For 40 weeks now, I have sharing three interesting stories/ideas in my newsletter. I plan to keep it up.
One challenge I consistently run into is that I don’t have the stories early enough in the week so the last couple of days becomes stressful. Sometimes my full-time job gets busy, and other things happens in the life. It becomes challenging to find time and energy to work on the newsletter stories a day or two before the ship date.
I am now exploring another approach. Instead of trying to find three stories last minute, I write one short blog post every day. It can be a random interesting idea or story or passage I come across. If I do it daily, I have at least seven stories every week. When the time to compile my newsletter comes, I have a collection of materials to choose from. Not all seven will be good, but it shouldn’t be hard to find three decent ones.
As I was thinking about this, I came across a quote from author and recovering alcoholic Sarah Hepola on slow change:
“Change is not a bolt of lightning that arrives with a zap. It is a bridge built brick by brick, every day, with sweat and humility and slips. It is hard work, and slow work, but it can be thrilling to watch it take shape.”
Source: My relapse years
I love this analogy. Now I imagine myself laying down a brick every time I build on an idea, draw a diagram, or add a post to the blog.