My 2/1 rhythm for writing this
How I'm being consistent (for now at least)
If I’m thinking about decades over days in writing and recommitting myself to it, I’ve had a lot of stops and starts with how consistently I would write.
My old personal writing habits went something like this:
bunch of ideas
write about a bunch of those ideas in a quick spurt or sprint
and then not do anything for months at a time
I’ve always been a firm believer that you don’t have to write every day, but it’s also easier to *not* write every day.
How often you write depends completely on what you’re creating.
If you’re writing a novel, it makes a ton of sense to outline, write a whole lot, and then publish the book, promote it, take a break, and then get back to it when the next project comes along.
If you’re doing what I’m currently doing — exploring and re-orienting myself to the habit — it makes more sense to write every day, or at least several times in a week. Consistency (and volume) matters.
There’s also a difference between writing every day and publishing every day.
Modern tools and platforms afford us the opportunity to publish as often as we want.
Publishing each day is counterproductive to me right now, maybe I’ll get there one day.
But one thing that has helped me write more often and feel consistent is something I’ve called the 2/1 rhythm.
The 2/1 Rhythm
For whatever this is — writing about online writing, culture, creativity and productivity —I’ve settled on the 2/1 rhythm
It goes like this:
I was inspired to develop this rhythm from Ethan Strauss who has a pretty popular Substack about sports and media.
In his post “All Hail the Model,” he says:
“What is The Model? It’s pretty simple: Two written posts and two podcasts within the week. I narrate my written posts as well, but that endeavor is less creatively demanding, so it’s easier to summarize the job as “2 posts, 2 pods.” If I make it to Sunday night having completed this task, then I have succeeded (though I prefer to meet the goal by Friday).”
That seemed pretty straightforward to me. Instead of podcasts, I chose 2 posts on Medium and 1 newsletter on Substack.
Anything beyond that is a bonus. Writing those 3 pieces of content is not my day job, and so I’m writing in addition to that of course. And in the past, I’ve written books and done an SEO course and I don’t count those either towards the goal. Those are things that I still want to do, but with moving to a new city 2.5 months ago along with my family, I’m still developing my new routines.
Why Medium?
Good question.
All of us develop weird Internet habits. Go online to certain sites, still check Facebook for no real reason, or go to certain news outlets. That’s called being part of an audience.
For writing, I had some minor success with Medium back in like 2015, and I’ve gone back and forth in my consistency over the years, much like how that platform itself has ebbed and flowed.
But in general, I like it because:
The writing interface is really clean
There are lots of publications where you can potentially promote your work
There are lots of different types of writing with different categories
And then also why Substack?
Another good question.
I like being part of the Substack community more than the Medium community. I still participate there, but I find myself consuming more on Substack.
More of my favorite writers are here, like the aforementioned Ethan Strauss, and Anne Helen Peterson, Austin Kleon, Max Read and even Nate Silver from Fivethirtyeight recently came aboard.
I’ve discovered a few new voices here that I also like such as Jillian Hess and Luke Burgis. Others from my old(?) literary life include Juliet Escoria and Adam Gnade and David Gutowski, because I remember reading Largehearted Boy in like 2009 and he’s still going.
The writing is definitely different. More of an elevated tone, more academic, more traditional media. I find discovering something is harder on Substack by topic, but easier by writer.
Also, Medium has a newsletter feature, but the Substack one is better for email list management and discoverability.
It’s also not as email-promotional as Convertkit for example. Those services have their place, and I recently had an idea for a shorter form, “atomic newsletter” that I may employ at some point and run by this group.
Bottom line — Personally, I have way fewer people reading my writing on Substack, but I feel more connected here than Medium.
That’s not necessarily true for a lot of the major writers I mentioned above, but it is for me.
How The 2/1 Rhythm Could Break
Well, there are all sorts of reasons. I’m trying to fend them off, but yeah travel usually does it. A fight with my wife, maybe. Something with my kids. Could be something at work. I don’t feel like social events would break the rhythm at this point; I feel like I’d give up something else to get it done.
But, if you’re asking which one would I prioritize? I would prioritize the weekly newsletter over the two articles on Medium.
More Things
I’ll limit this to the Medium and Substack articles that I’ve enjoyed recently, since that’s the theme.
Medium
“12 Lessons from 7 Years of the Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday.
“How to Create Content 10x Faster by Combining Note-Taking & ChatGPT” by Matt Giaro
“Leaving Twitter Had No Effect on NPR’s Traffic” by Cory Doctorow
Substack
“My 12 Favorite Problems” by Ted Gioia
“My Nathan Fielder Night” by Jason Diamond
really wish I would have known about this!
“How Millennials Grew Up and Got Old” by Anne Helen Petersen
“Noted: James Baldwin’s Doodles” by Jillian Hess
Last Things
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect."
--Anaïs Nin
Keep going,
-Josh Spilker
When Nin had her moment in the mid-to-late 70's I read the Dairies and all her fiction, which is highly under-rated and went on to read three biographies later and of course watched Henry and June. She was so unlike me as a stylist, I found that very inspiring.