avatarAlex Philippe

Summary

The author, Alex Philips, is documenting their progress on a 100-day writing challenge, having reached day 30 with 30 articles written, and reflects on the journey, including a significant achievement of being published in the "Better Humans" Medium publication.

Abstract

On day 30 of a 100-day writing challenge, Alex Philips has maintained a consistent writing pace, producing one article per day. Despite the emotional turmoil of the Ukrainian War, which has affected their focus, the author has kept to their routine of writing and editing. Although rejected from Medium's partner program due to living in Mauritius, a non-supported country, the author celebrates being published in "Better Humans," a publication with a substantial following. This milestone has led to increased visibility and a more targeted audience for their self-improvement and productivity content. The author also seeks an accountability buddy to maintain motivation and has shared their writing process, which includes daily habits aimed at ensuring consistency, motivation, and quality in their articles.

Opinions

  • The author values democracy and is emotionally invested in the Ukrainian War, which has impacted their writing schedule.
  • Despite setbacks like not being able to monetize through Medium's partner program, the author remains focused on building their audience and creating valuable content.
  • The author believes in the importance of an accountability partner for motivation and external feedback.
  • Philips is proud of their discipline and the quality of their work, especially given the challenges faced during the writing challenge.
  • The author is experimenting with various strategies to enhance their writing and productivity, such as brainstorming titles, participating in writing communities, and practicing writing exercises.
  • The rejection from Medium's partner program has not deterred the author from their goals; they are exploring alternative revenue streams such as courses and books.
  • Philips views the publication in "Better Humans" and the subsequent increase in views and followers as significant achievements and validation of their efforts.
  • The author is contemplative about their writing process, considering factors like the timing of editing and the use of tools like Grammarly to maintain the quality of their articles.

WRITING

100 Days of Writing: Day 30 — Published in Better Humans

Reaching exciting milestones!

Photo Photo by YJ Lee on Unsplash

On Feb 1st, 2022, I embarked on a 100 days writing challenge, where I aimed to write one story per day on Medium.

I’ve decided to do a check-in every 10 days. The last one was here. And today, I will give you my progress on day 30.

30 articles

To date, I have finished 30 articles in 30 days. Which means I am on track with this challenge.

I haven’t published every article, but most are. And I’m still happy with the length and quality of these articles.

Writing while Ukraine is suffering

The last days have been tumultuous in keeping my focus. Democracy is one of my most cherished principles, and I have followed the news about the Ukrainian War closely each day.

I’m proud to give this war the attention it deserves. Today’s speech from Zelinskyy to the European Committee moved me to tears.

However, over the 10 past days, I still managed to follow my usual 2-step writing routine:

  1. Writing the article

(Sleeping on it)

2. Editing it

But my interest in the Ukrainian War means I often went to sleep late.

Rejected from Medium’s partner program

The past week, I applied for Medium’s partner program, which allows getting paid for the articles you write on the platform. But I’ve been rejected from this program. This is because I live in Mauritius, which is not a country supported by this program.

This was pretty disappointing. But making money with Medium is not my main priority. At the moment, my audience is not that big. And I’ve got a separate blog over here: alexphili.com where my productivity articles are also published.

This means I can build my audience and mailing list from there, and create courses and books that could finance my efforts.

Published in Better Humans

One thing I particularly celebrated today is getting published by the Better Humans publication.

This publication has 385,250 Followers, which is massive!

Screenshot by the author

Obviously, not every one of them is active. And it’s a pretty old publication. So it might not be as huge as you might expect.

However, I can see the traffic I get is better than from the articles I publish on ILLUMINATION for example.

Also, it is focused more on self-improvement and productivity, which means the audience is more targeted for me.

Chosen for further distribution

Another side effect of being published in Better Humans is that a Medium curator noticed my article and deemed it sufficiently interesting that it was chosen for further distribution.

If I’m not mistaken, what that means is that you can discover it while browsing on the tags on the Medium home page. This is a big win as I was very intrigued by this and eager to have my first article chosen for distribution!

This can possibly boost the number of views you have. And it also makes it more likely that other articles of yours will be noticed.

Searching for an accountability buddy

I’ve told you about this right from the beginning, I like to work with an accountability buddy to motivate myself, have external feedback and reach my goals.

But I haven’t had an accountability buddy anymore for a couple of weeks. So I’m looking for an accountability buddy right now to help me reach my goals on this challenge.

If you are interested, here is the advert I posted on a specialized sub-reddit: 42M, GMT+4, writing one article every day and I need an accountability buddy

My statistics

Now let’s see my statistics.

First, the story stats:

Screenshot by the author

The views more than doubled since the last check-in, which feels great!

But it was partly because I commented on articles asking for followers ten days ago, so the momentum continued.

