I'm getting close to 550 articles written daily.
Some were shit. I read back and think no one probably understood what was going through my head at the time. Some were pretty good - I read them back with pleasure. Some really sparked conversations, both with you and within me. As I re-read them, I get tons of new ideas.
I feel that writing daily has refined some of my thinking. It's mainly why I do it. And I don't plan on stopping the streak.
But when I started, it was insane to think I wouldn't miss days every now and then or that I'll have enough accessibility topics to write about. It's since gotten easier to sit down and write.
Why? Why does doing something every day make it that much easier to do?
First off, it becomes a habit.
My brain loves patterns. When I do something every day at roughly the same time, my mind starts preparing for it automatically. I don't have to convince myself to sit down and write anymore. The decision fatigue disappears.
This is also true with working in accessibility. At first, I worried I'd get easily bored of reading the WCAG and applying those guidelines. I'd run out of mental energy to always repeat the same things over and over again like a broken record. But when I'm tuned into accessibility every day, I start seeing opportunities everywhere.
Second, it becomes part of my identity. It's not what I do, it's who I am.
This shift is huge. I don't occasionally write. I'm a writer. I don't sometimes work in accessibility. I think about it every single day.
When I work in accessibility daily, whether that's writing about it, auditing sites or advocating, it changes how I see the world. I can't unsee poor colour contrast. I notice when captions are missing from videos. I automatically check if websites work with keyboard navigation.
I'm the person my friends text when they find some weird website with silly forms. I'm the one who suggests colour improvements in Slack without being asked. It's not extra work anymore. It's just how I think.
When writing is part of my identity, missing a day feels wrong. Not guilty-wrong, but wrong. Like leaving the house without my wallet.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that writing every day isn't hard. Working in accessibility every day isn't hard.
Only two things are hard:
- Getting started
- Keeping at it
Expect the rest to come naturally.