While participating in #satchat last Saturday, Dr. Reshan Richards offered a concise master class in the how and why of blogging.  I embedded his tweets below with some brief contextualizations / explanations.

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By establishing rules for himself — “format and schedule” — Reshan re-launched his blogging practice.

I was in same boat #satchat @iplante then I decided on a format and schedule and have tried to stick with it – 3 months in now!

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

Focus allows side projects, like blogging, to feel manageable and not chew up too much time.

I tried to do ad-hoc writing for a while but never got a routine. In Sept I started a format and stuck with it. #satchat @aaron_hogan

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

What gets scheduled gets done.

If it’s too hard to think about for Dec., go to your January calendar & block off time: time to set up blog; to write; to read #satchat

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

Constraints allow side projects to fit into crowded calendars.

@Msjackson4real @iplante carve out 1 hr/wk dedicated to exploring writing about it. From tech perspective, go with Weebly or Wix #satchat

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

As we learn in the gym or on the track, reps add up.  And, in creative practice, one of the key, though counterintuitive, insights is that habitual (i.e. predictable / boring) practice allows creative practice to thrive.

My format = M: What I Learned Last Week; T: Explain Everything; W: Leadership; R: Music; F: A Poem #satchat – lots of room to improvise

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

This is the point Twyla Tharp makes in The Creative Habit . . . and Austin Kleon drives home in an evergreen blog post called “Something Small Everyday.”   (See his related blackout poem below.)

Beyond habits, Reshan is big on internal motivation.  As I heard him recently say in an as-yet-unpublished interview, “any activities done as part of a learning experience should be done with intrinsic motivation. Human beings of course need boundaries and rules to feel safe, but they should also be given flexibility and understanding when a task is not complete.”  It didn’t surprise me, therefore, when he said:

@Msjackson4real @iplante pick something you’re passionate about and wish you had more time to focus (doesn’t have to be EDU) (1/2) #sactchat

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

Also, it didn’t surprise me when he said:

@mrsapia_teach @bmaurao @msjackson4real carry a pad and pen and jot down the ideas when they come to you! #satchat then synthesize #SatChat

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

You get ideas by capturing them. When I was young, I marveled at the artists and writers I met.  They always seemed to have so many more ideas than everybody else.  A simple drive to a bagel store could yield five new poems, six new photographs, three new essay ideas, nine new short film projects . . .

Now that I’m older and have several hundred thousand words under my own belt, I know that everyone has ideas.  But people who traffic in ideas, people who need to generate lots of them, are simply more disciplined about capturing their ideas. They have more ideas because they keep more ideas.

Last, though certainly not least, is gratitude.

A1: I blog because I have learned so much from other bloggers and want to do anything to be able to pay that back/forward #satchat

— Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) December 5, 2015

Check out Reshan’s payback / payforward at www.constructivisttoolkit.com.  It’s a wonderful assortment of fresh ideas, new every weekday.  Leave him a comment somewhere and let him know what you think.