‘Tis that time of the year where one reflects upon the last twelve months. I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect openly on how trms has done in 2021, and what the plan is for next year.
Starting on the fourth of July 2021, I have been posting a new article or piece of content every Friday, for a total of 24 posts. When I originally started I set myself a goal of writing for 52 weeks straight, so it looks like I’m just about halfway through. I don’t know what I’ll do once I hit the 52 mark: we’ll see when we get there.
Most of my posts have been about self-development and psychology. To summarize my posts on the topic, I talked about why you should keep your habits small so you can stick to them for longer. How the way to have more energy is to spend more energy. How the way to get good is to focus on quantity. How you’re only productive when you stop focusing on productivity. How to detect what’s going to last and what won’t. How luck is actually a choice. Why you can’t get things done. Why advice won’t save you. Why you need a journal. Why willpower is overrated. How you can stick to habits better if you treat them like meetings. Why you should stop preparing and just start. Why you should stop obsessing over tools. And why you should stop grinding and start having fun.
I also wrote about startups, namely, a small guide to marketing for technical founders, and how creating content feels a lot like founding a startup.
Some posts were focused on a certain topic, for example I wrote a small guide to typography for non-designers, I summarized Derek Sivers’ book “Hell Yeah or No”, I documented my start on web development, and talked about why I think I am stuck in generalist hell.
All in all, I had fun writing those articles. Some were crafted over days of work, others were cobbled together in two hours. Often, the longer the article the shorter it took me to write. I thought about quitting many times, but I couldn’t bring myself to break the streak. Some were written and rewritten, others were quite literally poured onto paper and published that way. And view numbers did not in any way correlate with how much effort I put into a post.
Speaking of popularity, this year the most read post was The Value of Doing a Little. Likely not because it’s the most well-written (I wrote it in 3 hours and didn’t edit it whatsoever) but because it was one of the very few I published on other websites. I do want my message to reach more people, but I feel bad tooting my own horn on places like Reddit and Hacker News. In fact I feel bad self-promoting full stop. If you’re reading this, I don’t know how you made it to this website. I am impressed.
At about the same time I started posting this year, I also started the newsletter, which is also very fun to put together. The best part actually comes after sending it, when I get replies from you the readers. The conversations we have are always fun, informative, and insightful, so thank you. Overall there have been about 24 issues of the newsletter, each with four links plus my own story, for a total of about a hundred links to external resources, be them essays or utilities.
So what’s the plan for 2022?
Like I said earlier I’d like to reach, at least, 52 straight weeks of writing, so trms will definitely continue at least until July. The newsletter will also continue as it is. Once that threshold is reached, I will consider whether I should continue on a weekly basis, a biweekly basis, or something else.
If there is something I would like to improve about trms is… well, everything. I would like to make the website easier to navigate and more pleasing to the eye. I’m considering talking to a designer. I’d also like for the outreach to expand. The time investment on the blog is considerable, so quite normally I would like for my writing to reach more and more people. But at the same time I despise self-promotion, so that’s a bit of a quandary. If anyone has tips, you know how to contact me. In any case I do know that it’s a niche blog so I’m not looking to reach any critical mass.
When it comes to the topic of the posts to come, that’s completely TBD. In 2021 I mostly talked about psychology because I felt like that was what I could talk about, also it was a sort of ‘safety net.’ Next year I’d like to explore more and expand what I talk about. But I won’t know until I get there.
In general, if you are a reader of this blog and you have any feedback, about anything at all, please do reach out to me. I would love to know how I can make it better and more useful for everyone.
Anyway, I wish you a great Christmas weekend and happy holidays. As always, see you next week.