Bassham – Book Summary

I’ve found that these posts helped me learn and also I found myself looking up these posts as references for myself.

Helps me clarify my thoughts

Other posts were just me winging it and riffing on a topic that I’ve been thinking about.

Some of what I wrote is crap, some is OK, some might be good. But at any rate it helps to crystallise my thoughts, which can serve as the basis for discussions with friends and family which then further hones these ideas.

Some examples:

Investing the new way?

An Alternative Education

Makes me accountable

By writing I am making statements of accountability. For example if I’m writing about positive habits that I’m trying to instil in myself, it makes me think twice when I’m about to “break” the new habit.

Example:

9 Strategies to Cure Internet & Phone Addiction, Stop Distraction & Be More Mindful

Gives me an outlet to help the people I love

Some of what I write is intended to help myself, some intended more to help others.

If my writing can help someone else then I’m happy for that.  There are some things that I’ve learned along the way and hopefully I can share some of my experience with others to help them out.

For example:

Learning on the Go with Podcasts & Audiobooks

Tips for Hiring Freelancers Effectively on Upwork

Helps improve my writing and gives me a creative outlet

Creativity is one of my core “values” or strengths.  By writing I’m fostering this side of myself and so it just simply feels good.

Also I find that the more I write, the easier it gets (pretty obvious). I’ve been able to pound out a couple of thousand words relatively easily.

What have been the obstacles in my way?

The main obstacle has been trying to get around my perfectionism.

What I wrote in the initial post on the 30 Day Blog Writing Challenge was just to sit down for 10 minutes and press publish at the end of the sessions.

I think I had a great idea at the start, but my perfectionism started creeping in. I need to quash it.

Also I haven’t found a great time in my daily routine yet to slot it in.  Best time so far was first thing after work, but that is a bit variable.

I don’t want to do it at the end of the day, because I’m trying not to be on screens.

The beginning of the day is already quite rushed…

So I guess an alternative is to get up earlier… huh.

I think I just need to stick to the initial rules that I made for myself:

• Just press publish!
• Don’t read over the post after you’ve written it / published.
• Don’t promote the post. This is JUST about writing.
• Don’t try to “SEO” the posts or drop in keywords.
• Don’t fill in SEO related meta data.
• Don’t look at (or preferably even install) analytics – Seth Godin doesn’t have any analytics on his daily blog.

Summary

Anyway, that’s just a quick update for how the 30 Blog Post Challenge is going.

So far the benefits have been pretty massive for me, so I will most likely want to continue doing it.

I might need to modify the format slightly, but yeah, its pretty awesome for me.

 

Life is an experiment.

You are the guinea pig.

Don’t stick with the status quo.

Wow that’s trite.

A great way to incrementally improve your life and your business and your relationships is to conduct experiments.

For example, THIS right here is an experiment.  I’ve been curious about getting back into some writing and publishing my thoughts online, so I decided to get off the fence and start my 30 Day Blog Writing Challenge.

The crucial part about starting an experiment is to set a defined time or other constraint to it.

That takes some of the pressure off yourself.

You know that what you’re trying is temporary.  If I set a goal to “write every day”, I’d probably soon find that I do this for a couple of days, then skip a few days, then feel shit because I skipped some days, try another day, skip like 10 more days and then just give up because it seems to hard.

But if I don’t commit to a lifelong habit of writing, but rather say that I will write for 30 days (or 30 posts), then this makes it much more achievable.

When I started by journal writing habit, a friend challenged me to try his method of journaling for 7-days. Easy!  I did it, enjoyed it, saw the benefits and I’ve been consistently journalling since then.

Experiment = Great way to “try before you buy” a new habit

Want to check out what all the fuss is about meditation? Try 10 minutes of meditation for 10 days.

Want to know what its like to be homeless? Go live on the streets of Austin, TX for 5 days.

Bottom line is, if you want to instill a new habit, start an experiment, set a time limit and evaluate the results.