'Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn't have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with.'
—Richard Feynman
When reading Ali Abdaal's new book, Feel Good Productivity, I had an epiphany.
What if I write mini-stories on a quasi-daily basis?
I remember Seth Godin who writes and publishes a blog post every single day (about 8000 days so far). Sometimes they are as short as a few lines. Sometimes they are long-form content. But what matters is he has been doing that daily for more than 20 years.
As I read Feynman's story in Ali's book, I recollected the reason I started writing online. It's not to produce long-form content that looks nice and pretty, but for the joy of sharing ideas and stories. This is my biggest driving force.
When I reflected on my writing journey since 2020, I saw an unsustainable path. Having made and sold some Notion templates myself, one of the lessons I learned is that consistency is what separates a good creator from a bad one. It's not that the latter has terrible ideas and produces terrible templates, but that they — including myself — aren't consistent in doing it. We would pop up now and then with good products, then disappear after falling into (possibly) burnout and self-doubts. And repeat. Eventually, we might quit altogether. I had this revelation in Kevon Cheung's writing.
Imagine going to a Christmas party hosted by a new friend you met. When you enter the party, you get super excited. Not only is the place fully decorated, but it is also packed with interesting people with great vibes. You’re getting curious about this new friend.
But throughout the evening, you see her sticking to her closest friends at the corner of her flat. She even disappears from her place from time to time. How do you feel about this party? This host? About getting to know her better? You’re likely okay about the party, but you’re not so sure about the host.
Maybe you are also feeling something similar about this blog.
✍️ How will writing mini-stories quasi-daily fix this?
The first step towards a problem is knowing what the problem is. That's the first step of any scientific experiment and the first thing I learned in science back in secondary school — identifying the problem.
What could that be? Self-imposed expectations. Back in On Writing Well, I wrote about my tendency to write good long-form content because I had written good long-form content before. There's nothing wrong with setting standards for yourself. But what is wrong is the self-imposed pressure to produce good long-form content in the first draft itself. I don’t enjoy that pressure. But it is there. It is there in the first draft, the second, and the editing stage. It sometimes made me wonder if I would lose the ability to write as well as before. Scary.
The best way to fix this? Write more.
And not just writing more, but publishing them frequently and consistently. I have a feeling that it won't work by writing and keeping it to myself. That's the role of journaling. That's another story.
I remember reading somewhere that you never truly overcome the fear of, say, public speaking. It was there before, and it will always be. But what changed is your acknowledgment of the fear and your likelihood to face the fear. In other words, courage. Experience breeds courage. And in this case, writing and publishing more frequently breed experience, leading to courage.
🎯 The goals
There are two things I hope to get out of this.
Reduce the friction.
Keep the blog alive.
Because there will be mini-stories published every 1-3 days, I am forced to look at my self-imposed expectations in the face. Remember, the more I experience the fear (or pressure), the more likely I am to face it regardless. At the same time, the friction of getting started drops. That's the hypothesis.
Achieving the first goal will make the second — to keep this blog alive — possible. Remember again:
Consistency is what separates a good creator from a bad one.
A great example is Oversimplified, an awesome YouTube channel that explains history with wonderful storytelling and apt animations. It doesn't publish weekly or monthly, as it takes a long time to research and animate. Even so, it doesn't make Oversimplified any less amazing, because its viewers know it has consistently come back with great content, at least yearly. Oversimplified has a sustainable model, I believe. And sustainability breeds consistency. Consistency breeds greatness. There's a lot of breeding today, huh?
That consistency, however, isn't seen here. Because you won't know when my next story is coming. I once had an "every Sunday" schedule, but it slowly changed to "every Monday", then fell apart with a long break. If I were the reader of this publication, I would wish it published more frequently, or at least show some consistency. Well, I do have the consistency of being inconsistent. Oh, well.
🤧 But...
Mini-stories. Quasi-daily.
That means a post almost every single day.
One concern I have in mind is, that the "email newsletter" side of this blog may make it feel like spam. Nobody likes that. What is quasi-daily anyway? Sometimes daily? Every two to three days? Every five days? What are mini-stories? How long should they be? I haven't given them much thought.
