The Compounding Effects of Writing Every Day for Six Weeks Straight

I began an experiment back on January 21st. Everyone was writing about writing daily to gain momentum on Medium. I had never been a fan of the idea of publishing a piece every single day, as I’ve long thought that will lead to diminishing returns in terms of writing quality.

But some folks I respect as fellow prophets of the written word encouraged me to try it out before knocking it. So, I decided to give it a shot, if for no other reason than to vindicate my view. I believed I’d hit the wall eventually, running out of meaningful things to say.

I made a promise to myself that I’d ease off the moment the writing began to feel like work. Because if it’s a chore to write, it will be a labor to read.

Here we are, six weeks later, and I’m still writing every single day. I haven’t proven my initial assumption right yet. At least I hope you haven’t grown tired of seeing my name on your screen.

But I have made some interesting discoveries along the way.

What has changed?

• I haven’t burnt out yet, in fact, there have been times where I’ve had so many ideas that I’ve written twice a day.
• On the days where I don’t feel the muse gracing me with her presence, I’ve learned to practice what I preach by using my cure for writer’s block. This hasn’t failed me yet.
• I can write more, and faster. The time it takes for me to go from ideation to execution has improved quite a bit. I’m able to put my thoughts to the page and polish my first draft faster than before. Two-hour writing and revising sessions have been cut in half, sometimes down to as little as twenty minutes. The more you do something, the easier it becomes.
• By publishing more often, I’ve been able to get a better read on when is the best time to publish. Putting out more stories meant that I could play around with the time of day they went live, to see if there was any correlation between timing and increased visibility. Turns out, there is.
• I learned that while longtime readers had grown accustomed to my stories arriving in their inbox by mid-afternoon, a fair majority of Medium’s readers prefer to browse the platform in the early morning hours. Damn you, insufferable early risers. I stopped getting up with the sun regularly when I got my DD-214.
• This has led to me testing the “schedule for later” feature, which allows me to have stories published automatically at a specific time and day of my choosing. I like it, it lets me be lazy since I’ve never been a morning person. I don’t have followers before I finish my second cup of coffee.
• My reach and revenue went up dramatically at the six-week mark.

What you’re really here for

Don’t think I didn’t know what you really showed up for. You want to see how much money I made by going against my own advice and writing every day for six damn weeks.

Alright, fine…

I made a whopping $236.13 in February, but it seems everyone had a rough time on here last month. But I’m averaging $12.75 a day now in March, which would put me on track to clear $400 this month.

I’m still happy about that $200 though, that’s enough to buy me a few bottles of Glenfiddich, or maybe even some Hennigan’s. Ahhh, Hennigan’s, the “no smell, no tell” Scotch. Those were better days, my friends.

While a couple hundred bucks is nothing compared to what folks like Ryan Canady are making…wait, where the Hell did he go? I tried to tag him and his account has vanished.

Well, shit. I hope he comes back, he was one of the good ones.

But back to the results…

Here’s what my humble stats looked like in February, starting just over a week after I began my six-week writing streak.

And here’s where they are today.

You can clearly see where the effects of writing daily really started to manifest the last week of February, but the growth has only accelerated since the beginning of March. I’m getting more reads every day now than I did on good days last month.

The effects of writing daily seem to be compounding, with the tipping point being right around six-seven weeks. I’ve seen other writers say the same thing, I believe DeryaSefer said writing every day finally paid off right around the end of her sixth week of showing up to hit publish.

There you have it, folks. You can hit the tipping point and get that ball rolling if you write every day for six weeks. Just make sure you aren’t forcing it. Forced writing is no more pleasant to read than it is to produce.