I’ll admit – I missed publishing an article last Friday to the blog. It has been over six years that I’ve published an article every Friday – known as the Friday’s Five. I’ve managed to publish an article every Friday, regardless of vacations, COVID-19, press of work, and health issues. Last week was just too much for me and I had to focus on some other items (don’t worry – all good things, and I remind myself about how fortunate I am to be so busy). But it made me think about why I write for the blog, and answer some common questions I receive from readers about the California Employment Law Report:
1. The Friday’s Five is my own deadline.
I started a blog for a law firm I worked at when I was a young attorney. It must have been around 2005. I remember having to give a presentation to the entire firm explaining what a blog was, how it worked, and answer questions from skeptical partners. To the firm’s credit, they let me as a young associate run with the idea (and to the firm’s credit, they are still running the blog).
When I started my own firm, it was not a question about whether to have a blog – the choice was obvious and I started this blog, the California Employment Law Report. However, as an attorney managing my own firm, the issue then became finding time to publish and holding myself accountable to consistently publish. I had lunch about seven years ago with a colleague of mine, Don Fitzgerald, and he recommended to just set a day to publish each week. This will set an expectation that people will look forward to the article each week. That’s when I decided to publish an article each Friday, and discuss at least five issues.
2. Why on Friday?
A lot of people have asked why I publish articles on Friday. Nearly every marketing “expert” I’ve worked with notes that it is not the best day of the week to publish content in terms of search engine optimization and engagement. That may be true, but Fridays somewhat slow down enough for me to gather my thoughts for an article. It may not be the best time to publish, but it is the time I publish.
3. Great way to stay current with California employment law.
As a reader of the blog, you know that California employment law is a living thing, and you constantly must be monitoring updates, new laws, and changes. Publishing the blog helps me stay attuned to the issues and updates as an employment lawyer. Just like pilots must have at least three takeoffs and three landings within the preceding 90 days in order to carry passengers, writing each week helps me maintain my California employment law currency.
4. Expectations.
As I mentioned above, once you commit to publishing each Friday, people expect that you publish, and this helps motivate me to publish each week. Also, my family knows the expectations, and when I’m working late on a Friday night to publish an article, they understand what I’m up to.
5. Scratches my creative itch.
Writing for the blog is very creative, and it is nice to have an outlet to be able to write about topics I chose to write about once a week. Also, for me, writing is much easier than recording video or audio. All I need is my keyboard, and I don’t have to worry about microphones and lighting.
Don’t worry, I expect to continue to write for the blog for the next ten plus years. I continue to enjoy it, and if people are subscribing and continuing to read my updates, I’ll keep publishing. See you on Friday.