Daily Stoic

The Daily Stoic email works as a daily practice engine for its writer. Ryan Holiday has written the Daily Stoic email every day for eight years for an audience of about a million people, and counts that as practice worth at least eight books.

He argues books are slow and expensive reps, while a short, tight format with a real audience lets you get far more. His career began the same way, with 44 blog posts in 2007 and 2008. "You got to find ways to get reps."

How I Write▶ 1:14:14

Starting the next project right away shields you from launch results. When Courage Is Calling hit number three on the New York Times list, Holiday was already drafting Discipline Is Destiny and told his editor, "I'll get back to work." He schedules deep work for the Tuesday or Wednesday after a launch, when sales numbers usually arrive.

The Obstacle Is the Way did only okay at first, missing the list through a categorization error, and later sold out on Amazon. He says he did not care either way because he was busy writing Ego Is the Enemy. He holds that good news costs a day just as bad news does, and measures success by whether the book was his best work.

How I Write