Feedback Mechanisms from Regular Blogging

When I have a regular deadline, I find the regular short deadline creates feedback mechanisms for me.

First, do I get the post done or not? It’s black or white. Since 2016, I have not missed a weekly post. Part of me is proud of that and the feedback I get is that I can get the next post done.

Second, how do I feel after the post? The first set of posts were a challenge because I was in my own head. Posting on a deadline felt better and better as started getting into new territory, understanding which levers I have to work with. Now I feel weird if I’m not posting daily.

Third, feedback mechanism: do I reference or share previous posts with others? There are a set of posts I go back to constantly:

• SSH Logs series - whenever I need to do anything with awk now, I’m reaching for this article.e
• Docker file copy - because I just need to get things done in production.
• git reset git hole - this is one I share with those new to git (and give them confidence to squash commits!)

Sometimes, I have to search for my own post on my own blog. It sounds silly, but starts a feedback loop.

Honestly, I have basic analytics on my site to track which articles are getting the most views. The results are a bit surprising. At the same time, I don’t blog for the views, I blog to structure thoughts. If people like my structured thoughts - awesome. If not, I’ll keep on structuring new thoughts.

The feedback mechanism from blogging regularly are interesting:

• reference/sharing
• feeling of completion
• getting it done

Each of these are fantastic mechanisms on their own, I am so glad I can get all of them at once by doing one thing:

Blogging regularly.