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Why you should blog #1: It makes you smarter

It is time to continue the series on blogging that was started with “Why don’t you bin that corporate blog?”, continued with “7 reasons I recommend my clients to blog” and with the last installment “Where are you official and where are you private?”

As I am putting on more social media training activities the opportunity has now turned to blogging. With my first workshop planned for May 5th in Bellevue, WA, I thought this would be a good place to collect material.

First out is the statement that blogging makes you smarter! What baloney is that?

Well, if you remember point 3 in the “7 reasons…” post, you will know that I already made this claim. So let me share my experience.

Articulating my thoughts

Have you ever experienced a situation where you try to share an insight, opinion or other piece of information you feel passionate about, and suddenly you just cannot make your story simple enough, with the result you end up with some glazed over eyes in your audience?

It is really frustrating to try to explain something that is clear as sunshine in the mind, but becomes really muddled when it comes out the mouth.

Solution? Articulate the thoughts by writing them down, and work on distilling the core message to as few words as possible.

Structuring my thoughts

After articulating my thoughts I already know I have taken a big leap forward, and now it is easier to take a second look at the thought process and find even simpler ways of expressing them. Sometimes I may apply a framework, or even invent a framework, to create some structure and make it easier to express the points.

Telling a story is always a good way of nurturing the main points, making the story easy to understand and remember, in order to tell it convincingly.

Testing my thoughts

With a thought written down, it is easy to share. If I am early in the thought process I may use this to solicit feedback. If I am late in the thought process and have a lot of conviction, I may use the written words to create discussion and debate.

Evolving my thoughts

I have found that if I have some new ideas, I find it hard to evolve them until they have been moved from my head to a piece of (virtual) paper. With the idea out of my head it is much easier to look at the next level of complexity to address.

It is as if I by writing down the central idea, I make it possible to continue by dividing and conquering. Compare it to progressive elaboration in the project management world.

Getting feedback on my thoughts

Last but not least, it is a lot easier to get feedback on ideas that can be shared. Not having had the opportunity to be interviewed by David Letterman or David Frost, I have found that a blog is an excellent place for receiving feedback.

So there you have 5 reasons why blogging makes you smarter? What more reasons do you have?

If you are interested in attending the blogging workshop on May 5th, you can [register here]!