How I uploaded weekly videos to YouTube for 3 years
If you know me, you know that I dedicate a lot of my development and growth as a content creator to my consistency and my systems. For good reasons. In this week’s blog post, I’m sharing the full story behind my 3-year streak of weekly YouTube uploads— and why it took me 4 years of trial and error to get there.
I’ll walk you through the ups and downs, from making my first basic tutorials with my laptop and the built-in laptop mic, to creating a system that has helped me upload every single week for over three years. Educating yourself is the practise but taking action is the game.
Let’s dive in!
I have uploaded weekly YouTube videos for over 3 years (and as I'm writing this, the streak is still intact.)
Here’s the breakdown of how I did it ⬇️
3 years of weekly uploads sounds good, but it took me 4 years(!) of inconsistent uploads until I managed to start (and keep) this streak.
In 2017, I started by just uploading some basic tutorials sporadically, when I was still working full-time.
These tutorials were simple 1 min screenrecordings without music.
My voiceover was recorded with the built-in microphone on my laptop.
This got me into the habit of creating and it gave me data for what worked and what didn’t.
(If you pay attention to the start of the video in this post, you can see that some of those early videos have over 50 000 views now. 🤯 A good reminder to just get started and not overthink content.)
During the following 2 years, I did a mix of tutorials, vlogs, and live episodes (while still working full-time).
These formats required different amount of time so I didn’t manage to upload weekly, but every other week or so.
Now I was at least more comfortable with a camera and more used to create content regularly.
Later that year (in 2019), I started freelancing.
That gave me the option to plan my days the way I wanted and put more time into my YouTube channel.
But 6 months into freelancing, I went to Bali for a month and my computer got water damaged pretty early on and I missed 4 straight weeks of uploading. 🥲 (I had the laptop in my backpack and I stood too close to the ocean, getting a wave over me. 🌊)
When I came back to Sweden (beginning of 2020), I decided to commit to a weekly uploading schedule and a specific day for uploads; Sundays.
I kept that commitment for 37 weeks but then missed one week during Christmas.
After trying to beat that streak for 7 months, I decided to move my publishing day from Sunday to Monday the same week (so 6 days earlier).
That gave me a margin of 6 extra days to get my weekly video out (if I didn’t manage to upload it on Monday).
That was what started my streak. 📈
During these years, I slowly transitioned into only doing tutorials, mainly because I knew that it only took me 6h per tutorial and that estimation was very reliable thanks to my very detailed process for it.
The process started as a simple checklist in a Google spreadsheet.
That checklist slowly developed over time, as I added (and adjusted) steps to it.
Whenever I did a mistake, big or small, I asked myself how I could prevent that from happening next time. The answer to that question became an extra step in my checklist.
As I made more mistakes, I collected more and more steps and suddenly, I had a list that, If I truly followed it, guaranteed that I would have my videos done in time.
The key 🔑 to a great checklist/process/system is to create it so that it helps you be as proactive as possible. It's partly about doing things faster but mostly about avoiding distractions, challenges and unexpected situations.
(Worth mentioning is that as a part of my video format, I created lots of templates, presets, icons, illustrations etc that I could reuse. This way, I could improve the videos without making the process to create them longer.)
And to give myself even more margin (and become more productive), I started preparing 4 tutorials at a time, so that I always had videos for the following 4 weeks.
I also divided this work into 2-hour blocks and spread those blocks out over the week. (Partly to force myself to start in time but also to work productively during those blocks.)
It’s been 3 years and 16 weeks of weekly uploads now. I thank my patience, dedication, experimentation, pro-active planning, and systems for that. Everything is possible if you just continue to tweak your methods and systems until it works.
It's mainly about learning to notice challenges within your schedule and content process early on, and be proactive to avoid (or handle) them.
...And the success from the first couple of videos shows that it’s better to just get the ball rolling and focus on improving regularly rather than focusing on trying to make the first video great.
The only thing I focused on in the beginning was to solve a problem in an effective way. Not to do fancy productions. Then I just developed from there, step by step.
So, what's Your excuse not to start?
-----
ONLINE PROGRAM FOR CREATORS:
Systemize, Optimize, & Monetize
your content creation process
What is Streamlined Creator?
If you want to set the foundation for your channel, get systems in place, and grow faster, "Streamlined Creator" is for you!
Book a free 30-min Discovery Call and I'll share exactly how this program can take you closer to the life you love, where you can spend less time in a cubicle and more time creating YouTube content.
You will get insights, resources, custom support, and experience from my 7 years on YouTube and we will go into detail on the systems I’ve used to generate over 5 million views.
Depending on when you read this, enrollment might be open or closed. If it is closed, I will put you on the waitlist for the next launch and let you know once I open the doors for the next cohort.
Let me help you Systemize, Optimize, and Monetize your creative skills!
