Why I Blog Every Day (And Why That’s About to Change)
It started with a dare.
Back in 2017, my friend and fellow Microsoft MVP Tracy van der Schyff (@tracyvds) completed a self-imposed challenge of writing 365 blog posts in 365 days. She apparently went into blogging withdrawals afterward and started over. When she launched a new series around Microsoft 365, I got pulled into conversation about it, decided I couldn’t let her have all the fun, and accepted the challenge myself.
That was my first mistake. Or my best decision, depending on how you look at it.
Anyone who knows me understands that I do not back down from a challenge. It’s not a character strength so much as a personality quirk. I’m competitive, I’m stubborn, and once I commit to something publicly, I’ll run myself into the ground before I’ll admit defeat. So as one year had turned into two, and two into three, the goalpost shifted. Why stop at one year? Why not five? You know…to leave behind an unsurpassable legacy.
The honest answer involves a neurodivergent brain and a full inbox.
As I’ve written about, I have OCD (high-functioning) as well as ADHD. I say this not for sympathy, but because it actually explains a lot about why this daily writing habit has worked as well as it has. My brain needs tasks. It needs structure. It needs a queue of things to accomplish or it starts to slide sideways. The daily blog post became my anchor. If I can write something every day, everything else stays in motion. Stop writing, and the whole system wobbles.
The key was building templates. Standalone opinion pieces are fine, but they require more energy and creative lift. Series posts are easier to maintain because the format does half the work. That’s why I leaned so heavily into recurring content: the CollabTalk Podcast recaps, the MVPbuzzChat interview series, the Content Strategy series, Blue Plate Special posts, productivity tips, and everything in between. The templates gave me a runway. The dare kept me running.
I hit the four-year mark in August 2025. I will cross five years at the end of August 2026.
And then I’m changing course.
Not stopping. I want to be clear about that. Writing every day is now just how I operate. But this blog has always been an odd container for everything I care about: Microsoft Copilot, AI strategy, SharePoint governance, content marketing, productivity, podcasting, music, whatever crossed my desk on a given morning. That breadth has been intentional, but it has also created a real algorithmic problem. The platforms that distribute content don’t know what to make of a site that writes about sensitivity labels on Monday, leadership gaps on Thursday, and favorite bands and albums every Saturday. The audience is confused. The algorithms are confused. And I cannot be surprised that growth has been harder to drive as a result.
So the plan going forward is to be more intentional about where specific content lives. The podcast content, the content strategy series, and some of the AI work will migrate to dedicated channels where I can build focused, monetized audiences without the noise. This site will still be here as it has since February 2004. I will still write here. But buckleyplanet.com is going to become less of a kitchen-sink and more of a home base, with links to the other properties.
Five years of daily posts. More than 1,800 articles. Not bad for a dare.
Tracy, I hope you’re proud.
