10 Weeks of Showing Up: Here’s the System Behind It

Ten weeks ago, I committed to posting every Saturday.

I have tried this before but never been able to get past the 5 week mark. I always started strong, faded by Week 4, gave up by Week 5.

This time I am in Week 10. Still going. And on multiple channels.

The difference is not willpower. It is not discipline. It is not motivation.

I built a system instead of relying on commitment.

But it was not some grand plan I mapped out on Day 1.

It emerged quietly. Somewhere between Week 2 and Week 3, when I was scrambling to fit everything into nap times, I stopped asking “how do I stay motivated?” and started asking “when can I actually do this?”

Monday testing made sense because my brain was fresh. Wednesday writing worked because I had something to document. Thursday drawing fit because it was the only time I was not overthinking (lies, of course I was!).

The rhythm found me as much as I found it. I was just trying to fulfil my 12-week commitment without losing my mind.

And somehow, in those little pockets of time, a system took shape.

The Problem With “Just Post Every Week”

“Post every week” sounds simple. It is not.

Because “post every week” does not tell you:

• When to write

• What to write about

• How to make it look decent

• Where your ideas come from

• How to distribute it without social media becoming your full time job.

It is a goal without a process. And goals without process fail when life gets messy.

Which it always does when you are wearing multiple hats in your business and in my case have a one-year-old at home full-time.

The System That Actually Works

I did not set a goal to “be consistent.” I committed to posting every week for 12 weeks. And although at first I was scrambling a little, by week 3 I started following a rhythm that fits my actual constraints.

Here is what it looks like:

Monday/Tuesday: Test

Test something I actually need to figure out. Not hypothetical. Not for content. For me.

This week: Revenue validation calculator. Does my £5k goal make sense given my audience size?

Last week: Goal-setting reality check. What needs to be true for my March launch to work?

The week before: Year-in-review analysis. What actually caused my 2023 product business to flop?

I test things I genuinely need to figure out. The content is a byproduct of solving real problems.

Time: 2-4 hours during nap time. If my son sleeps 90 minutes, I have 90 minutes. If he is awake, I stop.

Wednesday: Write

Draft the post in one sitting. 2-3 hours if I am lucky. Sometimes split across two nap times.

I write what happened. What I tested. What tools I used. What I learned. What surprised me.

Then I run it through Claude to tighten the language, catch the rambling, make sure I am not going on for 18 pages (front and back!). I created a voice and tone guide so Claude knows how to finesse the copy without rewriting me into someone else. But I still have to review every line. Sometimes AI uses a word I would never use, or gets a detail wrong. Claude tightens, but I check. My voice, my responsibility.

Time: 3-4 hours. One sitting if possible. Two naps if necessary.

Thursday: Draw

Hand-drawn spot illustration in Procreate. 1-2h if i don’t overthink it. Straight to digital.

AI could generate hero images for me. Midjourney or Gemini could make something polished in 3 minutes.

But I draw by hand because it keeps me creative without the pressure of “making art.” These illustrations are not portfolio work. They are quick, functional, mine.

And honestly? Drawing on Thursday is the part I look forward to most. It is the only time all week I am not thinking strategically or testing workflows or writing about systems.

I just draw. Listening to music…often singing out loud.

The deadline forces me to ship one version, not iterate through five. I have one nap time. One illustration. Done.

Friday: Generate Everything Else

This is where AI does the actual heavy lifting.

I have a prompt I run through Claude every Friday: “Turn this long-form post into content for all my channels.”

One prompt. Five minutes. I get:

• LinkedIn post (5-7 paragraphs, AI tool in first sentence, 5 hashtags)

• Instagram caption (3-4 paragraphs, CTA, hashtags)

• Pinterest pin descriptions (2 versions with different hooks)

• Substack Note (2-3 sentence hook)

• Blog SEO (title, meta description, excerpt)

AI is not writing my long-form content. It is not replacing my thinking. It is handling the distribution the copying, the pasting, and the reformatting, so I do not spend 3 hours editing the same ideas for six different platforms.

Time: 5 minutes to run the prompt. 30 minutes to review and adjust and 15 minutes to schedule everything. Done.

Saturday: Publish

Everything is scheduled Friday evening. Substack, blog, Pinterest, LinkedIn—all set to auto-publish.

Saturday morning, I manually update the link on my Instagram profile and share the Substack Note. Maybe 20 minutes total.

Then I am done. Repeat next week.

The weekly rhythm that made consistency possible. (Yes, I still check off each step—the satisfaction never gets old.)

Why This System Works When Nothing Else Has

1. It Fits My Actual Constraints

I have 10-15 hours per week total work capacity. Maybe.

My son naps 1-2 hours most days. Some days he does not nap at all. Some days I am too tired to work when he finally sleeps.

The system assumes chaos. It works in 1-2 hour blocks. If I lose a day, I have to catch up in the evening. If I lose two days, I can still ship by Friday.

