One of my recent retired living pastimes has been the publication of my personal finance and retired living blog, Retired To Win. At its beginning, my blog was definitely just a nice, no-pressure part of my day. A want-to-do. But in the last month, I have seen Retired To Win morph into a semi-obligatory have-to-do, with created expectations of (1) posting a content-rich article every day, and (2) keeping that article "in front" of the SavingAdvice website via Forum postings linked back to the blog article. This now feels too much like a job. So I here is what I am doing to change things.

I want a blog so I can reach out*. I like to write. I like to get my ideas across. I like to deal with personal finance and investing topics. And I want to build a public body of work that is accessible to anyone and (hopefully) contributes valuable ideas that help people in their personal finance quests.

But I want a blog on my terms. No imposed publication quota or schedule. Not even self-imposed ones. And that is what has gone off course for me. I have taken on a self-imposed obligation to post a new article every day. And I have expanded that obligation to include the posting of Forum entries several times a day in an effort to keep a link to my blog work on the front page of the SavingAdvice website. Retired To Win has taken over my day.

So I am going back to how it was at the beginning. I used to enjoy a really nice "pre-start" to my day by doing a little blog writing over my first cup of coffee. By longhand, in pencil, on a yellow pad. I would set down 200 words and stop at the end of the next sentence. Each day, I would pick up the thread of the article where I left off the day before and do another 200 words until the article was completed. Whenever it got completed. My love of writing -- and need for self-expression -- made this ritual a positive launch of my day. And so am I making it again.

I will have a "free form" article posting schedule. My article posts will appear as I complete their drafting, editing and typing. At 200 or so new words a day, I should have at least one new article to post every week. Probably more. But even just one new posted article a week will meet my needs for publishing a blog. The body of work I want to build will accrue. And I will have my days back to live a financially independent retirement my way.