“Share something small every day.”

Why it was said

One of the ten ways to share your work that Austin Kleon sets out in Show Your Work!, and the book's most concrete habit. Kleon suggests a daily rhythm: once the day's work is done, go back over it and pick one small piece worth showing, whether a sketch, a paragraph, a work-in-progress photo or something learned.

What it actually means

The habit is deliberately small, because the usual alternative is nothing. People who wait for something big enough to share tend to share rarely, and then into silence. A small daily piece keeps the bar low enough to clear on an ordinary day, and over months the pieces add up to a visible body of work that others can follow. Kleon adds a filter: share what would be useful, interesting or revealing to someone else, and do not let sharing take the place of the work. The daily post is a by-product of working, not a performance staged instead of it. Done that way, the habit also improves the work, because choosing what to show forces a short daily review of what was actually done.

How to use it

1. 1At the end of today's work, pick one small thing you made or learned and share it in two or three sentences.
2. 2Before posting, ask whether it would be useful or interesting to someone else; if not, keep it in your notes.