I’m not very good at writing - yet.

I am very interested in learning, however, and spend between 10-20 hours per week on personal development, including reading and online courses.

In March I made the decision to focus on creating content - valuable, well-researched content on the simple habits, tools, and strategies we all of us can utilize in our lives to achieve our own version of high-performance and live a life optimized for happiness.

Simply knowing the name of something doesn’t mean you understand it.

My problem with creating this type of content is that, while I know a few concepts you can use to achieve high performance, I don’t understand them very well.

That’s a major problem if my aim is to produce valuable and well-researched content. The difference between knowing and understanding is significant.

“Research is me search.”
- Gretchen Rubin

A regular writing habit has started to help me solve this problem.

To publish valuable content, I need to understand the content that I’m publishing and explain it in my own voice.

“For me, writing is a wonderful way to go deep on a problem that I’m struggling with.”
- Nir Eyal

Nir Eyal uses writing as a problem-solving tool:

• First, he thinks through the problem himself

• Then he reads and researches the problem

• If he can’t find a suitable answer, he starts writing about the problem

Breaking down interesting parts of a problem into blog posts helps him learn and understand the problem on the way to finding a solution.

I'M LEARNING

When I don’t understand something, I also carry out research - reading blog posts, books, watching YouTube videos, and listening to podcasts.

This helps me understand the core concept of the content that I want to create and gives me the opportunity to apply it in my own life.

Then I write and try to explain it in my own words. Applying this process every day will eventually improve my writing.

And better writing creates more valuable content.