Last weekend, I did not take any time to read other writers’ articles as I was busy with other things like following Ukraine’s War developments. So the views have decreased.

However, today was a great day because of the publication in Better Humans, as you can see in the last peak of this graph.

Now let’s see the audience stats:

Screenshot by the author

As you can see, I have crossed the famous 100 follower threshold!

That being said, I must nuance this great result, as many people from my followers just followed because they wanted to get followed back.

But even if I only have 3 percent of true fans, I will be happy!

My secret sauce

As usual, let’s check in on the habits I had in mind while starting this challenge:

Developing consistency and motivation

  • I will develop a habit of writing for one hour each morning when I wake up. I’m still doing it, although I usually prefer to write the first draft in the evening and edit on the following morning.
  • I will do calls with my accountability partner to help me stay focused on my goals. That one is pretty embarrassing since I haven’t done it yet. But as I said, I have posted an advert here: 42M, GMT+4, writing one article every day and I need an accountability buddy. You are more than welcome to answer it if you like.
  • I will actively participate in various writers’ communities — currently, I’m part of the Write Useful Books and ILLUMINATION slack workspaces. I did not participate at all in these communities in the past 10 days, which is bad, I need to improve on this one!
  • Other than that, I still strive to brainstorm 10 titles before deciding on the final one. It’s challenging at times, but well worth it!

Finding inspiration

  • I will read medium articles and follow interesting writers that I enjoy. I need to catch up on this habit.
  • I will read a book each day for at least 30 minutes. I did finish the book Contagious. This book is great to increase your word-of-mouth impact when publishing articles. I plan to post an article about it in the coming days.
  • I will do daily walks in nature. Yes, I did that again, but a bit less. I must be careful to go on with this.
  • Other than that, I’m thinking more and more about writing several articles at the same time, in order to produce more content. One nice consequence about this is that if you have an inspiration block on one article, you can switch articles and go on with another one.

Avoiding burnout

  • I will do meditation or take a nap each morning after publishing my daily article. I’ll admit I’m a bit behind on this habit. I need to keep doing this.
  • I will do vigorous exercise during my walks in nature. Still doing it, but a bit less. I need to get better at this.
  • I will write articles in advance. Still no article in advance. One solution to get better at this is to do shorter articles. I’ll see what I can do about that.
  • Other than that, I started to drink a lot of water (3 liters) as an experiment to see if it helps me to reduce bad stress effects on my stomach, and it seems it’s working!

Ensuring I write quality articles

  • I will never publish an article the same day I wrote the first draft so that I can edit it properly. Still doing it! But I’m going to sleep late these days.
  • I will use Grammarly to spot my grammar mistakes. Still using it! After 1 month of premium Grammarly subscription, I noticed that the basic Grammarly option might be enough for me. So right now, I’m back on the basic plan.
  • I will practice writing exercises, such as studying my favorite authors and reusing their writing plans. I need to get back on track with this habit.
  • Other than that, I noticed that it’s sometimes not enough to sleep on an article to edit it properly. Sometimes, it’s better to leave more days, like 2 or 3 days before you edit it.

The 10 posts I wrote since the last check-in

Lastly, here’s the list of stories I wrote since the last check-in in case you’ve missed them:

21. (last check-in) 22. Daily Done: Part 5 — Maximize Your Productivity With 90 Minutes Work Intervals 23. Daily Done: Part 6 — The Kickstart Workday Routine 24. Daily Done: Part 7 — Minimalism Is The Key 25. Daily Done: Part 8 — One Template to Rule Them All 26. Delayed rewards: how to improve your self-discipline when nothing else works 27. Elden Ring: Would You Spend $50,000 to Become a Digital Hero? 28. How to Defuse A Procrastination Crisis (not published yet, submitted to Better Humans publication) 29. Dissolving shame with a good laugh (not published yet, submitted to The Happy Human publication) 30. (this article)

Also here are other articles from before that were not published yet:

  • Friday Evening Hangover — How to Get Productive When You Don’t Feel Like It? (not accepted by publication “The Startup”)
  • How Jon Kabat-Zinn Saved Me From Stress and Burnout (not submitted)
  • How to Stay Focused at Work Despite Constant Online Interruptions (not submitted)
  • Break Free From Procrastination by Washing Your Hands (not submitted)

I’m a bit behind on those ones so I’ll have to decide on which publication I submit them to.

—

I hope you enjoyed this article. Although a lot of distractions happened these past 10 days, I’m still on track and this makes me happy. I’m also glad to have been published in a top-tier Medium publication, and to have been curated for the first time! I hope this inspires you on your writing journey 😀

Consistency
Productivity
Business
Accountability
Writing
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