I have written this blog since 2005, and haven’t missed posting at least weekly since 2012 or so. Writing this blog has had a massively positive impact on my life, both directly and indirectly, and I can’t imagine what would stop me from continuing to write it indefinitely.
I enjoy the actual writing of blog posts. Writing is fun, my blog provides me with an outlet to connect with and provide some value to people, and doing so helps me clarify my own thoughts. The only thing I don’t like is the looming deadline.
Between travel and other projects, my weekly blog post has become something that gets slotted in after everything else. I usually start thinking about it on Wednesday, but will accept just about any excuse not to post it then. On Thursday I feel a little bit of urgency, but I know it’s easy to just do it on Friday. On Friday I really try to get it done, but if I have a busy day, I will allow myself to do it on Saturday. Once in a very rare while I don’t get to it until Sunday.
I don’t like the lack of consistency, and I like the looming ambiguous deadline even less. For half of my days, I have my weekly blog post on my mind.
After writing fairly consistently for thirteen years, the idea of not having to think about writing my blog seems like ultimate freedom. I admit that it’s a very small burden, and is more like a pebble in a shoe than anything, but who wouldn’t empty their shoe if they had the chance?
So I decided that I would just pre-write an entire year of blog posts in ten days. I could brainstorm some ideas in advance and then just plunk down, get in the zone, and do the work.
But would they be good? That was my concern, and I wasn’t willing to do it if quality would suffer. So I decided that I would make the plan, but would be okay with breaking it if it didn’t seem like it was working.
To do it I asked a few friends and readers for blog suggestions. Leo Babauta pulled through big time and suggested nearly half of the topics that I ended up writing about. I put them all in a list, along with a few ideas I’d come up with but hadn’t found the time to tackle.
I booked a cruise with some friends and decided that I would write five posts per day on the ten sea days and one each on the port days.
It was surprising to me just how well it went. I felt so inspired by writing so much that sometimes I actually wrote more than I was supposed to. Despite being so wiped out by one port day that I didn’t write anything, I actually finished one day early. The average length of the posts I wrote is much longer than usual, since I had no time pressure, and I think the quality is very good.
I will still write throughout the year, as time-sensitive stuff comes up. I actually expect that my year of posts will last about a year and a half. Obviously I can’t write the gear post in advance. This also frees me up to do longer blog posts that might take a few weeks to do properly (like the Home Gear post I’ve been promising for a year).
My goal is to do this exercise at least once per year. Throughout the year I will write down any post ideas I come up with or that are given to me, and then I will write another year of posts. My hope is to eventually have a huge log of posts queued up, so that even if I die my blog will continue for a long time.
This is the last of the 52 posts I’ve written, but I will schedule it for somewhere in the middle, so that by the time you read it, you’ve been reading pre-written posts for months and can judge for yourself whether the experiment worked. Now my next task is to figure out how to queue them all up.
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Photo is a Calder mobile it SF MoMA. Did you know he invented the mobile?
I’d be really interested in hearing thoughts on how you think blog posts have been in the past six months. I think my new process produces better posts, but I am open to other opinions. I’m also very interested in any topic suggestions to add to my list.
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