One year. One video every week. Here are the 6 biggest lessons I learned about YouTube, editing, and finding your creative voice.

About a year ago, I made a decision. No matter what happens, I will upload at least one video to my YouTube channel every week.

That means coming up with an idea, writing the script, shooting, editing, and publishing every single week.

There were two reasons behind this:

  1. I wanted to grow my YouTube channel by being consistent.
  2. I wanted to improve my editing and overall content quality.

The channel has grown a little. I’ve reached 3,000 subscribers, and the visual as well as audio quality of my videos has improved quite a lot.

But along with that, I’ve also learned some other important lessons, some the easy way, and some the hard way.

1. Ideas Are Harder Than Editing

When I started this one-video-per-week challenge, I thought the editing phase would be the most difficult part. But I was wrong.

Coming up with a new idea every week is the most difficult and challenging part.

Editing is a skill. With enough practice, you get better at it, so good that after a while, you don’t even have to put much thought into it. But coming up with a new idea for a video every week, that’s where your brain has to work.

Saturday is usually my brainstorming day when I look for ideas for my videos. What I do is, I think of two video ideas at once. Then, on Monday, I write the first script. On Tuesday, I make the thumbnail during the day and film the video at night. On Wednesday and Thursday, I edit, and on Friday, I publish it. Then on Saturday, I again come up with two new ideas.

This way, I don’t have to start from scratch every time after publishing a video. 

But sometimes, it also happens that I just can’t come up with good ideas. Well, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel.

What I mean is, I take my old ideas, the ones I’ve already made videos on, and create a new video by updating them with new information and knowledge.

Trust me when I say this, your audience won’t mind at all. In fact, they’ll appreciate the updated version.

2. Good Enough > Perfect

When I took on this challenge, I had a habit called perfectionism. I would get so deep into editing and waste so much time focusing on things that probably no one would ever notice.

The more time I spent obsessing over micro-details, the longer it took to finish videos. And the longer it took, the more I missed my schedule. And the more I missed my schedule, the less consistent my channel became.

Also see: 6 Simple Ways To Stay Consistent With Content Creation

When I looked at my YouTube analytics, I realized that viewers don’t skip a video because they noticed an editing mistake. They skip because the hook wasn’t strong enough, or the information or knowledge I was sharing wasn’t unique.

So I made a new rule for myself: make the video “good enough” and move on.

I only focus on two things: Does the edit look clean, and does the message I want to deliver come across clearly? If the answer to both is YES, I export the video, publish it, and start working on the next one.

When I stopped aiming for perfect and started aiming for “good enough,” my videos got better over time,  because I was making more of them. I was practicing more. I was learning more with each upload.

Perfect slows you down, good enough keeps you moving forward. And in a challenge like this, forward is the only direction that matters.

3. Quality Improves Naturally

When I started this challenge, I wasn’t thinking about how much I would improve. My main focus was simply to get the video done, upload it, and repeat the process the next week.

Then, about six months later, I had this random idea to go back and watch one of my early videos, and honestly, it felt so awkward. My face had no expression, my voice had no emotion, and the audio quality wasn’t great.

I wondered how I even uploaded that video in the first place.

But then I had a realization. The fact that I was cringing was a good sign. It meant my skills had grown so much in just a few months that my old work no longer met my current standards.

And the best part is, I didn’t consciously sit down every week thinking, “I need to get better.” I wasn’t watching tutorials every night.

I was just doing the work, over and over. And that repetition naturally made me better.

It’s like playing the guitar. In the beginning, you have to focus on finger placement, but the more you practice, the more your muscle memory and ear for music improve without you even realizing it.

Editing works the same way. The more you edit, the more your sense of pacing, color, audio balance, and storytelling improves. You start making better choices.

4. You’ll Burn Out If You Don’t Have Fun

By the time I hit month seven of this challenge, I’ll be honest, editing videos started to feel a bit boring.

It became more of a task, something I had to get done no matter what. That’s when I realized that if I didn’t add some fun to my editing process, I would burn out completely.

So, I started experimenting.

Sometimes, I would try a completely new editing style. Other times, I would give myself mini challenges, like editing an entire video in just one day.

I even tried switching things up by editing in DaVinci Resolve instead of Premiere Pro. And I also started rewarding myself. For example, if I managed to edit a video in a single day, I would eat my favorite pizza.

These small changes and tempting rewards kept things fresh. They reminded me that editing is not just about hitting deadlines, it’s also about creating something you enjoy making.

When you’re having fun while editing, it shows in the final video. Viewers can feel that energy. And when they feel it, they stick around longer and engage more, which is one of the most important factors for growing on YouTube.

5. Not Every Video Will Be Your Best

When you put a lot of effort into a video, it’s natural to expect it to go viral, but that’s not always how it works.

Sometimes, you don’t invest as much time or effort into a video, yet it suddenly blows up and becomes the most-watched upload on your channel.

This shows us one thing: you can never predict your audience’s reaction.

I used to judge my videos before even uploading them, deciding in my head which ones would perform well and which ones would not. But most of the time, my predictions were wrong.

From this, I learned that the point of uploading every week is not to make each video “the best one ever.” It’s to keep showing up, keep creating, and keep learning.

Some weeks, you will make something you’re incredibly proud of. Other weeks, you will make something that just gets the job done. And that’s okay.

Over time, it’s the body of work that matters. Months from now, when someone discovers your channel, chances are they won’t just watch one video; they’ll watch several.

So the more consistent you are, the more value you’ll offer. 

6. Your Voice As A Creator Becomes Clearer

One very unexpected thing that happened from making a new video every week was that my voice as a creator started to take shape.

In the beginning, I didn’t have a clear voice. In every video, I tried different styles. Sometimes, I even copied other creators.

It was like I was still searching for my style.

But here’s the thing: by editing so often, you start to notice what feels natural to you. You figure out what kind of pacing you enjoy, what style of humor fits your personality, and what storytelling structure makes your videos flow better.

It’s like any other form of art; you can’t “find your style” by just sitting and thinking about it. You have to create. You have to create a lot.

And over time, your unique voice just emerges. When that happens, two things change: 

  1. Editing becomes easier because you’re no longer guessing what style to go for; you just do what feels right.
  2. Your audience connects more deeply with your content because they know what to expect from you, and they come back for you, not just the topic.

So if you feel like you haven’t found your editing voice yet, do not stress. It’s not something you discover in one project. It’s something that reveals itself one video at a time.

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