#3 Blogging vs Newslettering for 100 days

It was 2019 when I first came across the idea of doing something 100 times. I had come across Anne-Laure Le Cuff and her blog on mindful productivity called Ness Labs. She shared that she had started that as a challenge to herself to write an article for her blog every weekday for 100 days. Being a member of her community in 2020, I saw what an impact that had on her creative confidence.

Over the last few years, I've seen this trend happening more and more on Twitter. And right now I can think of at least eight people I've interacted with online who are in the midst of their 100 things.

Unfortunately for my inbox, however, they've chosen to do this on Substack which means that I receive a new essay everyday. While I want to be supportive of their creative paths, reading and providing support and feedback, it's a bit overwhelming and demanding of my energy.

It reminds me of all the worst parts of my experience with Ship30 last year. The push to write and publish an atomic (250 word) essay everyday for 30 days was one extreme. The way these image-essays overwhelmed my Twitter newsfeed was another. As a participant in the course you were encouraged to engage with the essays of others, so that they could receive the instant feedback for this "data-based approach" to writing. But with this urgency and pressure, I was underwhelmed by the depths from which this support arrived. It felt shallow, and showy.

Writing here on the other hand is a delight. Not a single person who knows me even knows that I'm doing it, and I'm writing under a pseudonym so they couldn't happen upon me if they tried. I don't think anyone I know even knows this platform exists - and sorry to the product owners - I don't intend to tell them for a while.

While I like the feature that others could signup to receive daily updates, my guess is that if anyone does read these posts it will likely be in blog form. Sitting down in one moment of time, and reading a few of them that catch their eye.

It's been years that I've toyed with the idea of creating my own blog, and who knows - maybe I will once I clear the cobwebs here.