Previous attempts assumed I had uninterrupted focus time. I do not. This system accounts for that.

2. It Has a Rhythm, Not Just a Goal

“Post every week” is vague. It leaves too many decisions for a tired brain to make on the fly.

“Test Monday, write Wednesday, draw Thursday, generate Friday, publish Saturday” is concrete.

I do not wake up Monday wondering “what should I work on today?” I know. Test a workflow.

I do not stare at a blank page Wednesday thinking “what should I write about?” I know. Document what I tested Monday.

The rhythm removes decision fatigue. I just follow the process.

3. It Uses AI Where It Actually Helps

AI is not writing my posts. It is not generating my illustrations. It is not doing my strategic thinking.

AI is handling the tedious parts:

• Reformatting one post into six platform versions

• Tightening my rambling first drafts

• Generating social copy I would otherwise procrastinate and overthink on for 3 hours

I use AI for leverage, not replacement.

My thinking stays mine. My drawing stays mine. My voice stays mine.

But the distribution work? That is automated.

4. Deadlines Force Shipping, Not Perfection

Saturday is non-negotiable. If I do not publish Saturday, I break the streak.

So Thursday, I do not have time to sketch five illustration concepts and pick the best one. I have 1-2 hours tops. One rough sketch, one final version. It ships.

Friday, I do not have time to agonise over whether the LinkedIn post is perfectly worded. I run the prompt. I review it once. I schedule it. Done.

The deadline removes the option to overthink. Good enough published beats perfect in drafts.

5. I Am Testing Things I Actually Need

I am not manufacturing content for content’s sake.

Week 6: Analysed my 2023 business failure because I needed to understand what went wrong before I repeated it. This was a big week for me.

Week 7: Built a goal-setting framework because I kept setting unrealistic timelines.

Week 8: Applied that framework to my 2026 goals because I needed to know if my March launch was feasible.

Week 9: Validated my revenue goal because I needed to know if £5k was realistic or fantasy.

The work feeds the content. The content documents the work.

I am solving real business problems publicly. That is why I still have things to write about at Week 10.

What 10 Weeks of This Actually Looks Like

The Numbers

• 10 posts published (longest streak ever—previous best was 5 weeks)

• 8 Substack subscribers (started with 5, growing slowly but consistently and I am grateful to anyone who takes their time to read what I write)

• 63-75% open rates (industry average is 20-25%)

• 689 LinkedIn followers (gained 18 in 10 weeks)

• Still enjoying it (vs. dreading it by Week 4 in previous attempts)

What Is Working

The rhythm is sustainable. I am still here at Week 10. That proves something.

Hand drawings keeps me creative without pressure. Thursday drawing time, I get to chill, listen to music and draw. Sometimes is my favourite part of the week. Other times I dread it, particularly if I feel uninspired and tired.

Testing workflows gives me endless content and I actually love it. As long as I am building a business, I have problems to solve. As long as I have problems to solve, I have things to write about.

AI handles distribution so I do not have to. Five-minute prompt on Friday saves me 3 hours of reformatting drudgery.

What Is Hard

Some weeks I do not know what to test next. Like next week when I need to batch two posts in advance.

Temptation to overthink the post instead of just documenting. I catch myself trying to “teach” instead of “show the work.” The teaching posts always feel forced.

Wondering if people are bored of workflow content. Am I just documenting the same thing ten different ways? Or is each one genuinely different?

Fighting the urge to make everything perfect before publishing. Thursday illustration could always be better. Friday social copy could always be a little more finessed. But Saturday’s deadline forces me to ship anyway.

The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Into 2026

It is not about motivation. It is about systems.

I did not stay consistent because I was more disciplined this time. I am not. I still procrastinate. I still second-guess. I still have weeks where I do not feel like working.

I stayed consistent because I built a process that fits:

• My actual available time (nap time blocks, not 8-hour work days)

• My actual capacity (10-15 hours/week, not 40)

• My actual strengths (strategic thinking, process documentation, hand drawing)

• My actual needs (testing things for my own business, not creating content for content’s sake)

The system makes showing up easy. When showing up is easy, consistency happens.

Previous attempts failed because I was trying to force myself into a rhythm that did not fit my life or took so much time it felt like a full time job.

Work 8am-5pm? I have a one-year-old. Batch content once a month? I do not have 6 uninterrupted hours. Use templates for speed? I would rather draw. Post whenever inspiration strikes? Inspiration does not pay the mortgage.

This time, I built the system around the constraints instead of pretending the constraints did not exist.

And it worked.

Two More Weeks (And One Big Test)

This system got me to Week 10. Now it faces its biggest test yet.

I am leaving for the holidays in 6 days. Which means Weeks 11 and 12 need to be tested, written, illustrated, and scheduled by next Friday.

Can the system handle batching two weeks in advance? Can I?

If this works, it proves the system is not just consistent—it is flexible. It can adapt when life demands it.

Two more weeks to finish the 12-week experiment. Let us see if the rhythm holds when I am not here to manage it.