Camy's Writing Diary

Sorry I’ve been AWOL For the past couple weeks (except for a few days for Thanksgiving), I’ve been working about 1-3 hours every day, with the time split between writing, editing what I wrote, and blocking. However, I didn’t have anything of note happen, so I didn’t post on my blog. I suppose that defeats the purpose of a daily writing blog , but I felt a bit stupid to keep posting the same thing: I was sick, I did a little work, rinse and repeat. Slightly improved health I’m glad I at least did a bit of work every day, and I kept my writing and blocking streaks alive. It helped that I wasn’t quite as sick as I was earlier this month, and so I was able to spend at least an hour or two every day to work, even if I was rather tired and/or in a little pain for the rest of the day. When my IBS or my headaches were really bad, it was hard to make myself do a little bit of writing or editing or blocking, and I found myself resenting my decision to start a streak. But I’m finally star...

I both like and hate streaks I managed to keep up my writing and blocking streaks for the past few days with at least 100 words added to each. The problem was that I almost didn’t do my writing and blocking yesterday. It was mostly my own fault—I had more energy in the morning, but I wasn’t feeling all that great and I thought I might get more done if I waited until I felt better. The problem was that later I was really tired and had almost no energy. I pretty much had to force myself to get those 100 words done—I did them on my phone rather than going to my computer—and I almost decided just to break the streaks because I wasn’t feeling well. I fully realize how streaks can help with keeping up the writing. I think that keeping up my writing and blocking streaks for the past few days helped me get into the writing today more seamlessly. I had done a little bit of work in the book every day, so I didn’t need to reread what I’d written before to refresh my memory. It was almost like...

Different work in different places I’ve heard this advice before, but I never really thought how I could put it into practice, and then I did it by accident today. While I can do my Japanese flashcards on my phone most of the time, when I have to figure out mnemonics for new kanji, I usually like to do this on my computer since I’m searching for mnemonics on the Wanikani and Kanji Koohi websites and then copying or typing them into Anki. I also tend to like doing my grammar SRS on my computer since I have to type in the answers for the cloze flashcards on the Bunpro website. However today I happened to bring my iPad and bluetooth keyboard to the dining room table while I was eating breakfast. I did my flashcards on my phone, but I also have Anki on my iPad, and my flashcards sync between the two. I opened up my iPad to add some new mnemonics to Anki using a cheap bluetooth keyboard that I just bought. Then it occurred to me that I could do my grammar SRS using my bluetooth keyboa...

Working around my health On Tuesday I had to take a sick day, but for the other days this past week, I’ve woken up feeling better—but that only lasts for the morning. After getting some work done, I get a bout of IBS and have to stop work, so I haven’t been feeling well enough to post my blog at the end of my writing day. I’ve been writing a little every day, but I haven’t gotten a lot of blocking done. At first I felt bad about not getting a lot of work done, but I looked at my Toggl timer, and I’ve gotten 1-2 hours of work done everyday, and this is despite not feeling well. It made me realize that I should be happy with what I can get done despite my health. I need to focus on being satisfied with the work I get done rather than focusing on the work I don’t get done. I also need to remember to be grateful for the time that I do have each day when I’m feeling well enough to get work done at all. There were so many days in the past couple months where I was so sick or exhauste...

Unmotivated to maintain streak I woke up with a bad headache yesterday, but I still managed to get a lot of work done. But ironically, I almost broke my writing streak. I did some blogging and wrote my monthly newsletters, and I finished up some things I had to do in relation to the marketing last month from the release of the multi-author anthology. It actually took a long time, nearly 7 hours, and by the end of the day, I was pretty tired. I almost forgot to do some work on my book to keep up my streak, and when I did remember, I was rather unmotivated to actually do it. I thought about why that was. I think it’s because I don’t have any sort of reward set up for if I do hit streak milestones. In doing my Japanese study, there’s a built-in streak record for the grammar SRS website I use, Bunpro.jp. You don’t get anything except a badge for each streak milestone (10 days, 30 days, etc.), but I still feel more motivated to try to keep up that streak than my writing streak. Maybe ...

So I was sick again, what else is new Last week Wednesday, I should have clued in to the fact something was wrong when I sat down in front of the computer and my brain felt fried even though I hadn’t gotten any work done yet. I thought it was just tiredness, and maybe half-laziness, but I decided to just get my 100 words done and then take the rest of the day off. I felt a bit guilty, because if I’d been doing biology work, a fried brain wasn’t reason enough to take a sick day. But then again, I can do biology work with a tired brain—running an assay only requires a bit of concentration and isn’t very mentally taxing. Writing, on the other hand, requires full focus and brainpower or else it’ll turn into just an hour of me staring at the computer screen and getting nothing done. But I had forgotten that I have to manage my low energy levels, even when I don’t necessarily feel pain from my IBS and headaches. In hindsight, I’m glad I took the day off because another sinus headache t...