Day 524: How to motivate myself to keep a streak
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 it’s because the streak is being recorded by something other than myself, so it’s an outside accountability. But then again, no one sees the streak on the website except me, so that “accountability” is just some website bot. The badge you get for each streak milestone is rather cool, although again, no one sees the badge except me, unless I choose to post it somewhere on social media.
Maybe I need to think of my writing streak in a similar manner. For each streak milestone, I’ll get (actually, I’ll have to make my own or find some free graphic online) an accomplishment badge that I can post on my blog and social media outlets. It will be like the NaNoWriMo badges on the sidebar of my regular blog, Camy’s Loft, when I participated in or won NaNoWriMo.
Would that be motivation enough for me to keep up my writing streak? I have no idea. All I know is that I did 5 minutes of editing on my book yesterday and kept up my streak, but it was literally in the last minutes before midnight.
I’ll have to continue to think about what would motivate me to keep up my writing streak so that I’m less likely to forget about it, or be so willing to break it when I’m tired. I know, logically, that keeping up my streak means keeping my mind on my story so that I can continue to move forward on it. It makes me less likely to let the writing languish, which often results in the need for more effort to get back into the writing later.
Minimum
I’ve been keeping up my Japanese study, but when I was sick I was doing the bare minimum since I had so little energy. I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been able to devote as much time to it as I used to, but even 15 minutes a day is better than nothing.
I woke up feeling better today, but despite not having a headache and only a little bit of IBS, I’m still exhausted. I’m guessing it’s because of dealing with the pain for the past few days. Honestly, I can’t even bring myself to feel excited over my work today.
However, I know I can’t let my feelings dictate my productivity. I already did my Japanese flashcards for the day—since I’ve been keeping up with it, as long as I don’t add new cards, my review queue each day is manageable. And I did only about 5 minutes of SRS on Bunpro.jp rather than doing all my due reviews.
Right now, I think I’ll just do the minimum of writing on book 4. I was going to try to do dictation, but since that takes more effort and more energy, I think instead I’ll just type. I’d rather get some writing done than nothing at all.
However, after that, I’ll try to do a little blocking on the book since that seems to take less energy than the writing. That way I’ll at least get work done despite feeling like a roadkill frog.
***
Wow! I was only going to do 5 minutes, but the writing was strangely going very well, so I kept going. I ended up doing a 25-minute sprint and after recording my time and word count, I found that I was writing over 2000 words an hour! And this was typing and not dictating!
I’m still very new at dictating, so I shouldn’t be comparing my typing with my dictation. Instead, I will try to look forward to a day when my dictation will be as smooth as my typing. I know it’s only a matter of putting in the hours to practice, just like when I was learning to play piano.
In light of that, maybe I’ll try dictation when doing the blocking. I think I have only six or seven more chapters in the book, so I’m nearly done.
***
Time limit and freewriting = better blocking
I found that when I don’t have a time limit, I spend a lot of time just mulling things over in my head but not actually coming up with good ideas for how to block the scene. When I’m dictating, I don’t have any time limit since I’m just recording, and there’s a lot of dead space.
So I decided to change to typing for the blocking and I started some low word count, short time limit monsters on 4thewords. It forces me to type and freewrite rather than just staring at the screen. When I freewrite, I can better come up with ideas for how to block the scene. If I just stare and think, it takes longer for me to come up with ways to block the scene, and the blocking takes longer.
***
I ended up not spending much time doing the blocking because I started getting IBS issues, which distracted me and broke my concentration. I think I’ll stop here and hopefully get more done tomorrow.
Writing: Time spent: 25 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 911 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 2200 words/hour
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing streak: 4 days
Blocking: time spent: 36 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Don’t compare your typing to dictation. Instead, look forward to a day when your dictation will be as smooth as your typing.
My second takeaway for today: Low word count, short time limit monsters on 4thewords force me to freewrite when blocking, rather than just sitting and thinking, which better helps me to come up with ideas for blocking the scene. Without some sort of time limit, I’m more likely to stare at the screen and it takes more time than when I’m typing and freewriting.
