Wow! I am 1/3 of the way into my 90,000 words in 90 days challenge!

I’ve been writing a 1000+ word every single day for the past 30 days! Check my archives for those 30 articles!

Today, I am writing article number 31 and in it I am going to share with you some of the lessons I’ve learned about writing and about myself and how this challenge has affected my blog.

1. Time Management

The best way to write, and to write a lot, is to treat writing like a job. Rain or shine, you’ve got to get to your desk and work for the full length of time it takes to produce a good article. If you can’t do that, you won’t get much writing done. So try to take care of all of your distractions and make sure that others around you understand and respect your writing commitments.

Since I spent a good deal of time writing at home, I received more requests than usual to help family and friends with home and work-related tasks. I always try to be of help, but this time around I had to say no.

I now plan to start going to the local library and work from there. I may also starting working from a coffee shop, but that can become expensive after a while. Nonetheless, I know from experience that it helps to change scenery and alternate between work stations.

2. Write a lot in the Morning

I’ve always done the bulk of my writing in the morning.

On some days, however, I had to start in the afternoon. And I noticed a big difference between early morning writing and afternoon/evening writing. In the morning, my creativity and writing juices were in full swing. I felt like the words hurried to organize themselves on the page before me and I was having so much fun chasing each and every thought and discovering its potential.

On most days, I had 800 words by noon and it felt great. But on the few days when I started late, I felt a little anxious and I was a little concerned about making it through. Such feelings can sometimes take the fun out of writing, and on those days it did. So, if you want to write and to enjoy doing so, I recommend that you get as much writing as possible before noon. It will set the momentum for more great writing for the rest of the day.

3. Automaticity

Many people have told to me that writing a 1000 words every day will lead to burnout. They said I would quit way before the 30 day mark since I would get so sick and tired of having to start and finish each article in the same day. But so far I haven’t found that to be the case. In fact, writing, and writing a lot every day has made writing much more natural to me. I don’t think about it as something that I have to do. It’s something that I do because it’s a natural part of my day. It feels automatic.

I also find that writing every day is a great way to train your mind to be creative all the time. Not only have I become a much more creative writer, I’ve also become more creative all around whether it’s in organizing my apartment, becoming flexible with my workout routine or in my approach to my social life.

I’ve noticed that I am also able to come with creative ways to solve problems in other contexts like that of running a business and in organizational leadership. And I keep discovering more and more creativity within me. It’s been wonderful.

4. Social Media and Traffic

My original plan was to use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to promote by blog articles.

I didn’t get much traffic from Facebook (since I didn’t have a lot of “friends” or fans. Plus, I didn’t invest in building strong social media presence and that’s partly because I started this blog about 2 months ago and partly because I have been so busy with creating content, so that’s something to focus on and build in the next 30 days).

I didn’t get much traffic from Pinterest and… I basically stopped promoting my content on there. I am not sure if Pinterest is a good enough source for generating traffic, but it’s still premature to decide. I am going to keep working on it.

The most traffic I received was from Twitter and I have focused on it much more than other social media outlets. I’ve also made some good contacts who’ve helped promote my articles. So if you’re new to blogging, I recommend that you grow you twitter account as soon as possible and get in touch with people who’re working in the same field. Be kind to them and offer them some value in return.

Overall, I went from having 2 to 3 unique visitors a day to having about 8 unique visitors a day, though that number has fluctuated quite a bit. But I still consider this as a very successful start. Most new blogs don’t receive a single unique visitor until 3 months after they’ve launched their blogs. I’ve basically grown my traffic by 200% and this blog is only a baby. Also, I haven’t promoted my posts that aggressively. I basically linked my posts on twitter and that was enough to bring some traffic. However, I am going to promote my posts more this time around and see if I can reach more readers and increase my traffic even more.

I will keep you updated!