Don’t Write Every Day

Unique view on building a writing habit.

Photo by Lona on Unsplash

There is one popular piece of advice that you can often see online:

Write every day.

I think this is helpful advice.

However, I don’t follow it.

I don’t write daily.

At the same time, I don’t think that this advice is wrong. I think the advice itself is efficient. It helps you build a writing habit fast.

However, I believe this advice may not be suitable for everyone.

There is no one-fits-all solution. It’s hard to follow this advice, meaning that some people can start following it, then fail, start blaming themselves, decide that writing is not for them, and quit.

• If, because of this advice, you can’t start writing.

• If, because of this advice, you can’t keep writing.

• If, because of this advice, you want to quit writing.

Don’t follow this advice.

There Is Another Way

Don’t write every day.

Writing is not a sprint. Writing is a marathon.

You can start slow, then increase your speed.

If you are a new writer, don’t blame yourself for not writing daily. It’s not a must.

The main idea here is to write regularly.

You need consistency to build a habit of writing. Consistency is the foundation of online success.

But you can choose your own pace in building it.

It is up to you how you want to develop it.

You can choose one of two ways:

1. Fast and aggressive, with writing daily. In this case, it’s an all-or-nothing kind of situation. You either grow fast or quit.

2. Slowly but surely, with writing at your own pace. In that case, you can write as often as you want. The crucial thing here is consistency. Of course, with this approach, there is also a chance that you will quit because your progress won’t be fast at all. However, if you are ready to go slow, this option is for you.

I started building my habit by writing 1 article per week two years ago. Then I gradually increased the number of articles I wrote.

Today, I write 5 articles a week with ease.

As a result, I published 380 articles on Medium and 97 posts on Substack. The more you write, the easier it becomes, the more often you can do it.

Instead of not starting at all or quitting because you are not able to maintain daily writing:

Choose your own pace for writing and write regularly.

If you want to write once per week, that’s fine.

If you want to write twice per week, that’s also fine.

Choose what is best for you.

As soon as you understand that you can write more often, do it. This approach will help you progress in writing and not quit in the long run.

Just be ready that your progress will be slow.

But it’s a journey, right? Enjoy it.

However, if you want to speed up your writing journey and get a proven system I used to become a consistent writer, you are welcome.

Join 31 other writers and sign up for the waitlist for The 5x Writer→

A proven 12-week system to help writers go from 1 post a week to 5 without pressure.

Talk soon,

Maxim