What I want to write about and take notes on in 2022
I started my newsletter to create a forcing function for continuous learning. So far it’s working. Since my last newsletter update, I’ve written a new newsletter most weeks.
For the last year or so, I’ve been focused on two areas of continuous improvement: 1) improving my weekly newsletter production process and 2) increasing my website’s visitor-to-subscriber rate. This focus has paid off.
I’ve found a newsletter format that I like that’s pretty effortless to produce each week. I also implemented the slip box system and I’m starting to reach critical mass.
My newsletter subscriber growth has quadrupled to over 500 people, outpacing traffic growth which has tripled. Here’s a quick graph of unique page views at ricklindquist.com since I launched my newsletter in late 2019.
A few things have not gone well. I lost my daily discipline of writing in the morning. This forced me to rely on weekends to catch up. Also, I tried to write about too many different topics in 2021. While it was interesting to learn about a lot of different domains, the lack of focus prevented me from diving deeper into the areas I found most interesting.
In 2022, I’m going to try a few new tactics.
First, I want to recommit to building and maintaining a daily writing habit.
Second, I want to set a clearer long-term writing goal to focus my efforts.
And third, I want to get back in the habit of sharing my work on social media.
For the year, I’d like to deliver three handbooks; one on each of these topics:
Leadership - I want to write more about the first principles of leading others. This will force me to learn about influence, motivation, habits, trust, negotiation, communication, uncertainty, human nature, and decision-making.
Talent Acquisition - I’ve had a ton of recent learning, and practice here. I’d like to document my learnings before they go stale.
Meetings - I’ve spent a lot of time over the years learning how to run productive meetings. I’d like to pull my thoughts together so I can share them with others.
On a weekly basis, I’d like to share new articles, notes, and learnings related to these topics in my newsletter and schedule my best new content for promotion on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Quora.
On a daily basis, I’d like to add at least three new notes on these topics to my slip box.
This is much more focused than I was last year. I’m excited.
Have thoughts on this topic? I'd love to hear from you! I'm @RickLindquist on Twitter.