Read Time: 4 Minutes

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to write one newsletter every week for the entire year and I've officially reached the halfway mark.

In honor of the milestone, I wanted to reflect on my experience and explain why I think other people would benefit from adopting a similar habit.

Why I decided to Write a Weekly Newsletter

There were three primary reasons that I decided to start writing a weekly newsletter. I wanted to:

1. Build an email list that I could eventually monetize
2. Become a faster writer
3. Improve my self-discipline
   

The Results

So far, I have accomplished two of the three goals above. Let's start with the good. 

Writing Faster: I've absolutely become a faster writer. I've gone from spending 8-12 hours on each newsletter to waking up on Sunday mornings and writing, editing, and sending my newsletter all within an hour or two. I've also noticed that it takes me much less time to write/reply to things like client emails, text messages, and tweets. Basically, I'm now able to write everything more effortlessly and in a fraction of the time. 

Improved Self-Discipline: Regularly doing difficult things that you don't want to do requires a massive amount of self-discipline. But here's the cool part: Self-discipline is like a muscle and the more you train that muscle, the stronger it becomes. Forcing myself to write each week has improved my self-discipline, which has made it easier to adopt other challenging habits into my life.

Building an Email List: If I'm being honest, this was probably the #1 reason that I decided to start a weekly newsletter. I wanted to build and monetize an audience. But pretty early on, I realized that writing about a single topic and becoming an influencer/guru does not sound all that fun. So I stopped writing for other people and I started writing about things that I find interesting. This made the process more enjoyable and it allowed me to develop my writing skills much more quickly. Unfortunately, this has resulted in my email list growing at a snail's pace; but I'm completely OK with that.

The Next 6 Months

I've always had a wide range of interests. I'm the definition of a "jack of all trades, master of none". If you've read any of my newsletters, you are well aware of this. I write about self-growth, golf, gadgets, gear, entrepreneurship, crypto, day trading, parenting, and more.

This has been great for building the habit of writing because it has kept things interesting for me. But now that I've developed a writing habit, I may try to narrow my focus during these next 6 months to see if I can actually build a small audience.

The most difficult part of this will be choosing my niche. Currently, my two greatest obsessions are golf and day trading, so I'll likely focus my writing on one of those. But then again, choosing between golf and day trading sounds almost as bad as having to choose between my kids. So on second thought, I may take baby steps and just become the "golfing day trader" guy. We'll have to wait and see.

Either way, I will write with a beginner's mindset. Similar to the way that Austin Kleon teaches in his book "Show Your Work". I mentioned it earlier but I have no desire to become an influencer or guru. I don't want to pretend to be an expert. Instead, I'll write about my journey as I become a better golfer or a better trader. I will share my stories, my processes, and my successes & failures. This will help me learn faster and it will provide a path for others to follow in the future. 

Alright, enough about me and my journey. Let's talk about you. Let's answer this question:

Should You Start a Writing Habit?

Absolutely! I really can't recommend it enough. Whether you write a weekly newsletter or you just write a daily journal for yourself, the act of writing regularly is one of the greatest things that you can do for your self-development.

It will help you become a better and faster writer. It will help you think and communicate more clearly. It will help you develop your self-discipline muscles. 

If you're just starting, I'd recommend that you write about whatever you find interesting. Throw out the audience-building and monetization goals and just start writing. Over time, you'll develop your skills, find your voice, and maybe, just maybe, that will lead to some organic audience building. Or maybe it won't, and that is completely fine too. 

That's it for this week. Thanks for coming along with me through this writing journey. If you have a moment, I'd love to hear about your writing goals and any benefits that have come as a result of writing regularly. 

- Eric