Streaks

I’ve been blogging for nine years and five months. That’s a pretty long streak, and I’m sure you can imagine how big of a barrier it creates against me ever quitting. Streaks are a powerful tool in the habit-builder’s arsenal. There’s some magic to them that makes us want to keep them going, just for their own sake.

That’s a good thing, but it can also be a problem. Sometimes you don’t want to keep taking the action that’s creating the streak, but you keep doing it just to keep the streak alive.

I made the decision recently to only post once per week. I decided to stick to twice a week on a whim a few years ago, and hadn’t missed a week since then. But my readership has barely crept up since then, and the second-best post every week is never an amazing one.

And I dreaded doing my twice-weekly posting. I haven’t been coming up with great post ideas for a while, so I feel like a lot of times I end up having to choose a subpar post to put online.

I had been thinking about cutting the second post, at least temporarily, for six months. But what stopped me each time is the streak. I’ve done two for so long! What if I change my mind and break the streak for nothing? Well, when you think about it, it doesn’t really matter.

So I went back to once per week. It’s the choice that makes the most logical sense. Take a look at your own streaks and see which of them are helping you reach your goals, and which you’re continuing despite your goals.

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Just finished my Amtrak residency! I have a very long post about it, but will probably post it on the Amtrak blog and link here.