How to write 1,000 articles a year

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How does one write 1,000 work related articles in a year? One doesn’t. But a team of writers can!

My teams and I are trying something new at work for the next few weeks. I’m not sure if it will work. But it has the potential to be a real game changer.

Once a week, each person will write something short and sweet. The rules are:

  1. It must be work related
  2. It must be potentially helpful
  3. One colleague must review it

They’ll give it a title, tag it appropriately and publish it to our division’s space on the company Intranet.

What do I hope to accomplish with this writing bonanza?

For one, I believe we will get better at writing. You don’t get better by accident. You get better with practice and a feedback loop.

Secondly, it will contribute to a culture of shared knowledge and documentation. We want to overthrow our oral tradition overlords. Someone once said documentation is “a love letter to your future self”. Someone else also said that “sharing is caring” (I think it was Barny).

Last but not least, it will help us learn better and faster. Google the Richard Feynman technique for learning. Teaching others super charges your own learning journey.

Sometimes you have to lead outside the box. My gut tells me this might work. If it doesn’t, we’ve lost a relatively small amount of time and learned a valuable lesson. And if it does work? Well, then we’ve struck gold.