Alright, so today I wanted to talk a bit about my little adventure with Jon Herron’s ideas. Not the man himself, never met him, but his whole philosophy that was buzzing around a while back. I figured, why not give it a shot? See what all the fuss was about.
Getting Started with the Herron Way
So, I first stumbled upon Jon Herron’s stuff on some forum, I think. He had this whole thing about, let’s call it ‘intentional impact’ or something like that. The core idea, as I got it, was to strip everything back to basics. Really focus. Sounded good, right? I was tired of juggling a million things with my little online project, getting nowhere fast.
My first step was taking a hard look at what I was doing. Herron’s teachings, or what I interpreted as his teachings, pushed for cutting out all the noise. So, I actually started listing out all my activities. My too-many social media accounts, the newsletter I barely updated, even some old side projects I was clinging onto. The idea was to free up energy for what truly mattered. That part, I gotta admit, felt kind of cleansing, like a digital declutter.
The Deep Dive – Trying to Apply the Core Principles
Then came the tricky bit. Herron, or the legend of Herron, seemed to advocate for this super intense, focused creation process. Instead of spreading myself thin, I was to pick one thing and pour all my effort into it. For me, this meant my blog. He apparently said something like, “One piece of deeply valuable content is better than a hundred shallow ones.” Noble, I thought.
So, I tried it. I decided for one month, I’d only work on a single, massive blog post. I mean, massive. I did research like I was writing a thesis. I drafted, redrafted, polished it until my eyes burned. It was exhausting. I remember thinking, “This better be the best darn post anyone has ever seen.”
During this time, I pretty much went silent everywhere else. No quick updates, no casual chats online. Just head down, working on this one masterpiece. It was a real shift from my usual scattergun approach.
What Actually Happened – The Reality Check
So, the end of the month came. I published this epic post. And… well, it wasn’t exactly an overnight sensation. It got a little bit of attention, sure, more than my usual short ones, but it wasn’t the earth-shattering impact I’d secretly hoped for, especially considering the Herculean effort.
The next month, I tried it again. Another huge effort. Same kind of result. Slightly better, maybe, but the return on investment, time-wise, was brutal. I was spending all my time creating and had no time left to actually, you know, connect with people or promote anything. It felt like I was building these intricate sandcastles and then just hoping the tide would appreciate them before washing them away.
And here’s the kicker: my overall output dropped like a stone. My audience, the small one I had, started to wonder where I’d gone. Engagement dipped because I just wasn’t ‘around’ anymore. I was too busy being a Herron-inspired hermit craftsman.
This whole experiment went on for about three or four months. I was getting so stressed about making each piece ‘perfect’ that the joy started to drain out of it. It felt more like a high-pressure exam than creative work. I realized that maybe this extreme focus, while good in theory, wasn’t fitting my situation, or maybe I just wasn’t Jon Herron.
Lessons Learned and Moving Forward
Look, I’m not saying Herron’s ideas are bad. Not at all. In fact, that period taught me a lot about discipline and the value of deeper work. I definitely think more about quality over quantity now than I ever did before. That’s a big takeaway for me.
But I also learned that balance is key. For me, anyway. I couldn’t sustain that level of intense, singular focus without other parts of my work suffering. It was like trying to run a marathon at a sprint pace. You burn out.
So, what I do now is a bit of a hybrid. I try to dedicate good, solid chunks of time to more substantial projects, inspired by that Herron focus. But I also allow myself to create smaller, more regular pieces, to stay engaged, to experiment. I’m not so scared of putting something out there that isn’t a 10,000-word magnum opus.
It was an interesting practical journey, that’s for sure. Made me really think about my process. Sometimes you gotta try these things, walk the path yourself, to see what sticks and what doesn’t. And for me, the full-blown “Jon Herron way” wasn’t the magic bullet, but parts of it definitely helped me refine my own approach. You just gotta take what works for you and leave the rest, I guess.