5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Post Your Articles Every Day

If you’re publishing every day, somebody tricked you. Feeling productive without improving doesn’t make you a better writer.

You’ve seen those posts about how an article a day will make you successful and how fast you’ll improve. I tried this myself for more than two weeks, it’s not worth it.

Reason №1: Short-form Is Not The Answer

Writing short-form content is easy. You only have to worry about one thought, and that’s it. Planning and research aren’t necessary. Comparing it with thousand-word pieces it’s like writing one paragraph.

Most of the research you’ve already done. Your short-form piece can include something you’ve read in the news article. There’s nothing to plan. It’s only the thought(s) you wrote. Yet, it’s rare to see one thought providing

Only new’s channels can provide value within short messages. News channels are the first ones who get information about something. And their job is to report it. Not yours…

As a writer/blogger your job isn’t to report, but to write. It’s great if you write about the latest inventions or discoveries. But your pieces should include — you. Your insights and opinions are important for your followers. Authenticity comes from you, and there’s nothing wrong with speaking your mind.

Of course, there are always exceptions, there are talented people who’ve studied their niche topics for years. Those people can provide value within short messages. But if you want to provide value. Less than 150 words aren’t enough. Readers need in-depth explanations. And how much can you explain within 150 words? For me, not a lot.

I have nothing against short-form content. There are great publications (The Shortform) that specialize in short-form content. If you want to share something quickly with your audience. It’s something you can do. Just don’t expect great outcomes. Or you might get lucky with external views.

Either way, you have to make a choice:

Writing 7 short-form posts without a chance of being curated or 1 long-form post with a chance of curation.

Reason №2: You’ll Run Out Dry

At first, you won’t even notice it. For most writers, it takes less than 27 minutes to write, edit and find the right picture (true short-from should be without pictures) for one short-form piece. And everyone can do it daily.

Now, the question is for how long can you do it? 30 days? 60 days? Is it worth finding out? I doubt.

Your energy is limited. Writing authentic 1,000-word pieces will take a toll on consuming your energy faster than you can replenish it. Don’t forget, writing a valuable story, not necessarily a 1,000-word one, you’ll have to research it, edit it and publish it.

If you’re tired, unmotivated it will be harder to improve when writing. Only caring about publishing every day will make your posts less valuable. Your goal will become publishing, rather than creating value.

At some points, you’ll begin to repeat yourself and your articles will lose authenticity. If you write every day about writing, how many new ideas can you find? How many new ideas you can come up with?

Reason №3: Good Ideas Don’t Lay Around

Generating good ideas is difficult. And if you have one, it would be a shame to waste it. Publishing every day requires constant idea generation. While generating ideas every day will improve your creativity, at some point the ideas will run out.

If you have one great idea — work on it. We live in a consumerist society where quantity is chosen over quality. And this applies to writing too. Clickbait and misinformation fuel social media.

Look at how many ‘different’ coca-cola drinks there are. They all taste the same, but the original Coca-cola is the best. Others are just cheaper and aren’t as good. Don’t make your articles cheaper.

It’s worth noting how valuable your ideas are. You can be great at styling, formatting, grammar & punctuation. And you’ll go far with these skills. But your ideas are one of the factors that determine your worth.

Your ideas build your audience.

Reason №4: Your Mental Health

If you’re planning to publish every day, do it in the mornings. If you don’t publish in the mornings you’ll have to worry about not publishing yet. Of course, you trust yourself with only 30 minutes of work in the evening. But instead of relaxing and enjoying your leisure time. Prepare yourself for worrying about writing, editing, ideas. Don’t forget about worrying if the publication will accept your stories on time.

Whether you’re working on a 600-word piece or a 4000-word piece, it’s better to write them in a couple of days, rather than in one sitting. Every time you’ll open your story it will feel different. You’ll know which parts are in need of fixing. Which parts to remove or to keep. At which point they’ll look more professional because you dedicated more time to them.

Creative work is difficult. Even fiction writers or most of them focus on one book at a time. They might make a pause and start a new one, but they won’t start writing something new every day. The creative process isn’t repetitive and monotonous labor.

Factory jobs don’t require creativity, just showing up on time and doing the work.

Reason №5: You Won’t Improve As A Writer/Blogger

I’ve already mentioned how at some point you’ll run out of ideas. If you want to publish every day, you’ll run out of ideas at some point. Publishing over and over the same thing will stagnate your improvement as a writer.

Good writers don’t write the same thing over and over. They share their experiences, opinions and they teach! If they would have written the same thing over and over, they would remain at the same level of skill.

Having to construct multiple ideas into one piece improves one’s quality. It’s said, it’s enough to be only 4% out of your comfort zone to improve. Imagine, if you always wrote the same thing, the same length over and over? You would never improve. Don’t be afraid of difficult work. Remember, we grow in discomfort.

I want to note, you should write every day. Ever heard of the 10,000-hour rule? It’s true. Just give more attention and more time to your pieces individually.