This is my 300th newsletter
Oh, hi friends!
Today’s my 300th newsletter.
Uh, that’s insane.
I tried to think about how—and why—I’ve been able to maintain this every weekday (give or take a few days when work tsunamis drowned me).
Here are my takeaways, in the hope that they might help you with a project of your own.
1. Ignoring numbers is a good thing.
Not really looking at the data was a decision I made early on. I have a general sense of how many people are reading, but I don’t analyze what people click or the open rates for each person. I decided this for a few reasons—I didn’t want it to affect what I felt like sharing, and I didn’t want to be bummed if my friends stopped reading. Instead, I’m clueless! And prefer it that way. Instead, I receive feedback when people respond by email or tell me in person what they like. This is a much more effective way to find out what's connecting with everyone.
2. Systems are helpful.
I write every newsletter in one Word doc, which is now up to 97,828 words (the length of two novels!!!). Usually I write tomorrow’s in the afternoon, after I’ve done my “paid” work. (I don’t know why I put quotes around “paid,” but actually it sort of fits since getting paid as a freelancer is the most difficult part of the job. LOL.) In the beginning, I’d write the newsletters late at night or early in the morning. That didn’t work. I need it to feel like eating dessert after swallowing spinach.
3. But also systems are pointless.
Occasionally, I’ll gather a quote or video that I plan to use later that week, but rarely do I plan further out. Soooo, it’s very often a reflection of how I’m feeling at that moment, and inspired by a conversation or an interaction with someone that just happened. Almost always, it’s advice I need to take myself.
4. The more you practice, the easier it gets.
I used to draft, edit, over-analyze, and send myself test emails. That stopped around 280 newsletters ago. My previous experience as a homepage editor makes me very very careful when it comes to broken links and typos (if you spot one, I’ll die of shame). Now I trust myself. Also, writing every day has made me a much faster and cleaner writer.
5. You have to love the process.
My dad once asked me how I came up with things to write about every day. I told him that’s the easy part. And it’s true! These notes and questions are all ones I ask myself or my friends, and it’s a privilege to get to talk about them with you, too.
I can always procrastinate on “paid” work, but never this. It’s my favorite thing to share. And before starting, I didn’t know that this daily note would get mentioned in The New York Times or Lifehacker or help me maintain friendships with hundreds of people and meet a thousand more. I didn’t know I’d get to share links and songs and trailers and thoughts with people from as far away as Morocco and Australia and Calgary.
Surprises. That’s what happens when you love the process. Lots of surprises.
So thank you for reading, for responding, and for giving me a reason to type every day.
PS — An extra special squeeze to my readers from the very beginning: Brandon, Aunt Gina, Brea, Liz, Nathan, Heath, Steph, Alina, Elena, Charlotte, Aegean, Chris, Danielle, Lindsay, Jane, Alison, Andrew, and Brother.
“Humans crave containment: beginnings, ends, finish lines, goals, destinations. Without containment we would be overwhelmed with the vastness and indifference of the universe. Containment brings the horizon a little bit closer.”
Wonderful interview with the writer Anelise Chen, who writes a column on mollusks for The Paris Review (!!!).
I could watch Jerry Seinfeld talk about writing jokes for hours. These five minutes are a fascinating look at how he wrote a bit about Pop-Tarts.
“I like the first line to be funny right away,” he says. He compares it to songwriting—you must shave off syllables to get the timing right.
And as for how he writes, he uses yellow legal pads and BIC clear barrel blue pens. (Dad, here’s a link to the pens at Staples so you can add them to your collection.)
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara