How to Keep The Momentum Going

Lifestyle

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Hey everyone, summer is almost over! Our son is going back to school full-time next week. I can’t wait. Finally, I can get back to blogging and doing my errands in peace. Don’t get me wrong. My son and I had a really great summer. We went camping, play sports, hike, kayak, and did all kinds of fun activities. However, I am ready for some personal time. In particular, I need to get back to blogging more consistently.

Less often is more difficult

This summer, I only published a new post once per week. That’s a good pace when RB40Jr is at home. It’s hard to focus when he’s around. (He is a very noisy kid.) I also enjoyed a little time away from personal finance. However, there is a downside too. It was much more difficult to write a blog post than usual!

Publishing a new post once per week meant I only think about personal finance one or two days/week. That is not quite enough to get the creative juice flowing. It was way easier to write when I spend 3-5 days per week on personal finance. Reducing the frequency of blogging made it much more difficult to write. I couldn’t get into the flow.

New blogger

I started blogging in 2010. Wow, it’s been 11 years! I published a new post 3 times per week in the beginning. Blogging was very different back then. You can publish a short post and it’d still show up on various search engines. Now, SEO (search engine optimization) demands longer blog posts with keywords and best practices. Google thinks readers only like long articles with comprehensive information, deep dives. In short, it was way easier to be a blogger in 2010.

Blogging 3 times per week was good when I started. I thought about personal finance every day and it was relatively easy to write. That was a good pace for a beginner who didn’t know how to write. I learned a lot from blogging over and over again.

Momentum

These days, there is no way I can write a new blog post 3 times per week. That’s way too much work. I already retired from my engineering career and there are fewer things to blog about. It was easier to write when I was on the journey to FIRE. Now that I’m living the easy life, I don’t have as much to write about.

Unfortunately, blogging once per week doesn’t work well for me either. It’s hard to gain any momentum when I blog that infrequently. The writing just didn’t flow.

Once school starts, I’ll go back to publishing two posts per week. I think that’s a good cadence for me. I’d be able to keep the momentum going and write better.

Momentum is very important. Once you lose momentum, it’s a matter of time before you stop completely. That is what happens to most bloggers, IMO. They lose momentum and they stop blogging. I don’t want to stop blogging yet so I need to keep the momentum going.

Momentum applies to many activities

This momentum concept applies to many activities in life. For example, you need to exercise at least 3 times per week. Less often than that and you won’t be able to keep at it. When I was working full time, I exercised every weekday during lunch. It became a routine and I rarely missed a workout. After I stop working full time, I exercise less frequently due to having a baby around. Eventually, I stopped working out completely. These days, I get my exercise by playing sports with my son and charging scooters. Anyway, the point is you need to exercise at least 3 times per week or else you’ll stop.

Momentum theory

So this is my momentum theory. To keep momentum, you need to spend at least half the week on the activity. This applies to anything that takes effort.

Exercise
Eat healthy
Write
Work
Learn a new language
play an instrument
Invest

These activities need constant effort to keep going. If you slack off, you’ll lose momentum and stop completely. Once or twice per week just isn’t enough to keep the momentum. Whenever I reduce the time I spend on any activity to less than half the week, I quit completely soon after.

What do you think? Is it possible to keep going if you only work on something once or twice per week?

Blogging is a great way to build your brand and establish a presence on the internet. Here is my guide – How to start a blog and why you should. Check it out!

Image credit: Nadir sYzYgY

Joe started Retire by 40 in 2010 to figure out how to retire early. After 16 years of investing and saving, he achieved financial independence and retired at 38.

Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!

Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital for DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.