#17 Reflections: Quality or Quantity?

I am not sure if it’s is very obvious, but I started a daily writing challenge for myself. It’s been over a week and I am pretty proud of myself for staying strong, alhamdulillah.

But yesterday as I pressed publish I wondered, is this a good idea?

I was not content with my writing that day. I had a message I wanted to share, but the word on the page were not doing justice to what my message was. I was repeatedly typing and then deleting. But time was ticking. I had no choice but to press publish, even though I didn’t want to.

But then a part of me wondered — am I choosing quantity over quality? Am I publishing work for the sake of sticking to my challenge rather than ensuring the work I was publishing was of top-notch quality?

I sat with this question for the morning. I talked to a friend about it and I think I have reached a conclusion.

At this moment, I will choose quantity over quality.

Quantity > quality

The purpose of me starting this challenge was for one main reason — to improve my writing.

Previously, when I began this blog I tried to write daily then too. But I did not set it out as a challenge for myself. And because of my insecurity in sharing my writings, my perfectionist side came out. Each piece would take me hours to write out as I edited, deleted and rewrote. I didn’t even last a few days before it became too hard for me to keep up. And then I stopped writing for months.

Inevitably, any improvements came to a halt.

—

Publishing daily

When you decide to publish daily, you have no choice but to push away the perfectionists whispers. However insecure you feel about sharing your less than perfect work, it must go out.

This meant, firstly, you learn to be less insecure about the work you put out there. Every time you press publish, it gets easier. Some days are harder. Yesterday was an example for me. Even though I did not feel like what I wrote was good enough, I had to press publish. And simply make the intention for my next post to be better.

But apart from that, you are on the path of compounding improvement.

Compounding improvement

I have always been a big believer of the 5 minute rule. Its better to spend 5 minutes a day doing something than 2 hours a month when you suddenly get some inspiration. The daily habits is what gives you results in the long run.

As James Clear in Atomic Habits states:

The first day, the first 10 days, the first month I might not feel the difference. But its all building up. Everyday I hit publish, I am improving (InshaAllah) by that 1%.

So this is a reminder to myself about why I began writing daily. And why I cannot stop.

Yes, somedays you might feel like your work is not good enough. But realise you showing up every day means you are only going forward, even though it might not feel like it.