March 31, 2018
Daily is just easier
Have you ever wondered how I manage to send these emails every day? Usually when I tell someone I have a daily email list, their jaw drops open. They usually ask one or more of the following:
- “How do you find the time to write every day?!”
- “How do you come up with all those ideas?!”
- “Don’t people get annoyed by all that email?!”
I can understand their disbelief. When I used to try to write/blog weekly, it was torture. I was never able to stick with it for very long. Then one day in 2016 - inspired by Seth Godin and Philip Morgan - I started sending daily messages.
It was the best thing I ever did for my business.
Counterintuitively, daily is easier than weekly because you can get into a routine. Daily habits are much easier to create than weekly habits. Writing is just something I do every day, like getting dressed.
Something happens in your brain when you start writing daily that allows you to start seeing ideas everywhere. I have the opposite of writers block now... the hard part is deciding which idea to write about, not what to write about.
I have written about six hundred messages since I started and have more ideas in my drafts folder now than when I began.
But that’s not all. There are lots of other unexpected benefits. Here are three big ones:
Emotional—I feel good every day knowing that I created something new in the world. I launched something. I shipped. No matter what else happens in my day, I did something to try to help others. It brings a powerful sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
Expertise—When you’re writing every day, you get past the surface level of your area of interest very quickly. This forces you to go deep, which is where all the original thoughts and unique points of view and powerful insights are hiding.
Community—Emailing my list daily feels more like a community I participate in than an audience that I broadcast to. I get lots of replies and interact with members every day. It feels like a conversation to me. Which leads to more ideas! It’s a virtuous cycle.
I realize that the notion of writing daily strikes fear in the hearts of almost everyone. I totally get it... it use to terrify me, too. I don’t think there is anything I can say to take the fear away, but I can tell you that you’ve got absolutely nothing to lose by trying it out.
Let’s start with this:
What do you enjoy enough that you’d like writing about it every day if you had time?
It doesn’t have to be work related at all. It could be a hobby, a mission, an interest, a cause, anything. You don’t even need to be an expert at the subject as long as is something that you’re fascinated by or passionate about or obsessed with.
Go ahead, hit reply and let me know.
Yours,
—J