Writing should feel like a small caloric deficit

Blogging should be simple. It should be synonymous with writing.

Nearly every blog I’ve seen has burst of content over 1-2 months & dry spells lasting years.

What happened there?
It would have been so cool to see the person evolve over time.

The answer likely was: Lesser & higher quality posts over time vs the occasional sprint.
(Sorry Gary Vaynerchuck, Se users can’t sustain 10000 posts per day)

A 200 kcal caloric deficit followed for 3 months would yield better results than the occasional 7-day juice cleansing, diarrhea inducing 500 kcal crash diet
(Why do these even exist? Why do even doctors on Youtube promote this garbage?)

One needs to [[Do what’s wise, not what’s expedient]].

Formula to not end up with a deserted blog

Think of your end-goal
- What do you want your blog to look like, a year or ten-years from now?
  - Do you actually want to sound like this guy? If not, then aim for less in the next step
    - “Blogging? Yeaa-h, I tried it for a couple of months. Took too much time from my life”
Choose your deficit (Posts per week/ month)
- If you suffer from perfectionism (Se users): It should feel too easy. You’ll go overboard once you start anyways
- If you suffer from laziness (Si users): Set a realistic, yet challenging amount.
Calculate time commitment required
- If 2 post/ week. And you require an hour per post. 2 x 1 = 2 hours (See? Maths can be useful!)
Set a schedule.
Going by above example, block 1-2 hours in the week. Blocks under 1 hour are seldom useful so don’t bother.
- Be specific.
  Decide on the day & time
  - Tip: Substitute ‘and’ with or. I need to workout and wake up on time and complete on my work and eat dinner, then I’ll blog (This symphony is never going to happen)
    - To blog- I need to workout or wake up on time or complete my work
  - Treat this time as a doctor’s appointment (or you aren’t going to respect it. Normal humans value themselves less, and worry more about displeasing others; which is a good thing & a sign you are not a psychopath/ narcissist!)
  - A good example. I’ll write on Thursdays at 5PM, after drinking tea or having prepared dinner
Announce nothing, at least for the next 3 months
- Announcing when you’re starting out is asking for a disaster.
  You don’t need to know what your peers think about blogging, you don’t need to know what blogging communities crib about.
- You only need to listen to your voice
- Three months is perfect. You’d have crossed the beginners stage, where every advice seems right. And if you’ve survived so far, you enjoy blogging & won’t stop despite what other’s think.
Weekly checks
- This goes into a calendar too. And is the only thing you really need
- See if you are actually sitting down & writing in your specified time. If not, ask yourself “Why?” x 5 times & draw a solution.
  - eg. I didn’t Sit down and write on Thursday 5PM -> I had too much work to do -> I started late -> I was binging stuff on Youtube early morning -> I really wanted to watch this video and never know when I can watch good Youtube videos
  - The solution isn’t to force yourself to sit next Thursday but: Create boundaries for yourself when you can binge watch Youtube videos guilt-free

🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁

Only read below if you’re interested in me ranting about celebrities having a tough life.

Notes for self

I created this above Formula for myself. I’ll be test subject one.
I think four months & this blog is long enough to know if this works or not.

For me:
- Choose outcome & deficit: I would be happy with 1x post a week. I already write a lot & enjoy the process.
- Calculate time: I think I’d need 1.5-2h/ post minimum. The one I’ll post after this took me 2-3 hours of focused work. But I think it was an exceptional case. We’ll see.
- Schedule: I’d say Thursday 5PM is perfect for me. I have extra time on Thursdays as that’s when I do my weekly [[water fasts]]
- Announcing nothing.
  - I am writing this on 7th june, 3:15AM (It takes a lot of energy for me to start things, and I know I’d have never started posting had I decided to ‘start a blog’ tomorrow).
    I need to say silent till September 7th. No problem. In fact, I prefer things that way.
- Weekly checks for 1x post every Saturday Afternoon 1PM
  - Specific enough & not on Sundays, so I can still make it by the end of the week if I want to write something
I don’t know when the 1x week will be unsustainable, I don’t know if I should include this ‘notes’ for myself part here. But there’s a 99.998% nobody will every read this so, why not.
- But does that mean I’d have hidden this if 99.998% of the world would have seen this?
  - I can’t tell for sure- as I’ve never been seen by 99.998% of the world. But looking at the actions of people who are, very likely.
    When was the last time you saw a popular celebrity having a personal blog and them randomly ranting about something? Unlikely.
    But there are plenty of popular celebrities trying to maintain appearances.
    Did the ‘trying to maintain appearance’ part help them reach celebrity status? No doubt? Perceptions are reality. Nobody wants to know their favorite celebrity farted, shat or – yeah, even I don’t want to bring that up.
- Whenever I don’t understand a behavior (Cause of ‘Te’ dominant wants to understand) I like to ask myself In what circumstances would I do the same
  - Under what circumstances would I consider hiding this section- which very well might be exceeding the length of the original post by now?
    - If there are people who expect high quality content from me, or my livelihood depends on what I say, or media can twist things I say- so I need to Speak only where it’s required & not share my opinions.
    - Makes sense. Celebrities have it tough.

How to start a blog for free and start writing

The hourglass gets clearer but life becomes blurrier