[AI Side Hustle] The reason I've been posting every day for 5 months is that I stopped looking for topics
I'll write on note every day.
Since I decided that,
before I knew it, 5 months had passed.
People often tell me,
It must be tough to write every day, right?
But actually, the hardest part isn't
the writing itself.
Every night, in front of the screen,
this was what troubled me the most.
What should I write about today?
It's really this, honestly 😩
Once I start writing,
the rest flows quite smoothly.
But the time spent deciding
"what to write" before that,
that's where I'd burn out every time.
If you start by looking for topics, you won't keep it up
I used to
look for topics from scratch
right before I started writing.
My brain at that time
was usually something like this.
💭 Hmm, what should I write about today? Come to think of it, I had a thought like that while doing my main job. Should I make that the theme? No, that might be too niche, or maybe too technical for engineers. Then, how about the story of how I made pasta well yesterday? No, who would be interested in that? Ah, what should I do? 😩
I was doing this every night.
Just this time spent searching
would easily waste about 30 minutes 🫠
Moreover, topics I came up with under pressure
depended on my mood that day,
and on thin days, they were really thin.
Even if I managed to finish writing,
on days when I felt it wasn't quite good enough,
I think that probably
came across to the readers too 😔
The reason it became hard to continue
wasn't the writing itself,
but the fact that I was searching from scratch every day.
So, I stopped.
I completely stopped
"searching when I write."
What I do instead
is something very simple.
Don't look for topics when you write; pick them up when you think of them and save them in advance.
This is all I'm doing😌
There are moments in daily life when I suddenly think,
"Oh, I could write about this."
It happens.
Like while doing chores,
or while talking to someone.
But even if I make a note of it on the spot,
when I look back at it later,
I sometimes don't even know
what I meant to say😅
So now,
I send the seeds of ideas I come up with
to Claude right then and there.
"I thought of this,
could this become an article?"
When I ask like that,
it helps me flesh out
what kind of angle I could write from🎈
I keep the topics that have been fleshed out like that
in a place where they won't disappear.
It changed from "searching" to "choosing"
If you keep doing this,
topics will gradually accumulate.
Then,
the time spent thinking "What should I write today?"
changes completely.
Instead of searching from zero,
from the candidates that have accumulated,
I just choose one for today.
It's not creating from zero,
it's choosing one from several options.
This difference is subtle, but
when it comes to daily tasks,
it's incredibly huge🔥
If it's just choosing,
you can decide in 30 seconds, you know~
The secret to continuing wasn't willpower
What I realized after doing this for 5 months is that
the power to continue every day
isn't about willpower or grit.
It's just about finding the parts that are tough,
and making them lighter
with a system.
In my case,
"searching for topics from zero every day" was
the toughest part.
So I changed that to
collecting them in advance and just choosing.
Just doing this
made writing every day
a lot easier! 😊
If there is anyone struggling
because they can't keep up with posting,
first, try looking at
where you are
having the most trouble!
It's probably not the writing itself,
but the step right before it where you're getting stuck.
🟠 My Claude course is now live!
I have compiled the process of building systems
using Claude like this
into a course.
I am currently giving it away for free.
Feel free to take a look if you'd like!
You can get it here👇
👨💻 If you're wondering who Taka is, click here
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