2018 has been a busy year. There’s been a lot going on in the networking world and the pace of things keeps accelerating. I’ve been inundated with things this last month, including endless requests for my 2019 predictions and where I think the market is going. Since I’m not a prediction kind of person, I wanted to take just a couple of moments to talk more about something that I did find interesting from 2018 – deadlines.

Getting It Out The Door

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that I’ve always had a goal set for myself of trying to get one post published every week. It’s a deadline I set for myself to make sure that I didn’t let my blog start decaying into something that is barely updated. I try to hold fast to my word and get something new out every week. Sometimes it’s simple, like reflections on one of the various Tech Field Day events that I’m working on that week. But there’s always something.

That is, until Cisco Live this year. I somehow got so wrapped up in things that I missed a post for the first time in eight years! Granted, this was the collection of several things going on at once:

1. I was running Tech Field Day Extra during Cisco Live. So I was working my tail off the entire time.
2. I was at Cisco Live, which is always a hugely busy time for me. Even when I’m not doing something specific to the event it’s social hour every hour.
3. I normally write posts on Thursday afternoon to publish Friday this year. Guess what happened on Thursday at Cisco Live after we all said goodbye? I went on vacation with my family to Disney World. So I kind of forgot that I didn’t publish anything until Sunday afternoon.

The perfect confluence of factors led to me missing a deadline. Now, I’ve missed it again once more this year and totally forgotten to write something until the Monday following my deadline. And it’s even more frustrating when it’s something I totally could have controlled but didn’t.

Why the fuss? I mean, it’s not like all my readers are going to magically run away if I don’t put something out today or tomorrow. While that is very true, it’s more for me that I don’t want to forget to put content out. More than any other thing, scheduling your content is the key to keeping your readers around.

Think about network television. For years, they advertised their timeslots as much as they advertised their shows. Must-See Thursday. TGIF. Each of these may conjure images of friendly shows or of full houses. But you remember the day as much as you remember the shows, right? That’s because the schedule became important. If you don’t think that matters, imagine the shows that are up against big events or keep getting bumped because of sporting events. There’s a reason why Sunday evening isn’t a good time for a television show. Or why no one tries to put something up against the Super Bowl.

Likewise, schedules are important for blogging. I used to just hit publish on my posts whenever I finished them. That meant sending them out at 9pm on a Tuesday some times. Not the best time for people to want to dive into a technical post. Instead, I started publishing them in the mornings after I wrote them. That means more eyeballs and more time to have people reflect on them. I’ve always played around with the daily schedule of when to publish, but in 2018 it got pushed to Friday out of necessity. I kept running out of time. Instead of focusing on the writing, I would often wake up Friday morning with writer’s block and just churn something out to hit my deadline.

Writing because you have to is not fun. Wracking your brain to come up with some topic of conversation is stressful. Lee Badman has been posting questions every weekday morning to the wireless community for a long while and he’s decided that it’s run its course. I applaud Lee for stepping away from something like that before it became a chore. It’s not easy to leave something behind that has meant a lot to you.

Write Like The Wind

For me, blogging is still fun. I still very much enjoy sitting down in front of a computer keyboard and getting some great thoughts out there. I find my time at Tech Field Day events has energized my writing to a large degree because there is so much good content out there that needs to be discussed and indexed. I still enjoy pouring my thoughts out onto a piece of digital paper for everyone to read.

Could I cut back to simple reaction posts? Sure. But that’s not my style. I started blogging because I like the long-form of text. I’ve written some quick sub-500 word pieces because I needed to get something out. But those are the exceptions to the rule. I’d rather keep things thoughtful and encourage people to spend more time focusing on words.

I think the biggest thing that I need to change in the posting dates. I need to move back from Friday to give myself some headroom to post. I also need to use Friday as my last-ditch day to get things published. That may mean putting more thought to my posts earlier in the week for sure. It may also mean having two posts on weeks that big news breaks. But that’s the life of a writer, isn’t it?

Home Away From Home

The third biggest challenge for deadlines is all the other writing that I’m doing. I spend a lot of time taking briefings and such for Gestalt IT, which I affectionately refer to as my “Bruce Wayne” job. I get to hear a lot of fun stories and see a lot of great companies just starting out in the world. I write a lot over there because it’s how I keep up with the industry. Remember that year that I went crazy and wrote two posts every week for an entire year? Yeah, good times. Guess what? It’s going to be like that again!

Gestalt IT is going to be my writing source for most of my briefings and coverage of companies. It’s going to have a much different tone that this blog does. Here is when I’m going to spend more time pontificating and looking at big trends in technology. Or perhaps it will be stirring the pot. But I still plan on getting out one post a week about some topic. And I won’t be posting it on Friday unless I absolutely have to.

Tom’s Take

It’s no stretch to say that writing is something I do better than anything else. It’s also something I love to do. I want to do my best to keep bringing good content to everyone out there that likes to read my blog. I’m going to spend some time exploring new workflows and trying to keep the hits coming along as 2019 rolls around. I’ll have more to say on that in my usual January 1 post to kick off the new year!