Educator FI is now fourteen months old! Well, almost and only kind of… I started writing in November of 2018 on Principal FI. In July of 2019, I had to rename and switch URLs to the current iteration. Regardless of the name, I’ve been publishing for 14 months.
TL;DR – I’ll still publish every Monday, but only sometimes on Thursdays.
When I first started, I committed to publishing every Monday and Thursday for a full year. I did it. I even threw in an occasional extra post here and there.
As a result, I’ve published more than 130 posts since I’ve started writing. Most of them pretty good. Some…less so. All could be improved.
The consistency and practice was invaluable. I’ve gotten better at both writing (maybe?) and all the little unexpected aspects of preparing a blog post.
I’ve published ideas I’ve been aching to write, found new avenues to explore, and learned what people like (or at least want) to read. And what they don’t.
As we get into 2020, I’ve decided to ease my writing schedule a bit. I want to be more deliberate about what I write. I want to lessen the pressure to stay on a schedule while also maintaining consistency.
I’ve also realized that I love writing and working on this blog, but it has come at a cost. On top of a full time+ job, I spent a lot of time on this site and all things personal finance. There is only so much time, so other things have slipped.
In particular, I exercised less over the last year. That’s not okay and I’ve felt the impact both physically and mentally. Maintaining physical health is important, and related to your long-term financial health.
It does no good to reach financial independence and lose years of your life to poor health. To that end, I’ve committed to new physical fitness challenges that will require some time.
As a result, I’m changing my publishing schedule.
I will still publish a personal finance related post every Monday without fail. I plan to continue doing research and exploring complex topics that support educators in building wealth while doing work that matters. I’m looking forward to digging further into the educator path to building wealth, exploring money mindsets, and myriad other personal finance topics.
Thursdays will be different going forward. I will likely still publish on most Thursdays. Certainly, anytime I have an Educator on FIOR interview ready to go, I will publish it. Other times, I may update and improve a previous blog post.
I’m enjoying adding career-related content for educators looking to grow their career. Those posts will also publish on Thursday.
From time to time, I may not publish anything at all.
Oh, and every Friday I’ll continue to email my short newsletter. Don’t forget to sign-up for one email a week – never spam!
The truth is, I have a poor record when it comes to scaling things back. It’s likely you’ll still get two posts most weeks. Yet, changing my stated commitment (even if no one really cares!) will help me better balance my life while continuing to provide quality content.
A rabid commitment to doing what I say I’m going to do is one of my biggest personal strengths. By not committing to Thursdays, I may actually allow myself a break from time to time. I think that it will improve my work overall.
Going forward, don’t hesitate to let me know what you want to see more, or less of and how I can best help you build wealth while doing work that matters!
I think most blog readers, if they are like me, have no real idea what their favorite bloggers posting schedule is. They just look at the new blogs as they show up without thinking about if it has been two days or a month since the last post. You keep writing high quality posts, like you do, and we’ll keep enjoying them no matter the frequency!
I think you’re right – I read blogs the same way. I just feel high accountability, so like to be transparent. Thanks for the compliment about post quality!
That sounds good. You have to fit the blog around your life. You already got through the first year with 2 posts per week. Great job! That’s the crucial year. You learn so much. Now, I think it’s okay to cut back to a steady 1-2 posts every week. Most of your posts are in-depth so I think less frequency is perfectly fine.
Good luck in 2020!
I appreciate that Joe – your feedback means a lot to me. This will be a better balance, and yes I bet most weeks I end up with two posts anyway. I also do tend to write longer posts, maybe some shorter ones will show up now.