I committed to writing a blog post every single day for 1 year. I started writing short, punchy Seth Godin style posts. After 270 posts — I got crickets. Then I missed a day. No big deal, I started my streak again. I got five more days in and missed two days. Then I quit. This was about 5 years ago, and I can see now that the project was in fact, a complete waste of time.

Be consistent. That’s the advice you see given again and again. Keep showing up. Commit. It’s bad advice. I committed and showed up every day for nine months, but my attitude was all wrong. I wasn’t consistent with the topics I covered. I wasn’t consistent with the quality of writing. And I wasn’t consistently trying to improve. Just showing up isn’t enough. Yes, if you want to improve at something, you need to consistently show up to practice. But you also have to know how to improve. I wasn’t trying to be a better editor, I wasn’t trying to come up with better ideas, I wasn’t trying to make my writing punchier. I was just writing.

Because I was blogging every day to try and build an audience. But not really because I wasn’t trying very hard. I was also doing it for the practice. But only sort of because there was no conscious decision to improve. And frankly, I was doing it for the status of having blogged every day. I didn’t get that either because no one was reading. I had no success criteria that would mean I felt like I’d done a good job. And so I never felt like I was achieving success with the project. Decide what it’s for and how to measure it, then commit to doing it. Blindly showing up just because you think you should show up is a waste of time. Decide why you’re showing up and use that to guide you. And no matter why, always keep improvement in mind. How can I do better tomorrow. With that as your guiding star, you won’t go wrong.

Shouting into the void won’t get you anywhere, no matter how much you do it. If you’re going to publish regularly, you need to decide three things.

Who are you writing for
Where do they hang out
How you can surprise and delight them

I’m not saying choose a specific niche and only write within that. I’m saying define the type of person you want to write for. Creators, entrepreneurs, people with mental health issues, women of color, cat owners. I didn’t do this. I was writing for whoever wanted to read it. That’s… That’s nothing.