simplicity = speed = results

👉and the enemy of speed is...

Back when I first started writing an email newsletter I did it monthly. And I missed more deadlines in a year of doing that newsletter than in the next 10 years of weekly or more frequent emails.

Part of the reason is that a weekly deadline is easier to stick to. You have a specific day of the week when you know to do stuff.

With a monthly deadline, the key days change each month so it's harder to establish a routine.

But by far the biggest reason was that with a monthly newsletter, I overcomplicated things.

Because it only came out every month I wanted it to be "packed with value". So each issue had a big article, a small article and book recommendations.

And I formatted it with multiple columns and banners to make it look nice. Looking back I can’t believe how much messing around it took to get those columns and banners to fit together. What a waste of time!

And, of course, I know now that a big newsletter isn't the best format for people to read.

It's far easier to find 2 minutes twice a week to read a quick email than to be able to set aside 15 minutes to read a big newsletter - even if it's only once a month.

But more importantly, having to write 3 articles at once and then format them really held me back. I saw a mountain in front of me every month so I kept putting it off.

Now I write short emails a couple of times a week it's much quicker. And so it gets done.

Especially as I now have a system for coming up with ideas and simple templates to fit them into (this is a "lessons learned from an early mistake" type template).

I'll share more soon about my process for writing emails. But the big message here is "keep it simple".

If you keep it short and simple you'll get it done. And get it done fast.

That means you'll do it consistently.

And consistency leads to results. As predictably as fear leads to the dark side :)

- Ian