Why You Should Develop a Daily Writing Habit as a Freelancer

Published: 2024-08-14

As freelancers, we spend a lot of time communicating with clients. This isn’t always done in meetings but often through long-form communication like emails. In these scenarios, it’s crucial that er’re able to articulate our thoughts clearly and effectively, without wasting time on unnecessary fluff or irrelevant details. Developing a daily writing habit can help us bring much-needed focus to our long-form communication.

Writing Doesn’t Have to Happen in Public

One of the biggest obstacles I faced in developing a daily writing habit was the fear of writing in public. Just thinking about posting on a platform like LinkedIn and hitting “publish” made me anxious, and often led to me not writing at all. The fear usually came from a mix of “Nobody cares about my thoughts anyway” and “If I make a mistake, people will judge me for it” - even though these thoughts contradict each other. After all, if no one reads what I write, there’s no one to judge.

What helped me was writing in private or on a platform with less reach. I often use Obsidian or write on my blog. This approach takes away a lot of the pressure and allows me to refine my writing without worrying about judgment or appealing to a wide audience.

Writing Every Day Doesn’t Mean Publishing Every Day

If you do decide to write in public, remember that writing every day doesn’t mean you have to publish every day. Personally, I find the pressure to publish daily unnecessary. I’d rather write a draft and spend the week editing it, then publish at the end of the week and start on the next piece. This approach has several benefits:

• I don’t feel pressured to come up with ideas every day.
• I have more time to reflect on and refine my thoughts.
• I still gain the benefits of writing regularly.

Of course, if you’re writing for LinkedIn or other SEO-focused platforms, this advice might not apply - you might need to publish daily to stay relevant.

Focus on the Process, Not the End Result

The reason to develop a daily writing habit is to carve out time and space to focus on a topic you’re interested in, dive deep into it, and articulate your thoughts. Over time, you’ll get better at this, which will improve your ability to communicate in both your work and personal life. This growth happens during the writing process, not by publishing - publishing is just the end result.

Sure, publishing can lead to engagement with readers, which is rewarding in its own right. But if you’re writing in public, try not to let the end result — publishing — stress you out.