WEEKLY REVIEW DECEMBER 24TH 2023
How Much Time Should I Spend on Medium?: A Week in the Life of a Science Fiction Writer
Carry on Regardless: A Week of Plodding Due to Sickness
My Week was Nothing Like This. Image Created by Author with Bing Image Creator
- A good but sickly week which I’m going to give 6.5/10
- Medium followers 1016 Weekly increase 103
- Medium Earnings so far this month $114 Weekly increase $16
- Medium Responses: 1071 increase 130
- Christmas Shopping and Wrapping
- Spent time with the children who are home from University for the Holidays, mainly on the settee.
- Got a reasonable amount done, considering: see How a Ta-Da List Can Help
What I Did and Didn’t Get Done
- Had to be a no-show at two Christmas parties because of sickness which was disappointing.
- Only one zombie speed run
- Wrote fiction on only 1 day
- Medium 7 day
- Missed story discussion group with Rambo Academy
What I Published on Medium
How Much Time to Spend on Medium?
Spoiler: I have no answers. Only experiments.
A Great Start
I started Medium after my holiday to the American West Coast, so that’s since mid-October, and I’ve been loving it.
- one thousand followers
- three boosts
- earned $100+ earnings per month.
- interacted with so many fab writers
- had so many ideas
- dipped my toe into non-fiction writing.
It’s been a lot.
All Things Change
But, the boosts have run their course and views and earnings have diminished during December.
Wild Guess about the Medium Algorithm
It seems to me a question of visibility. There’s a lot of great content on Medium and a writer can get lost. To get people to read your stuff you need to interact.
Hence me spending 3–4 hours a day on Medium, possibly more.
It seems to me that the algorithm is designed to encourage writers to spend a long time on Medium.
But is this what I want to do moving forward?
I feel that I have good content, that could benefit from more reads (a sentiment no doubt shared by the majority of Medium.
In which I come up with a strategy/ Experiment
priorities: production over consumption.
I going to limit the amount of time I spend on Medium, an idea I picked up from productivity expert Oliver Burkman via Cal Newport, and see if that results in more focus and efficiency.
Additionally, I’ll spend less of my prime time (immediately after waking) on Medium.
We shall see.
Tagging Experiment
Here’s a list of some of the people who commented on my stories last week. Why am I tagging them?
- To thank them for interacting
- To encourage more views on their stories from other readers.
- As an aide memoire, so I can visit their stories when I have five minutes
- To get more views on this story.