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 it’s because the streak is being recorded by something other than myself, so it’s an outside accountability. But then again, no one sees the streak on the website except me, so that “accountability” is just some website bot. The badge you get for each streak milestone is rather cool, although again, no one sees the badge except me, unless I choose to post it somewhere on social media.
Maybe I need to think of my writing streak in a similar manner. For each streak milestone, I’ll get (actually, I’ll have to make my own or find some free graphic online) an accomplishment badge that I can post on my blog and social media outlets. It will be like the NaNoWriMo badges on the sidebar of my regular blog, Camy’s Loft, when I participated in or won NaNoWriMo.
Would that be motivation enough for me to keep up my writing streak? I have no idea. All I know is that I did 5 minutes of editing on my book yesterday and kept up my streak, but it was literally in the last minutes before midnight.
I’ll have to continue to think about what would motivate me to keep up my writing streak so that I’m less likely to forget about it, or be so willing to break it when I’m tired. I know, logically, that keeping up my streak means keeping my mind on my story so that I can continue to move forward on it. It makes me less likely to let the writing languish, which often results in the need for more effort to get back into the writing later.
Minimum
I’ve been keeping up my Japanese study, but when I was sick I was doing the bare minimum since I had so little energy. I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been able to devote as much time to it as I used to, but even 15 minutes a day is better than nothing.
I woke up feeling better today, but despite not having a headache and only a little bit of IBS, I’m still exhausted. I’m guessing it’s because of dealing with the pain for the past few days. Honestly, I can’t even bring myself to feel excited over my work today.
However, I know I can’t let my feelings dictate my productivity. I already did my Japanese flashcards for the day—since I’ve been keeping up with it, as long as I don’t add new cards, my review queue each day is manageable. And I did only about 5 minutes of SRS on Bunpro.jp rather than doing all my due reviews.
Right now, I think I’ll just do the minimum of writing on book 4. I was going to try to do dictation, but since that takes more effort and more energy, I think instead I’ll just type. I’d rather get some writing done than nothing at all.
However, after that, I’ll try to do a little blocking on the book since that seems to take less energy than the writing. That way I’ll at least get work done despite feeling like a roadkill frog.
***
Wow! I was only going to do 5 minutes, but the writing was strangely going very well, so I kept going. I ended up doing a 25-minute sprint and after recording my time and word count, I found that I was writing over 2000 words an hour! And this was typing and not dictating!
I’m still very new at dictating, so I shouldn’t be comparing my typing with my dictation. Instead, I will try to look forward to a day when my dictation will be as smooth as my typing. I know it’s only a matter of putting in the hours to practice, just like when I was learning to play piano.
In light of that, maybe I’ll try dictation when doing the blocking. I think I have only six or seven more chapters in the book, so I’m nearly done.
***
Time limit and freewriting = better blocking
I found that when I don’t have a time limit, I spend a lot of time just mulling things over in my head but not actually coming up with good ideas for how to block the scene. When I’m dictating, I don’t have any time limit since I’m just recording, and there’s a lot of dead space.
So I decided to change to typing for the blocking and I started some low word count, short time limit monsters on 4thewords. It forces me to type and freewrite rather than just staring at the screen. When I freewrite, I can better come up with ideas for how to block the scene. If I just stare and think, it takes longer for me to come up with ways to block the scene, and the blocking takes longer.
***
I ended up not spending much time doing the blocking because I started getting IBS issues, which distracted me and broke my concentration. I think I’ll stop here and hopefully get more done tomorrow.
Writing: Time spent: 25 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 911 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 2200 words/hour
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing streak: 4 days
Blocking: time spent: 36 minutes
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Don’t compare your typing to dictation. Instead, look forward to a day when your dictation will be as smooth as your typing.
My second takeaway for today: Low word count, short time limit monsters on 4thewords force me to freewrite when blocking, rather than just sitting and thinking, which better helps me to come up with ideas for blocking the scene. Without some sort of time limit, I’m more likely to stare at the screen and it takes more time than when I’m typing and freewriting.
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