The importance of writing a technical article consistently. ✍️

One article a week, throughout the year: My reflections

Yes, you read that correctly.

I wrote one article, each week, throughout the year 2020, consistently, there was no stopping me.

This was me, in the first week of the year:

How to start a coding project making sure you remember it months later 🌟

Vaibhav Khulbe ・ Jan 1 '20

#project #code #beginners #programming

And this is me now, in the last week of the year:

The importance of writing a technical article consistently. ✍️

Vaibhav Khulbe ・ Dec 25 '20

#discuss #writing #productivity #webdev

In the first week, we didn’t know how harsh this year would be. I have seen, heard, and saw many people online (mostly) and offline saying, "2020 is the worst." Well, every time I would hear the words 2020 and worst together, I wondered "Why 2020 isn't bad for me? Why every third person I meet say the same thing?"

Little did I knew I was to embark on a journey that would last forever with me. The journey isn’t just about writing articles, the journey is definitely about being consistent like mad!

In my last article of this year, I write some of the reflections I can pass to the readers.

What was my goal? 🎯

More than a 'goal' or a 'target', this was my 'thought':

I became active on DEV towards the end of December 2019. I just read posts, bookmarked, liked, commented (with a slight fear). Then I had a thought, "Why do I just like and leave? Why can't I write here just like I did on Medium for 3+ years?"

And then, it was almost the 31st of the month, that morning I sat down to write some markdown. I decided to hit the 'Publish' button the next year. Nothing was planned. But the next week was about to start, so I drafted my 2nd article and the cycle continued from that day and hasn't stopped till now.

That was that! Nothing fancy or crazy like writing on my notes and sticking them on my desk. The onset of thought was everything for me.

Quality of articles v/s quantity of articles. 🙃

You may ask, "But Vaibhav, how do you get topics to write each week? You must've focused on the more the articles, the better approach?"

To which I would answer, "Hey! You know what, I just did what others would. I DOCUMENTED. When you document what you are learning, working on, where and how you got solutions to your problems, how you solved them on your projects, what were you shortcoming, what you can share with others...then you just can't focus on the quantity!"

I always made sure:

• I write what I'm working on at the present moment.
• I have a good knowledge of that topic. Not a God-level knowledge.
• I write with less complex words so that even a beginner in the dev industry can connect.
• I formatted and used a clear and good-grammar.

And honestly, if I cared just about the numbers (followers, likes, engagement numbers) you would see a LOT of the following type of articles on my profile:

• THE TOP 10 LANGUAGES WHICH WILL GUARANTEE YOU TO GET A JOB!
• MY TOP VSCODE EXTENSIONS FOR EVERY DEVELOPER OUT THERE.
• GET THESE TIPS FROM A 3+ YEARS EXPERIENCED DEVELOPER TO SHINE LIKE A STAR.
• THE DEVELOPER ROADMAP YOU NEED TO FOLLOW NOW.

You get the idea, right? I already know these type of posts gets the maximum engaging, but how many of these give some value?

So what benefits you got? 💐

The one thing you can get by creating content consistently on any platform is that you improve your communication skills to a great extent.

Scared of talking in front of an audience, break out, give that talk (online/offline), in the same way, if you are not sure if someone will read what you write, just kill that thought for a moment and focus on the content.

By improving my communication (in my opinion more important than your technical skills), I got to showcase my talent, my projects, my concepts, my way of writing to a community. Thanks to this wonderful DEV Community, I get these comments:

aman-sagar • Oct 16 '20

Okay, this was my first hacktober fest participation, was eager to choose plant a tree option, then my 4 pull requests got approved and passed the review period today. And then I thought of requesting a t-shirt, you know the craze of a hacktoberfest t-shirt, right? Then, i tried finding alternatives, found some, but then I thought of finding the some inspiration to plant a tree, I cam across your post, read it, and right away chose the plant a tree option.
Thank you for inspiring me to plant a tree!!!......

Gagandeep Singh • Oct 27 '20

I wanna say, you are awesome man!!
Thanks for sharing such a rich content.

Binyamin Green • Mar 4 '20

This is one of those moments where I wish I could save comments on DEV!
@ben nudge nudge

Juan Alejandro Morais • Mar 5 '20

Thanks for this great article, Vaibhav. It will definitely help me, and many others, in their writing journey.

All the best! :)

Ridhik Govind • Oct 25 '20

What an article man ! No doubt its one of the best articles I've read ! Keep up with the good writing !

Dhruvam • Jan 1 '20

Amazing article. Made me want to go into self-introspection right away. Keep writing and inspiring :)

And much more to me on my socials.

Oh, before I forget...@NimrodKramer's 👇

What I really appreciate about @vaibhav_khulbe is his consistency. Every day he reads a few articles and shares his insight. Let alone the incredible and thoughtful posts he writes every week. A true role model for self-learning.

Do yourself a favor and follow him ASAP 🎸 https://t.co/cDIsIDeOxA

— Nimrod Kramer (@NimrodKramer) November 25, 2020

Not only I published articles weekly, the 'consistent me', did the following throughout the year:

• Composed my weekly dev newsletter with more than 50+ resources.

• I read 6+ books, summarised in my own words on my Instagram stories.

• I wrote code, each day (minus the weekends). I honestly don’t do #100DaysOfCode! 😂

• I improved my UI/UX design skills. For each of my articles, I designed Instagram carousel posts on Adobe XD.

• I got 5 freelance offers all because I was consistent.

What more examples you need than these!?

What are your own favorite articles? 👀

Of course, I will say, "Most of them are...can't decide". But, if I had to nit-pick (in no particular order):

• Hacktoberfest - through a different lens. 🌳

• How to start a coding project making sure you remember it months later 🌟

• Create a CSS art without HTML. 🤯

• Framer Motion - beautiful animations and interactions for React. 🤤

• Spring it on! The complete guide to React Spring. 🧵

• It's time to supercharge your HTML skills! 🔋

• The Web without CSS. 😿

• Your guide to GitHub Actions in 5 steps 📚

• Networking and Open Source: The What and the Why 👐

• Demystifying 20 lesser-known React terms and features (With examples) 🔮

The bottom line. ⚡️

I'm not saying write articles regularly, write consistently.

And never forget:

You need to make sacrifices to achieve a goal. Go make that sacrifice!

The sole aim to write this article towards the end of the year was so that I get to know how well I followed my 'thought', how disciplined I am to get results, and what value I can bring to the community.

I could have shown you my stats, how many reactions I got, how many total views are there, and how many people follow me here, but I NEVER believe in these numbers. Just take a sweet guess while you visit my profile. :)

Hope some of my articles helped you in a way or two. Merry Christmas 🎄 and Happy Holidays! 😄

This #microservices architecture is only suitable for children/developers age 3 and upwards ⚠️#microservices #microprofile #Devhumour @turnoff_us #monolith #programminghumour pic.twitter.com/eCHmdGZkoD

— Payara (@Payara_Fish) December 23, 2020

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PS: From this year, I've decided to write here on DEV Community. Previously, I wrote on Medium. If anyone wants to take a look at my articles, here's my Medium profile.