Then, I considered putting these mini-stories under paid subscriptions, for those who enjoy the high-frequency, mini-content enough to pay a few bucks for them. But there comes my next concern. Will anyone want that? I doubt so.
And, the best rebuttal yet, which I vaguely remember an old friend of mine said,
If you can't even publish once per week, how can you expect to publish almost every day?
I'm beat.
🛣️ The middle way
In The Goldilocks Principle, I talked about the importance of not taking both sides of the extremes, but the middle path, when working towards a goal. It applies here, too.
Remember, the main goal of "mini-stories quasi-daily" is to reduce the friction by introducing greater time constraints which theoretically lowers self-imposed expectations. I suppose I failed "one post per week" because having 6 days at my disposal compelled me to write something of equivalent worth. Because I know you know I have 6 days at my disposal. That's how the expectations grow.
Besides, I envision an ideal mechanism of batch writing and scheduling in advance. This is to achieve the second goal — keep the blog alive — even when something goes wrong which renders me unable to write for a week or two.
So, after such a long analysis and consulting “chad gippity”, I arrived at the middle way.
Write two posts a week.
Why? Here's what "chad gippity" said.
Understanding that your struggle is rooted in self-imposed expectations during the drafting stage, particularly influenced by the perceived pressure of having six days between posts, adjusting your posting frequency could indeed have an impact. Let's explore how increasing your frequency from one post per week might affect this specific issue:
Reduced Time for Overthinking
With a tighter schedule, you may have less time to dwell on each post's perceived imperfections. This can lessen the pressure you feel to meet high self-imposed standards.
Normalization of Imperfection
More frequent posting might help you embrace the natural imperfections in each post, understanding that not every piece has to be a masterpiece.
Shift in Focus
A higher frequency can shift your focus from trying to create one 'perfect' post each week to producing regular, consistent content. This change can help realign your expectations towards gradual improvement rather than immediate perfection.
Of course, "chad gippity" was considerate enough to mention some possible challenges, including quality concerns, increased workload, and how the readers (you) would react.
Ultimately, it gave a well-thought-out conclusion.
Given your specific challenge with self-imposed expectations, increasing the frequency of your posts could be a beneficial experiment. It might help you to become more comfortable with the natural process of evolving and improving over time, rather than fixating on achieving a high standard with each individual post.
However, it's crucial to approach this change as a trial. Start by temporarily increasing your posting frequency to twice a week for a set period, say a month, and then assess:
How has this affected your writing process and the pressure you feel during drafting?
What impact has it had on the quality of your posts?
How have your readers responded to the change?
Based on these observations, you can then decide whether to continue with this new frequency, revert to your original schedule, or find a middle ground that better suits your needs and capabilities. Remember, the ultimate goal is to find a balance that allows for consistent, enjoyable, and quality content creation.
So, I'm gonna try posting twice a week for a month, every Thursday and Sunday. When February comes, we'll see if we wanna keep it going after that.
Let's see how it goes!
—Thomas
P.S. Thanks for reading this far! Here's your cookie🍪. As you munch, feel free to answer this poll below to let me know if this is a great idea. You can also leave a comment below or reply to this email. You may get a second cookie🍪 and a bonus llama🦙.
🏆 Weekly Gold
Each week, I share something I found interesting with you. It could be a song, a book, a quote, or a YouTube video that blew my mind.
Here’s the gold this week 👇
I’m not one for New Years resolutions — I think we get farther focusing on joy, rather than willpower. I started exercising only when I found activities I adored (tennis, yoga); I started eating copious amounts of vegetables only when I found dishes I loved. And I started writing only when I took to working in sunny cafe windows.
—Susan Cain, For 2024, how about living a truly quiet life?
I have enjoyed Susan’s work since reading her book Quiet, which appreciates the strengths and contributions of introverts “in a world that can't stop talking”. When I had doubts if moving to this new platform was the right move, finding her here was reassuring.
Her post on focusing on joy was timely, too. As willpower is like a muscle, it gets tired and can only get you so far alone. I’m exploring more on this in Ali’s book, Feel Good Productivity.
P.P.S. She liked my restack! *gasp*
Other credits:
Steve Johnson on Unsplash, for the cover photo.
Substack, for a smooth transition and first publish.