5 lessons I’ve learned after a year-long article writing challenge

This article was originally published on my LinkedIn page in February 2021.

Hello everyone,

A year ago, I’ve challenged myself to write an article for LinkedIn every 3rd of the month. A year passed in a snap and here we are with 12 articles (13 if you include the one you are reading now):

1) The Critical Importance of the Healthy Working Atmosphere.

2) Crazy theory about app visibility.

3) 7 Steps to Motivating Tasks (Spoiler: Feedback is the Critical One).

4) The Light and The Dark Side of the Copyright.

5) “Regular” Approach to Personal Task Assignment.

6) Nuances of copyright registration.

7) 4 keys to success a Producer/PM should consider.

8) How to optimize the size of your app and boost installs?

9) Lack of Gamers in the Game Industry.

10) Cross-Platform Is The New Sexy.

11) Failing to plan is planning to fail.

12) The SPAS management system.

Why have I started this? I love writing about stuff, it makes my thoughts organized, it helps me to memorize and to digest information, to see some points in retrospect, and to learn. I’ve never considered this as some kind of blog, it’s more of a diary for myself that I can read in several years and notice how I’ve grown over that period. I’ve never tried any kind of blogs or articles before except a brief experience in university years so that was something new I wanted to try. Plus, when you learn something new and you know it’s serving you well — why not share this with others?

At first, I’ve planned to write only about our products and management aspects but the more I’ve been writing the more I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the industry (and I let myself do it once). So — spoiler — I’ll keep writing things but in a broader way.

Was it helpful? Sure it was. I’ve learned how to work with articles on LinkedIn for myself and on external resources in a collaboration with other writers and sources so I’ve got 6 additional mentions or publications:

1) Full HP boosts revenue by 30% after switching to Tapjoy’s offerwall.

2) How To Build An Audience Of Engaged Users While Growing Your Gaming App.

3) 27 Online Networking Tips for Small Business Owners.

4) 10 ideas for helping a weak project manager get better at the job.

5) Why Your Company Should Leverage Agile Software Development.

6) The most popular questions about copyright registration for software/games/other IT products.

You get an opportunity to practice your writing skills and language, you learn how to put your thoughts and experience in a clear digestible form, you simply get a good feeling of accomplishing something. You can express your thoughts and if someone will find it useful or valuable for a discussion — it’s bliss. Keep sharing, keep learning, keep networking — that’s what LinkedIn is about for me.

Will I continue? Yes. And I want to write not only about my management or other professional experience but also about something in the industry that influenced me as I did with an article about cross-platform gaming. I’ll continue soon enough — keep an eye on my feed, I’ll share a link.

This “challenge” gave me insights, it gave me inspiration and a fresh view on several things.

So, what are the 5 lessons I’ve learned after a year? Let’s go through them quickly.

1. Be open-minded. It will help you to rethink something you’ve already experienced and get feedback that will help you to move further. There is no such thing as one and only right experience or opinion.

2. If you learn something — share your knowledge. “When one teaches, two learn”, — a quote stated by Robert Heinlein. It means that when you try to deliver some knowledge to other people, you still learn something.

3. Be consistent. Don’t go from one area to another just because you’ve faced some constraints. Overcome, try harder and you’ll be satisfied with the results.

4. Enjoy the outcome. You have to learn how to stop your race for a second just to sit down and enjoy the results of your work, especially if you get some feedback. It’s really important to see that you are reaching your goals — as I’ve been writing for myself, it was an easy one. But still, I had to go through articles again just to see what job I’ve done. You need to praise yourself from time to time to avoid burnout.

5. Be original. Even when you are talking/writing about something common, add your own opinion.

6. I know, I’ve promised you 5 things but plans do change — and that is a good thing to learn. Don’t try to resist the change, try to adapt it and get even better results.

I hope it was a fun marathon for you too and I’ll see you on my Medium page in a month or so. Stay safe and good luck!

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.