Damn… I Need to Stop Checking My Stats

Summary

The author of the article discusses their struggle with the compulsion to frequently check their Medium statistics, the impact it had on their experience, and their resolution to limit stat checks to twice a day to regain a more relaxed and enjoyable interaction with the platform.

Abstract

The author, who initially joined Medium to share their poetry, stories, and life musings, found themselves caught up in the pursuit of reaching 100 followers. This led to an obsession with checking their Medium statistics hourly and engaging in excessive clapping, commenting, and following to achieve this goal. After reaching the milestone, the author realized the futility of constantly monitoring their stats and decided to limit their stat checks to twice a day as a New Year's resolution. This change has resulted in a more peaceful and fulfilling experience on Medium, allowing the author to focus on the joy of writing and reading without the anxiety of read counts.

Opinions

The author acknowledges a personal addiction to checking their Medium statistics, which they identify as a bad habit.
They express a sense of achievement upon reaching 100 followers and joining the Medium Partner Program but also recognize the need to shift focus from statistics to content.
The author believes that the obsession with stats is a distraction and a waste of time that detracts from the genuine enjoyment of the platform.
They admit to feeling anxious when their articles received few reads, indicating the pressure they felt to maintain high engagement levels.
The author values the improved relaxation and satisfaction derived from their new approach to using Medium, emphasizing the importance of writing and reading for their own sake.

Addicted to Stats and Daily Reads

I’m not a big social media person. I have Instagram and Facebook, but my interaction is little to none, so no big deal.

Then I discovered Medium. My aim: To find a blogging platform on which to share my poetry, stories and general musings on life. This platform sounded almost perfect… until my first goal became to reach 100 followers.

You see, I had a slow start. I wrote, I got a few follows, I followed back. I read other writers, clapped, commented and followed and sometimes they followed me too. This all happened at a very relaxed pace, so it took me a few weeks to get to the half way point, but then I got antsy — I checked my stats almost hourly and ramped up my clap, comment and follow activity in a quest to reach the milestone.

It worked. In less than a week, I had my 100 followers, I signed up to the Medium Partner Program and I felt a sense of conquest and relief. I was finally in the game.

Time to take a deep breath, be calm and enjoy the writing and reading process. But then I got hooked on assessing reads! At all times of the day, I would open up my Medium app and go straight for the stats — it’s amazing how such a simple thing can quickly become a very bad habit.

The thing is, what’s the point of checking my stats on an hourly basis? It only takes up unnecessary time and distracts from everything else I am doing. So as of January 1st, I have resolved to check my stats only twice a day — once in the morning and once after 8pm.

It’s Day 12 and I haven’t faltered once. I actually feel more relaxed without the anxious feeling partway through the day when I see that I have only gotten 3 reads! I take it as it comes and am grateful for the reads I get.

This new resolve with minimal emphasis on the stats also allows me to write and read at a more enjoyable pace which is definitely why I signed up to this platform in the first place!