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# Are you useful?
- URL: https://www.cjchilvers.com/blog/are-you-useful/
- Published: 2023-03-15T14:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2023-03-15T14:01:00.000Z
- Author: CJ Chilvers
- Tags: creativity, constraints, publishing, process, blogging, newsletters, podcasting

I preach about the miracle of constraints and their ability to boost creativity in anyone. But I see un-useful constraints being used all the time by creators, so I wanted to make a small list of examples to clarify what a useful constraint looks like.

There’s only two real constraints when publishing anything online:

## What is useful to your audience?

### Useful:

- Getting to the point
- Finding obscure ideas, people, and resources for solving specific challenges
- Finding entertaining ideas, people, and resources
- Providing more value than you ask for in return
- Having a consistent publishing schedule

### Not useful:

- Over-designing to seem professional rather than human
- Over-formatting for topic: Podcasting like you’re on the radio in the 90s (you don’t need segments)
- Over-formatting for style: Emailing or blogging with sections for links versus essays (readers don’t care)

## What is useful for you?

### Useful:

- Time blocking your work
- Having a consistent publishing schedule
- Limiting word counts
- Limiting when or how your work is published
- Using process-based templates and automation
- Being imperfect and humanizing your publishing (versus “personalizing”)
- Ridding yourself of any work unrelated to your objective (like stressing over photos when consistent writing is your goal)

### Not useful:

- Using templates and automation that detract from your publishing voice
- Being overly acceptable to everyone
- Limiting or expanding your publishing based on SEO or trends

As you can see, there’s some overlap in those examples. When you find a constraint that works for you and your audience – like [publishing a one-paragraph newsletter every day](https://fortheinterested.com/subscribe/?ref=cjchilvers.com) or [creating visual essays on the backs of business cards](https://hughcards.net/?ref=cjchilvers.com) – you’ve found a set of successful constraints. Congrats!