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[Ep 197]\n\n\n\n\n\nEvery week I follow a pattern of sorts. Sometimes it gets thrown off by a day or two, but for my regular routine I write, record, prep, and publish content you may consume via the podcast, at the website, or in the newsletter that arrives in your inbox.\nThe Routine Drip of Content\nEvery week I also produce social media updates, some of which are drawn from the primary content, as I pluck themes, quotes, and images and revise them slightly for the micro-form found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.\n\nEvery week, I drip these out\u2014drip-drip-drip\u2014an ongoing effort to encourage writers in all the places I interact with them. It\u2019s part of my writing routine, and while the output wouldn\u2019t blow away any competitors, I\u2019ve seen that the regularity has proven to be sustainable and fruitful.\nPrepare to Surge Ahead and Get Lots Done\nLast summer I was out of the country for a month, unable to drip out content on my usual schedule.\n\nI could have just told everyone I was taking a break, but I wanted to keep up. I wanted to continue sending out podcast episodes and articles and newsletters to encourage writers as they move toward their goals.\n\nSo throughout spring, in the weeks leading up to the trip, I doubled up. It felt crazy\u2014I could never keep up that pace on a regular basis\u2014but I produced twice the content I normally would each week. By the time I left, I\u2019d published something each week and scheduled six additional episodes to go live while I was gone.\n\nHaving a clear goal and an unchangeable deadline kicked me into gear. I got up early; I didn\u2019t let social media distract me. I knew this was a short burst of effort, so with a level of energy I knew was unsustainable over the long haul, I surged forward and pulled it off.\nTake Advantage of Times When You Can Surge Ahead\nTo get beyond your current status quo\u2014to level up\u2014you\u2019ll have to do something.\n\nAnd most likely, you\u2019ll have to engage with some surges of effort followed by times when content drips out a little at a time.\nManage Those Productive Seasons\nTo arrive at your one-year goal or your three-month goal will require you to achieve milestones along the way.\n\nTo hit those milestones, you have to push hard for awhile, neglecting housework, skipping an outing, scheduling a weekend writing retreat, waking up unnaturally early for a month.\n\nYou\u2019d be amazed at what you can get done with a surge of focused energy. As I said, it may not be sustainable over the long run, but it can help you get through the muddy middle and crest the hill so you can arrive fast and strong at that milestone\u2014perhaps even at the next level itself.\n\nIf you want to accumulate more Twitter followers or welcome more subscribers to your email list, you\u2019ll need to take action. You\u2019ll probably need to produce more projects, more content, more interaction\u2014and to see results, you may have to do it all at once, in a compressed time frame.\n\nThat\u2019s a surge: full-steam ahead to create as much as you can.\n\nSurges require resources like time, energy, inspiration, money, grit, sacrifice, focus.\nKeep Dripping Out Content During Times of Slowdown\nBut to continue reaping a harvest after the results of that busy season, you\u2019ll also have to manage ongoing interaction and output, finding ways to drip it out\u2014daily, weekly\u2014so that readers and followers look forward to your ideas and messages.\n\nSmall efforts over time add up, and the steady drip of content in social media, the steady drip of daily word count all contributes toward your bigger project.\n\nSet up daily and weekly routines to support the commitment to follow-through on the multiple smaller tasks that contribute to the cumulative effect. Your routines are the sustainable element of the program that\u2019s moving you toward the next level.\n\nMaybe you write 500 words a day, and then you head off to play. Dripping out that 500 words each day adds up to 2500 words if you write five days a week and 3500 if you write seven days ...