New 2 Minute Madness Contributor Guidelines
Short, thoughtful pieces that help readers tackle life’s challenges
The new 2 Minute Madness is founded on one simple idea: small insights can make a big difference.
We publish short, thoughtful pieces that help readers tackle life’s challenges, two minutes at a time.
What We Look For
We seek clear, easy-to-read pieces that an average reader can finish in two minutes and that offer a fresh perspective.
You do not have to be an expert. If you’ve found a unique, practical, or meaningful way to move forward in life — and you can share it clearly and concisely — we’d love to hear from you.
Stories do not need to be full-fledged solutions to complicated situations. Most shouldn’t be.
We embrace the notion that many times, the most helpful ideas are the simplest ones.
Your topic can be as straightforward as:
- A small mindset shift that helped you cope
- A daily habit that made life feel more manageable
- A simple way to start the morning that keeps you moving throughout the day
- A super-easy practice that brought you calm, focus, or clarity
Big life challenges are welcome here, so long as they are broken down into approachable, human-sized insights.
Style & Tone
Pieces should be:
- Clear and conversational
- Encouraging, honest, and relatable
- Focused on one main idea or takeaway
Readers will be looking for that one helpful nudge, not a complete life overhaul.
Length
Each story should be 300–480 words. Medium reading speed is 275 words per minute; photos add about 12 seconds.
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We will consider shorter reads if the message is strong and complete.
What we don’t consider
We don’t want to waste anyone’s time. Here’s what we don’t publish:
- Advice without experience. We’re about sharing what works for us, not just telling others what to do.
- Pieces that leave readers with open questions. Each story should offer something actionable or provoke thoughtful reflection.
- Harsh or dismissive statements. Our tone is straightforward, not aggressive, and always encouraging.
- 2-minute recaps of others’ stories. If someone else’s story inspired you, feel free to reference their work while writing about your own experience.
- Wikipedia as a source. There’s a common confusion about Wikipedia, and many users rely on it as a source rather than what it is: a platform that summarizes information from other sources. We only allow links to original sources.
- Anything against Medium curation guidelines.
Our review process:
If your submission follows our guidelines, we’ll check for plagiarism, reliance on AI, and originality.
If we can’t use your story, we’ll remove it from the queue. We do try to find time to let you know the reason(s) for rejection, but this is not always possible.
If we plan to use your story, we’ll let you know and move on to the next step of preparing for publication.
What we’ll do before we hit publish:
- We may adjust titles and subtitles for clarity and visibility.
- We may adjust the cover photo.
- We’ll edit for clarity, fix major grammar errors, and verify all citations.
- We’ll remove or adjust unnecessary footers.
- We may encourage you to link to other 2MM stories if they are great next steps for the reader.
This is a space for progress, not perfection. We believe small shifts add up — and your two-minute insight might be exactly what someone needs today.
📬 Ready to submit?
We use Tally (no gmail account required):
SUBMIT HERE
Original Work & AI Policy
All submissions to 2 Minute Madness, including those from approved writers, must be 100% original work.
By submitting to this publication, writers confirm that:
- Their content is original and not copied from any other source.
- AI tools, if used, must only assist with editing, idea generation, or minor refinement; full AI-generated submissions are not allowed.
- Submissions must reflect the writer’s own voice and lived experience. Stories created mainly by AI will not be accepted.
We reserve the right to remove any story or writer from the publication if this policy is violated.
