In the mail π§
The story π: Letβs talk Twitter strategy.
Small ideasπ‘: Part-time creator ideas to ponder.
Web highlights π: Cool things this week.
Tiny thought π: On success.
Read time: 2 minutes
THE STORY:
The Dead Simple 30-Minute Writing System Helps Me Publish Crazy Amounts ofΒ Content
It took me 2.5 years to master this

If you pay attention to the news, youβll have seen non-stop Twitter chat this week. Itβs made me rethink my Twitter growth strategy and I wanted to tell you about it. Get your thoughts.
The system is this:
Choose top performing articleΒ
Distill and refine into succinct tweetΒ
Review all tweets for the week (on Saturday)
Choose top performing tweet and iterate to improve
Recently I wrote this post that hit my number 1 spot overnight.Β I bundled that article into a tweet (and sometimes I do it the other way around tweet β article). That tweet is here:
This does one of two things:
It gives me complete clarity of the ideas Iβm trying to convey.
Writing it out a second time gives me a renewed sense of focus (making it easier to improve).Β
Then onto the fun bit. The reviewing of my tweets from the week. Here we have 5 tweets that score over and above anything else, you can see them featured below.Β
The aim is to look for themes. To try and understand what the top 5 tweets have in common and what I can take forward into next week.
Here are my observations:
Pictures workβββ4/5 featured a photo in the main tweet, all photos were of my own work, not someone elseβs, this is an important distinction.Β
Threads are hard workβββit takes clicking off the main feed and giving A LOT of attention, thatβs high-friction. More effort = less likely.Β
Show your workβββI suspect because a lot of the content on Twitter is talking about stuff that people havenβt actually done, it resonates when people know that βyouβ are the person actually achieving these things.Β
Bragging never worksββββI know itβs not muchβ tells my readers Iβm not shouting from the rooftops blowing my own trumpet, Iβm just showing my work.
Emojis seem to workβββ3/5 posts have emojis.Β
Less is moreβββThe top 3 Tweets had less than 17 words.
But understanding is just a step in many steps. The worst thing you can do is go to all that effort and then not learn from it. If I now simply, noticed all that, and then went back to posting the complete opposite.Β
The point is to iterate. Which means improvement. Hereβs how Iβll do that.
My iteration
My next 5 tweets will be featuring all of those things mentioned above. I now have a framework (or a system) to write tweets from, itβs this:
Add emojis
Less than 17 words
Add a pictureβββof my own work
Be humble and educate, donβt brag
Talk about βhow Iβ not βhow someone elseβ
Focus on singular tweets, or if writing a thread, the opener should be brief
Hereβs some new content Iβm considering putting out. Letβs see how it meets my new criteria.Β
Emoji (1 per post) β
16 words (under the 17) β
Picture (yes) my own content β
βHow Iβ not βhow someone elseβ β
Non-bragging / annoying content β
Iβll let you know how it goes.
An update from this morning: itβs in the top 8 tweets of the week already.
SMALL IDEAS:
Playing forever - what actions would you take if you knew you were playing forever? How would you show up if this was your lifeβs work?
Systematization of frustrations - take all the things that frustrate you in a day, write them down and then build a system around them.
Play for quality - when you look at most content on the internet, you can spot the gaps. Find those gaps and capitalize on them.
Across the web
Adam Kayβs new book Undoctored is a must-read (this is not sponsored itβs just incredible).
Watch Kevin Rose tell MFM podcast about his investment in Twitter (and his lol moment with Gary V), what he thinks of Mark Zuckerberg and how he made $100M/year on his watch blog.
Tiny thought
Success isnβt remarkable. When you think about the people that win, when you put it together, itβs not surprising that theyβve won. Itβs not like youβre scratching your head thinking how on Earth did they get there. Most of the time it smacks you in the face with its simplicity. Most successful people have won because theyβve been playing forever, they provide x10 the value that anyone else does or their product is just way better. Simple. But hard.
I am so glad I discovered you recently on Medium! Your content is amazing and I am learning so much from you! Cheers!
Very insightful article because it helps me to see where I am going wrong when using Twitter to get my Medium/Substack posts out there.