You Know What Else I Hate? Numbered Blog Posts
“12 Ways to Enhance your Productivity”
“15 Reasons to Stop Working So Hard”
“8 Simple Ways to Boost Your Attention Span”
I made those up, but that doesn’t prevent me from firmly believing they exist somewhere. It’s gotten to the point where posts featuring numbered lists are more common than posts without. One of my favorite blogs is the venerable Zen Habits, but even that has begun to irritate me with its formulaic posts.
Stop making everything a numbered lists. If it’s the only way you can write, fine, but just take the numbers out after.
Here’s a recent post from the aforementioned blog:
20 Money Hacks: Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Finances
[snip]
1. Use cash. Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real, and there’s an added advantage of knowing when you’re out of cash, instead of spending more than you [can afford].
2. Small weekly savings transfers. I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it’s a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.
3. Stay home. Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to the mall, stop at the gas station for snacks. It’s hard to avoid spending when you’re on the road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It’s also a great way to bond with your family.
4. Don’t get catalogs. Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don’t need. Instead, stop the catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in the first place, and you’ll spend less.
5. Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it’s added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.
Let’s rewrite that in the way a normal person, for whom “blog” still sounds like a mysterious sex act, might:
Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Finances
[snip]
Use cash.
Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real, and there’s an added advantage of knowing when you’re out of cash, instead of spending more than you [can afford].
Small weekly savings transfers.
I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it’s a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.
Stay home.
Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to the mall, stop at the gas station for snacks. It’s hard to avoid spending when you’re on the road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It’s also a great way to bond with your family.
Don’t get catalogs.
Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don’t need. Instead, stop the catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in the first place, and you’ll spend less.
Keep a 30-day list.
If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it’s added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.
Is there any substantive difference between these two? Of course not, that’s the point. Maybe you’ll even improve your prose, writing in complete thoughts (not you Leo, you are a fine writer. Sorry for making you my scapegoat) and elaborating on them once you realize how sparse the content looks.
Fuel another post