In September 2024, I finally took the leap and launched my art newsletter, something I was dreaming about for months beforehand.
Flash-forward to 2025, and I still kept the habit of publishing one new issue every single week, first on Sunday evening and then on Tuesday evening. With just a few breaks, it's more than 60 newsletter issues that I've written, all between 800 and 2,000 words long. And every time, with new art to show or a topic that deeply interests me.
But how did I get there?
You see, in the past I really didn't see myself as being very consistent.
I attempted many times to build a weekly or daily habit, but it all fell flat after some time — if I started at all.
But here it just simply worked. I was talking to a friend about it, and realized that I haven't really thought about what went right this time.
As the year is coming to a close, I decided to reflect and give you some of my thoughts on how to stay consistent when publishing online.
If, like me, you've struggled with sticking to your goals and habits, I hope this will be valuable for you :)
1) I have a template
If you're going to do something every day or every week, you might as well make it very easy on you. For this, before I even started publishing my first newsletter, I started imagining how a typical one would look. It went something like this:
- Intro, greeting to the reader and summary of what's to come
- Reminder about the monthly print giveaway (I give one to a random subscriber every month)
- Subject one: Talking about progress on a new illustration
- Subject two: Talking about other art I did this week, experiments, or recent experience like traveling somewhere
- Subject three: Sharing an artist I really like
- Conclusion, "until next week, take care!"
I very rarely stick to this exact formula, and this is not the point. The point of having this template is to allow me not to start from scratch every time, and to have some ready-made ideas of cool things I can share.
But most often, I just erase it and write what I want to say :)
2) The habit fits right into my schedule
The other important factor that allows me to be consistent is the way it synchronizes with my weekly rhythm:
I work at my day job during the week, so I generally have little time to draw a lot, let alone write my newsletter. But whenever something crosses my mind I quickly write it down in a document that I can refer back to later on.
When Friday evening finally comes, I can plan what interesting things I want to do, often working on a creative project like an illustration, or just some sketches if I won't have the time. I then have the whole weekend to do cool things before starting to write either on Sunday or Monday evening.
After the text has been written, it's only a matter of correcting and adding the images in my newsletter software, scheduling it, and the cycle continues. If I'm focused, the writing part itself only takes around 2 hours, including the formatting and images.
By always having it in mind as the week progresses, I can plan and visualize what I want to tell and show during the week, and it's only a matter of expressing it in the end.
I think I would have more trouble sticking to that rhythm if the rest of my week wasn't so regulated; if I was working for myself, for example, I would need to enforce this type of schedule that allows me time to wonder, create, write, and then rest as the cycle restarts.
When I was working on my Inktober project, where I drew a new location of my fictional city every day, I would do it right after work at the same hour, and do batches of sketches during the weekend. It was very hard to maintain, but I managed to use the rhythm of my day job as a strength to keep creating consistently.
3) I'm not doing it only for myself
In recent years, the biggest shift that happened in my art was when I stopped creating for myself and instead put the viewer above all else.
For example, I draw extremely detailed illustrations not only because I enjoy it, but because I want the viewer to pause and dive into the image for a long time, like an invitation to appreciate the moment.
This is not selling out, of course; I just take a lot of pride in making people happy with my art!
But this also helps me consistently write my newsletter. Each week, I know that people have the habit of opening my email every Tuesday at the same hour — this not only pushes me to write the best content I can, but also reminds me that this is not about myself. I have a job to do.
These are my thoughts!
Beforehand, my goals were mostly self-centered, my schedule was way harder to predict, and I didn't have tools like templates to help me create consistently.
I hope this will be useful for some of you, whatever you want to create!