How a vlogging habit is formed

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I have been vlogging daily since early November last year. I publish a minimum of one video every day on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes I vlog on Linkedin too, but I am much more selective with my content there nowadays. I just did a summation and realized that I have passed 300 vlogs now. Vlogging has been a very effective way for me to discover how a habit is formed. At first, there was a lot of friction every single time before I released that daily video. Now that friction is all but gone. It is because my focus has now shifted to the process instead of each individual building block. To get the ball rolling in the beginning, it can help to create certain support systems to make your life easier. Later, when you got the momentum, you can start to remove the support systems.

In the beginning of my vlogging journey, I “batched” content and recorded in advance and kept a couple of videos ready to be published, so that I could complete my daily assignment even if unexpected things threw my day off course. Each video used to take a lot of time to produce, sometimes perhaps up to an hour. That is way too long and not sustainable. That’s why the content batching saved my ass plenty of times.  However, I soon discovered that one of the most important aspects of vlogging is to keep the content alive and current. The pre-recorded videos never felt right. So, I gave them up and accepted the fact that a bad, but current and authentic video is more valuable than an “better” video that is outdated (This depends on the type of content and the purpose of the channel of course). When vlogging, authenticity and presence are critical. Takeaway: Content batching is great when starting out, but when you gain experience, it is not really necessary.  

Another method that has helped me out a lot, was to keep a document with topics and a short description of ideas for upcoming vlogs. It is similar to content batching, but you get to keep the authenticity because the video is recorded and published at the same time. If you can’t come up with a vlogging topic on the fly, then just grab something from your idea list and vlog about that. I kept the document on my iPhone and whenever an idea popped up in my head, I wrote it down in the content list. Another great source of inspiration is engagement from the audience. When I get comments, they usually contain the seeds for upcoming vlogs. A couple of months into the process, I realized that my idea list had started to grow faster than my ability to publish videos. Here’s the interesting thing, I just opened my idea list and noticed that the last entry was more than two months ago! I just stopped using it, because it had become just another layer of friction. To open a document and write your ideas down takes time. It is wiser to spend that time recording the video instead. That way, you get even more authenticity and faster. It is a no-brainer really. Takeaway: An idea list is great for many months into the process, but instead of writing your ideas down when you get them – just grab the phone, press record and go. It is the same thing, but better in every way.

The vlogs get better engagement when I keep them below 60 seconds. Many social media platforms are tailored to this type of videos. It is likely also a psychological thing. If we see that the video duration is less than a minute, let’s say 59 seconds, it seems much shorter than if it would be 1 minute and 1 second. Probably similar to why the price stickers always end with a 9. Another factor is that the upload time is drastically reduced. Videos that are several minutes long take much longer to upload and I get the feeling that it does not scale linearly. Also, by imposing a 60 second limit, you automatically cut the BS and get straight to the point. I don’t bother with any friendly hellos or introductions anymore. Just get the idea out there. The less I plan, the more engagement I get, and the quality improves. The icing on the cake is that it is faster too…

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