Just Put Stuff Out There

Even if you have been posting on your own site for quite some time, blogging regularly can still be challenging. Ask almost anyone who blogs and they will probably tell you the same: They would very much like to hit that publish button more often, but, somehow, it just doesn’t happen. One reason for that can be that we feel like every post has to be perfect, so we start fiddling with our text longer and longer. Another reason could be that we don’t find the time to write more often between everything else that is going on in our lives. And then, there are all the things related to writing itself that can hold us back, like finding something to write about in the first place, structuring our writing, editing the posts, and so on. And, just like with other habits, once you let the series break and more and more time has passed since your last post, it is getting even harder to publish again.

Here is a thought. Maybe, we are overthinking it. Maybe, the one thing we should care most about is just putting stuff out there. At least, this is the primary reason we have a personal website, right? We have it to document and share random thoughts, things we learned, and nuggets we found. If we don’t put stuff out there, why have a website in the first place?

When I think of people who publish regularly, three come to mind immediately. For one, there is Seth Godin, of course, who has been publishing a blog post every single day since 1548 or so. Jeremy Keith is another avid writer and a busy bee when it comes to posting all kinds of thoughts and links on this website – which really feels like an extension of his mind. But the guy who is the primary reason I sat down to write the post you are reading is Chris Coyier. Chris, who recently sold his blog CSS-Tricks to Digital Ocean, is now posting a lot on his personal site again, and it’s so inspiring and refreshing to see how he approaches it. Some posts are longer while others are short. There are a lot of posts about the Web and web technology, of course, but there are also others about health, mandolins, writing, teaching, identifying plants, good typography, and collections of random thoughts. It really feels like a personal site that is there for a reason.

So how do they do it? Do they sit down at their desk – very consciously – and take the time to write? You better believe they do. Do they write without worrying too much about what others might think or how polished their posts are? For sure. But, more importantly, it looks like they are enjoying the process of creating and have found a way to make publishing easy for them. And those two things might really be the key to publishing more often:

Enjoy the practice.
Make it as convenient and comfortable as possible to publish.

Now, there’s only one thing left to do to just put stuff out there.

Don’t overthink it – hit publish.

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Matthias Ott

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