Read Time: 4 Minutes

At the start of 2023, I set a goal to write one newsletter per week for the entire year. I assumed that would add up to 52 newsletters, but here's a fun little fact: 2023 decided to run a "buy 52 get one free" deal on Sundays so here we are for newsletter #53!

With it being the last newsletter of the year, I thought I'd do a recap of my experience and reflect on my biggest takeaways. 

The Results

I'm proud to say that I did not miss a single weekly newsletter all year. Rain or shine, I showed up. I wrote when I was sick, I wrote on vacation, I wrote when writing was the last thing in the world that I wanted to do.

It wasn't always easy, but damn does it feel good to know that I pushed through and achieved my goal. 

4 Key Insights From a Year of Weekly Writing

Became a Better and Faster Writer
Before this, I was an incredibly slow and ineffective writer, often struggling to express my points without rambling. To give you an idea of my writing speed, I was spending 8-12 hours on each newsletter in January and February. But as I forced myself to write consistently, my skills slowly began to transform (funny how that works).

As I sit here today, I'm a more confident and polished writer. Instead of spending 8-12 hours on a newsletter, I'm cranking them out in 2-3 hours. I've learned to organize and articulate my thoughts more clearly, I've learned not to self-edit while I write, and I've begun to discover my own unique writing style and voice.

Proved That I Could Keep a Promise to Myself
Achieving my goal to write weekly for a year has been a great reminder that I'm capable of doing challenging and uncomfortable tasks over an extended period. In the past, I've struggled to stick with long-term habits and goals - especially when the results didn't come as quickly as I expected. It's something that I wanted to improve about myself in 2023 and I feel like I've done just that. I've proven to myself that I have the self-discipline to fight through adversity and stick to my goals. I've also learned that meaningful growth and progress require patience and a commitment to long-term consistency. These are lessons that will carry over to all aspects of my life.

Learned to Think More Clearly

Writing weekly helped me develop a deeper understanding of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to learn. I started off writing about topics I was familiar with, sharing my experiences and all of the tactics, tools, and tips that I've discovered over the years. But writing about those things always felt like a chore. It felt inauthentic, like I was trying to be some sort of guru or thought leader (which I don't).

That's when I decided to start writing about my day-trading journey. Instead of trying to sound like the "expert", I adopted a writing style centered around the beginner's mindset. I began to treat writing as a way to deepen my understanding of the day-trading strategies and techniques that I was learning. This forced me to sit down each week and reflect on my successes and failures. I had to think about the most important concepts that I was learning and I had to understand them well enough to write semi-intelligently about them. In doing so, I learned that writing is one of the best ways to develop a deep understanding about a new concept/subject.

Leveraged AI for Improved Writing

During the second part of the year, I started using AI tools to enhance my writing. Not to be confused with having AI write my newsletter for me - because that would defeat the entire purpose of this goal.

In the beginning, I had AI do simple things like: 

• Brainstorm catchy subject lines, page titles, and subtitles.
• Write SEO meta titles and meta descriptions for my website.
• Edit my newsletter and suggest spelling and grammar fixes.
  
  

Those were all helpful but things really took off when I began using AI as a brainstorming partner. This was my process:

1. Decide on a topic for that week's newsletter.
2. Create a general outline.
3. Write down the main talking points and ideas for each section of the outline. For this, I allow myself to ramble and write out every little thought and idea. I don't worry about grammar, spelling, or being repetitive. It's just a complete brain dump.
4. Copy/Paste all of that information into ChatGPT and ask it to organize my brainstorm ideas into a thorough and well-structured outline. 
   
   

This approach has helped me get from the planning phase to the writing phase much more quickly, and it has all but eliminated any procrastination or writer's block issues.

Moving forward, I will definitely use AI more and more to help me become a better, more efficient writer. 

What Comes Next?

As this year comes to an end, I'm thrilled with what I've achieved and everything I learned while writing my newsletter for 53 consecutive weeks.

At the same time, I'm ready to turn my attention to even greater goals in 2024. To make room for what's to come, I will be saying goodbye (at least for now) to the weekly newsletter. I plan to continue writing about my goals, learning lessons, and experiences, but the frequency will decrease considerably.

So with that, I'd like to say thanks to all of you that stopped by and read one of my newsletters this year. I'm very grateful for your time and attention.

Now let's all go crush it in 2024!

Take care,
Eric