Quantity vs. Quality — Content Creation
Recently, I reached my 200th upload on YouTube and will approach the 225th mark with four more uploads to go. With this amount of content that I’ve published, not counting other social media platforms like Medium;
What did I earn?
How far did my reach and engagement go?
What did I learn from it?
Currently, I’m reading the book of James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break bad Ones, and passed this insight about being 1% better every day.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. — James Clear
In Part 11 of the book, James told the story of a professor at the University of Florida, Jerry Uelsmann, who demonstrated the difference of the end result from a group whose focus is quantity vs. who focuses on quality.
I was fascinated by how things worked out in Jerry’s experiment. The group that focuses on quantity produces more great results than those who meticulously work things out to produce the highest possible quality that they can think of.
The best is the enemy of the good — Philosopher Voltaire
James explained that we are too focused on looking for the best over the things we want to do or get — the best way to create content, the best camera to produce video on YouTube, fast way to reach 1,000 subscribers. We’re too absorbed in the idea of having the best process or workflow that we never reached the part where we need to take action.
The same goes for content creation. One of the reasons why you’re still stuck in your first upload is that you’re still in the process of looking for the best way to execute your content, the best equipment to shoot the video, the best place to be your backdrop, the best way to execute video without showing my face, and many more.
Excuses will never end and you’ll never move forward if you’ll focus on producing the best quality content on your first upload. Don’t get me wrong, quality matters but if it becomes one of your hindrances in creating or publishing that content you have in mind, then you need to let it go and start typing, hit that shutter button, hit that record button, hit that post button.
Remember, we grow 1% better every day. Same with content creation, we grow 1% better with every content that we upload. It’s okay to make those mistakes on your first try. At least you know what to improve and you know what you did best.
This is what I learned from my 200th upload. I don’t mind if I shoot without my lights, without my favorite gear. Recently, I uploaded a content shot on a mobile phone even I prefer the quality of my camera. As long as the purpose of my content was achieved. As long as it’s readable, audible, and watchable without you leaving the content then I’m good. The content will be published and you’ll be able to watch it.
Consistency is good but if you’ll add frequency to it then it’s much better.