This year (2020) one of my New Year’s resolutions was to write a blog post daily for a year. I did it. Today’s the last day. I’m glad I did it and I’m glad I’m done. Just like a marathon.
It’s been fun and rewarding but I’ve decided not to do it again next year. There were too many times when it felt forced and like I didn’t have anything worthwhile to say. And too many times when I thought my 10-15 minutes could be better spent doing something else.
Here’s what I took away from the experience.
- Commitment to act is important – Part of the reason I chose writing daily blog posts as a resolution was that it was measurable. It would be very clear if I reached the goal or not. There were many, many days this year that I would not have written a post if I hadn’t agreed to it at the beginning of the year.
- Reflecting brings reflections – I did enjoy reflecting on my days and my life and found that I had new, helpful thoughts when I sat down to reflect for a minute. Blogging daily made me have thoughts that I otherwise would not have had. And I’m a fan of the idea that we should all go to bed a little smarter than when we woke up.
- I enjoy writing – I was reminded how much I enjoy writing, and I do plan to keep writing.
- I enjoy writing in larger chunks as part of bigger projects – I found that the parts of the blog that I enjoyed writing the most felt more like short books than one-off blog posts. Writing short pieces with a larger theme is more rewarding than writing short pieces without a larger theme.
- Work is more effective and less stressful when planned and done in advance – The times I enjoyed writing the blog the most was when I had it planned out and written in advance. I felt the quality was higher and it was definitely less stressful not writing it the day of. That said, I did sometimes enjoy the real-time improvisation of writing about something that came into my head only earlier that day.
- You are affecting people in ways that you might not realize – I have some evidence throughout the year that the number of people reading and enjoying the blog posts was larger than the number of people liking and commenting on the Facebook posts. I think this is just a nice way to realize that whatever you do—whether it’s write a blog post, hold the door open, offer a compliment, or forgive and forget quickly—your actions are likely having a larger effect than you realize.
If you are looking for a blog to read daily in 2021, I highly recommend Seth Godin’s blog. (https://seths.blog/)