Publishing: What's Working

I created this site at the beginning of this month to see if I could create a habit of writing and publishing something each day, by making the process as simple and familiar as possible.

After a few weeks, I've had some on streaks and recently, an off streak.

Reflecting on my experience so far, here's...

What's working

• Sitting down with a blank markdown file in front of me, and not getting up until I have something to share.

• Just shipping it. Writing for 30-45 minutes, and then just posting. I'm just getting started with this habit, and I expect that any "greatest hits" I might have in this arena are well ahead of me.

What's not working

• Perfectionism. Spending a long time ideating, trying to get a concise sentence I absolutely love. This is what prevented me from writing and publishing in the past.

• AI-supported editing. I haven't used GPT-4 to help me edit since the first post. It's voice is just not what I'm looking for, regardless of how I try to constrain it. At this point, I think I'd have to spend a lot more time than I spend on a given entry figuring out how to make using AI to assist me in writing productive.

• When I'm deep down a rabbit hole working for days on end, I fall off a number of habits, including this one. That's a topic for another post.