Daily writing requires (reasonably) consistent routines

One thing I learned from breaking my writing streak last week is just how fragile it can be. While I certainly believe that there is benefit to most people if they were to start blogging every day, I also recognize that for many people that’s an incredibly big thing to ask.

For those people, it’s not that they’re just busy, but that their schedule is uncontrollably inconsistent.

If you’re “too busy” to add something to your schedule, that really just means it’s not a priority for you. I’ve gone in-depth on this before, but busy vs priorities can be an interesting discussion. At the end of the day, most people have something soft in their schedule that could be replaced by writing and it would be an improvement. Once you get that cycle rolling, it can move along rather nicely.

Inconsistency is tough

The problem is for those with inconsistent schedules, particularly with young children — and I don’t have a good solution for that. My children are older now, so my schedule is fairly smooth, but even with batching some posts up in advance a short illness was enough to throw me off track. I can’t imagine trying to sustain daily writing with young children, varying work hours, a traveling spouse, or many other things that can change daily.