As part of an apprenticeship program that I am enrolled in, I was challenged to blog every day for thirty days. I will be going over some of the things that I learned from this experience. If you’re interested in blogging, challenging yourself, or hearing my story then keep reading.
How I started out…
When I first began this challenge, I was intent on making myself sit down to write each day. I didn’t want to schedule posts in advance, because I felt like it would be easier if I did.
I managed to deliver almost every day. There were a couple of days where I uploaded the post an hour late, but besides that I was able to keep up pretty well.
Some advice: If you decide to participate in this challenge, the one thing that would’ve helped me is this: Treat it like you’re being paid to do it. As I got farther into the month, blogging started to feel fun. While that’s not a bad thing, it meant that I was tempted to consider it as something I wanted to do, instead of something that I needed to do. Every day that I submitted late was a result of this mindset.
Content generates itself…
When people begin a challenge like this it is common to hear concerns about coming up with topics for their blogs.
I found that as long as I sat down to write, I would be able to come up with an idea. Whenever I couldn’t, I would go for a walk to reset before I tried again.
It’s a lot easier than it seems. Just focus on something that sticks out to you, and run with it.
Delivering looks different depending on the day…
When I started this challenge I expected that I would publish a long blog post every day. I definitely didn’t. This challenge is really a process of refining your voice.
I found that my posts got shorter because they were more direct.
It’s not a bad thing. However, you should be prepared to watch your voice develop throughout the process.
Is it worth it?
As the challenge came to an end for me, I actually felt like I really wanted to keep posting. Publishing on the blog has been fun, and quite useful too. The real thing that I was trying to consider was the opportunity cost.
My opinion: Blogging every day is a great place to start. If you have an idea for a different challenge, one that you feel would be even more beneficial to you, then go for that instead. Lots of people choose to create videos every day, or even to podcast every day. I’d say that it was definitely a good investment of my time and my effort. I would recommend it.
Thanks for reading!
If you decide to try this challenge, I’d love to see your posts! Send me an email, or submit the form on my contact page, and include a link to your blog!