Back in high school and college, we got graded a lot.

The ranges changed every now and then, but the A+ range was always between 97% and 100%. As of today, the blog commitment has reached the A+ point. Yay, I guess.

Perhaps the reward for this is not a ribbon or an “attaboy,” but rather some real insight into the pro’s and con’s of blogging everyday.

The first plus to this experience has been accountability. I know there are a handful of daily readers out there who expect a post at 9:30 am. I know this because the posts are often “liked” with that cool Facebook “thumbs up.” I said I was going to blog everyday for 100 days and I’ve (almost) done that.

Second, I’ve had to get up earlier to do the things I said I was going to do. New parents know that getting up early is part of the deal. Moving the alarm back an hour earlier seemed like a crazy thing to do, but getting up super early has turned out to be a behavior that I’d like to continue. By 6:30 am, I’ve spent quiet time focusing on the day, gotten in a decent workout, written a blog post, had breakfast, and am ready to help get my family ready for the day.

Third, I feel like the process has improved my writing, in both prose and lyric. Constantly turning out words has me in touch with words all the time. Penning fresh lyrics has been a nice side effect to this whole thing.

One draw back to daily blogging has been fan growth. I don’t know if this is a negative as much as an observation. When I started the daily blog, I had around 250 Facebook likes. Today, in spite of the statistical reach, the number is about the same. So, for me, daily blogging did not produce more Facebook likes. Cutting back to one to two blogs posts a week seems to be in order.

A second con to the whole thing has been the realization that daily life is a bit banal. Having to go to the vet twice a week isn’t necessarily the most exciting thing to write about. Each week, there have been one to two standout experiences, though. Also, I’ve found that readers of my blog have enjoyed my nostalgia for 80’s metal.

The process over the past 97 days has been energizing. The workout and nutrition commitment has been rewarding, if for no other reason than I can wear medium t-shirts again. I’ll measure my official results on Sunday.

Thank you for reading.