At the start of 2024, I decided to write every day. Even if I only write 50 words of nonsense, the scattered shards of a shitty first draft, the daily practice was my initial goal.

Then I started getting into some flow. More often than not, 50 words quickly turned into 300, then 500. The goal of merely writing daily fast became a goal of publishing daily.

The problem arose when this became my new baseline. I found myself with a few days with the combination of low energy and a lack of time. And while I still managed my minimum, I didn’t produce anything publishable.

Thankfully, on good days I’m able to pump out two or three blog posts with minimal effort.

So while I still focus on sitting and hitting the keys every day, I am less focused on producing. While my original goal was tied to writing daily with the purpose of publishing, the reality is much more difficult.

Utilizing my good days of high output has allowed me to build a backlog of articles to publish. This enables me to separate my daily writing practice from my daily publishing.

It’s a simple change of mindset that doesn’t have any impact on either goal. Yet it removes a large amount of the stress I put on myself to write something publishable each day.

I keep my daily writing practice but am kinder to myself if what I write is trash. And I continue to post daily because I build a buffer of extra work.

A simple — albeit accidental — little shift that has ultimately improved the success of reaching both goals.