Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Reviewing my first year on Substack

Hello my friend

As today marks the anniversary of my first year on Substack I thought it would be the perfect time to review the last twelve months and share with you what I’ve learned along the way. 

Well, what an exciting twelve months it has been here at A Simple Living Journal.

·       I wrote my first eight blogs.

·       Thirty readers found my Substack and subscribed.  Thank you if you are here.

Whilst these numbers may seem very low, I am very proud of my achievements so far.  I haven’t published regularly and have not been as active in the Substack community as I should have been.  But imagine what could have happened if I had?   As the 14^th century proverb goes, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”.  Something great can come from small beginnings.  The oak tree, also known as the King of Trees, is a symbol of strength, knowledge, and endurance.

Photo by Daniela Paola Alchapar on Unsplash

I’m determined not to venture down the rabbit hole of blaming lack of time and the numerous other excuses one hears frequently.  But we all have the same twenty-four hours, it’s how we prioritise those hours that really count, do you agree? 

If we look closely at how we spend our day one can always find little pockets of time.  There will always be distractions to encourage us away from our writing, or whatever creative project we are working on.  So, the key point here is to prioritise what’s important to us.  

Photo by hanna plants on Unsplash

What have I learned in my first twelve months?

Consistency

I have written eight blogs in the last twelve months.  If you count this one, that’s four published in the last month.  It is no coincidence that I have gained 30% of my readers during this time.   One can only observe that the most successful writers are those who publish the most consistently. 

Community connection

My lack of interaction with other writers in the Substack community is almost certainly due to a lack of confidence and imposter syndrome.  Why am I here amongst such great writers?  

So, I put on my big girl pants and grew a pair, metaphorically speaking of course!  And do you know, I discovered the loveliest people behind some great Substacks.  

Social media

Winning the social media battle continues to elude me.  Remember my point about priorities? 

Social media, as we all know is one of the biggest time stealers of all.  I should have learned my lesson by now, but I guess we all fall fowl of the dreaded doom scroll don’t we. 

To try and reduce my time on Instagram I whittled down my follow list to around seventy from fifteen hundred.  It didn’t help one bit though because Instagram thinks, “hey you don’t follow enough accounts so here’s a lot more you might like”.   And there’s the sponsored ads of course.

Photo by Katelyn Greer on Unsplash

What will I do differently in the next twelve months?

Learning

I recently joined “Sparkle on Substack” where there is an extensive archive of information about Substack that I am slowly working my way through.  Thank you

Claire Venus

for welcoming me into your wonderful community.  

I am also studying the book “How to build a World Class Substack by Claire Venus and Russell Nohelty. With a vast wealth of knowledge to impart it is such a fantastic read.   Lots of valuable information to digest. 

Put out a blog every week

As I still have a day job, I don’t want to over commit myself, but I do understand the importance of publishing regularly so working on my blogs will become my priority.  Yes, my day job is presently my only income source, but to become a successful writer on Substack and progress to becoming a paid writer I need to put my time and effort into this right now.  

Community

Realising the importance of community and building relationships I plan to show up in Substack for a scheduled amount of time each week.  I am working on finding a happy balance between my writing and community activities, so this is currently a work in progress.  

Social media

I acknowledge an urgent need to reduce social media time, if not remove it altogether.  So, for the remainder of the year, I am un-installing Instagram and Facebook from my phone.  It is a trial run, but I think it’s a necessary trial.  I think the results will be interesting.   I’ll write a follow up review at the end of the year to reveal my results. 

If I am completely honest, I don’t enjoy social media now.  Apart from it being a time zapper, it provides no real value.  For me, and perhaps you too, long form writing is where the true value lies and it’s far more satisfying too. 

I want to thank you for reading A Simple Living Journal and for being here for my one-year anniversary.  I am excited to see what the next twelve months has in store for us.

In case you missed it here is a link to my last blog.

Meet The Writer

Until next time

Take care

Debbie xx