30 days of Sharing : How did I do it?
Reading Time : 5 minutes
Day 28/30.
Over the last 4 weeks, I have received more claps on my consistency than on the posts themselves. 👀 To be very fair, I am myself slightly surprised that I was able to make it this far. Don’t get me wrong, that was the initial plan, which is why the challenge started in the first place. But end of April, when I came up with the 30-day challenge, I was sick and tired of Netflix, overdosed with YouTube and had recently ended a very interesting & eventful internship. It is safe to say, I was bored and needed something to divert my mind. However, as days passed, not only was my creativity tested in deciding what posts to make, but you know, life happened - lockdown order has slowly and steadily been lifted in Seattle, there have been weekdays, lazy days : enough distractions for me to quit.
BUT - here I am. Day 28. An inch from the finish line.
And given how many people have asked me how I did it, it was no trick, no magic; here is the list of things that helped me get where I am (full disclosure).
Social accountability
This was probably the biggest reason I was able to complete the challenge. Just because I put it out, on a public instagram page no less, with a whole template and all - it was a constant reminder to not slack! I woke up everyday knowing that I will be disappointing, if not everyone, but a whole lot of people who actually supported me through this challenge. You know who you are - thank you for your texts, DMs, comments and shares - I appreciate each and every bit of it. So yes - just being accountable to someone, even if not Instagram, is very helpful in helping being consistent.
Making a plan
Well, we are 28 days in, you are obviously aware of my love for to-do lists. And that’s the next thing that helped me be consistent : having a plan!! This involved three things :
Having an idea of at least my next three posts so that I am not waking up every day and struggling to figure out what I want to write about. That happened on multiple occasions, by the way. But on most days, I tried to know what I am going to be writing about because making content is much easier than deciding what the content will be about!
Having a fixed time to post the posts was the next thing I was very strict about - my hard deadline was 7pm PST everyday, and then a story on instagram right after. Sometimes the stories got pushed to later and the articles got done earlier, but never later than 7pm for publishing!
Now if I am to post before a certain time and have a hard deadline, I needed to have a hard deadline to write as well. As much as I love writing, and know what I want to write, just sitting at a desk and typing away is difficult - take it from someone who has done it for 28 days straight!! So I fixed timings - either in the morning, or a decent block of time before publish time - to sit and write, and tried not to get too distracted in the meantime.
Not worrying about not being good enough
I think this was very important as well - and it is not just for consistency sake, but to also be able to put anything up online. If you are constantly worried about being judged by other people you will never be able to put content out there. All I knew was that my heart was in the right place and I wanted to help people - and even if one person took the time out to send me a message on instagram or comment on my post or message through my website - it made it all worth it.
I might not be the best out there, but I am good enough and I am doing the best I can - repeat after me.
More doing Less thinking
This ties in well with the previous point - more thinking leads to less doing. Thinking about what people will say, will people like it, is it good enough, should I writing about something else, will people read my posts - trust me, I had all of these thoughts in my head. But I made a very active effort to get rid of these unnecessary thoughts and focus more on the “doing” and making content bit of it.
Remembering the “why”
Last but not the least, I never forgot “why” I started in the first place - I wanted a place to write about things I get questions about so I can help whoever it is thinks can benefits from my experiences. I have tried to be as raw, honest and clear about my habits, quirks, hacks and tricks - all just to be able help as little as 5 people who might be reading my posts.
Having put all of these points here, I am sure these same “hacks” can work for anyone trying to be consistent - in generating content, leading a healthier lifestyle, staying more in touch with family. For all of you messaging me how I have done - here you go - this is it.
Let me know in the comments below how you try and stay consistent with your goals and challenges!
