What I learnt from Writing Weekly

Before I even write about this, I have to thank my wife who supported and allowing me to take time to write. It means she took additional responsibility of dealing with newborn and elder one. So, thank you for her.

Last year 2022, I made a decision to write one blog post weekly. I didn’t believe I can do that but still that is the purpose of goal setting to aim higher. But I did hit 49 blog post last year. I was not disciplined, I missed a couple of weeks to write. Last year, We welcomed our second kid. Despite that, I find it magical that I was able to hit my target. I couldn’t get started in how writing has redefined me internally. I realized many hard truths about myself. Furthermore, I thought I want to write about it as my first post for this year 2023. This year, I want to write less. I will share, what I had as my goal for 2023 after 12 months from now and how did it go. Ok back to topic.

First thing I found was, I cannot write well. In fact, I don’t know to write. I was writing them as notes. My childhood friend in Texas mentioned, I should write in story format. I started trying it. He wanted me to say a story and not mere notes. He said, story sticks. He was right, but I was not able to say a story the way I have it my mind. Now I have a lot of respect for authors. Writing your thoughts down is a hard process. Not easy as I imagined before. Writing should help readers visualize. It should keep them engaged. It should teach them a thing or two. But I was not able to do that. Harder I try, worse my writing becomes.

I found a tip in a YouTube video on writing UChicago on Craft of Writing, where the person says think about reader and forget about being an expert writer. That was said in first 2 mins of that video. It was a light bulb moment that writing is a medium that is not reserved for experts. It is available for anyone who want to think and communicate. It is for improving one’s thinking. Writing is all about readers and less about vocabulary. Simple language should do for most of us. We are not writing an official memo.

When I work with senior leaderships, they operate at level where they have no time for B.S. They want to get to the point quick and be precise. Initially, I struggled a lot there. I am a sort of person who cannot give high value answers right away. I need time to think and come back. Writing was my way of thinking. So when you read on a topic, you want to communicate them back to your leadership. It needs to be concise and still convey the core idea. If your thinking is superficial, you cannot do that. Superficial thinking brings in confusion, Deep thinking produces value.

Now when I think retrospectively, writing was helping me professionally. It was helping me think. You constantly optimize. It is a long road but compounds over time. I felt it when I set myself a goal to write every week. Not sure if I produced high value content every time, but certainly fine-tuned my thinking and exposed my weaknesses. You can see how bad my writing was a year back if you relatively compare to my last article. My first blog post of the year was pathetic in comparison to my latest one(not that my latest was awesome in any way). I started from ground zero. I knew nothing when I started last year. My writing certainly improved in my perspective, but I know there is a long road ahead of me.

I find interesting ideas stick to us. I further it a bit and refine it in my mind. When I sit down to write it will be further refined. One of my friend asked me, “why do you write?”. I responded that it helped to clarify my thinking. Yes that is the baseline. But more I think of that question, I realized there is more to it. It does few more things,

• Brings in space for new ideas
• Helps you Organize
• Deep dive more on superficial ideas
• Connect the Dots
• Helps you declutter information overload
• Ideas get structure
• Reduces stress (really it does, try it !!)
• You always learn
• You will read more
• Your emails and other form (formal and informal) communications improve

Writing is a way I communicate better with myself and others than in words. Writing brings in visual to your ideas. When I write, I notice my thoughts lacks clarity and gets better as I fine tune it. Writing is essential is every field you can think of. Technical writer is a profession. There are courses for it

In remote world, writing becomes all the more important art one should cultivate. Everyone who like to think, should write. Beware OPINION ALERT…. If you are not writing, you are missing out on an effective tool for thinking.

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