Day 528: I guess streaks do work
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 exhausted all day that I could barely even think about work. So being able to put in a couple hours of work is actually a win for me. Every little bit helps.
Kept up my streak, but still not really motivated
I did my 100 words on Tuesday despite taking a sick day, but I almost didn’t get it done—I got to it only a few minutes before midnight. For the other days this week, I’ve put in 25-30 minutes each day.
My problem is that I’m just not very invested in keeping the streak alive. I have no real motivation to do it other than that “it’s good for me,” which of course only reminds me of things like being forced to eat watercress. (Blech)
Maybe I’ll feel more motivated when my streak is larger? Although before, I did break it when it was already at 25 days or so, and while I regretted it afterward, the threat of breaking it wasn’t strong enough to push me to make the effort to keep the streak alive, especially because at the time I wasn’t feeling well.
I guess I’ll continue to try to grow my streak while also trying to figure out what I can do to motivate/reward myself. (This would have been a lot easier if I didn’t have IBS, because I’m very food-motivated. I could think of ALL KINDS of treats I would reward myself with, which I can’t eat now.)
Well, I did manage to get writing done every day this past week, and that’s a good thing.
Dictation still slow
I feel like I’ll be saying that for a long time before it improves. On Wednesday, I did dictation inside the Dragon app on my computer, but I got caught up in trying to train Dragon, so that probably slowed down my writing speed, which was only about 1000 words per hour. That’s the speed I typically write when I’m typing and editing as I go. (When I’m trying to write fast and I don’t edit as I go, I can get up to about 2000 words per hour, but then I take a little more time to edit it later.)
The dictation writing wasn’t terrible, but there was a lot I still ended up editing afterward. I especially had to add a lot of character reactions that I had forgotten to include when I dictated the dialogue.
What I really need to do is just blaze through, ignoring all the (copious) errors and dictating as quickly as Dragon can handle.
If I want to correct something, I should instead make a note of it and do it after I finish the writing sprint. I don’t need to train Dragon quickly, I can take my time doing it, so I don’t need to do the training right away. I need to remember that what’s more important is the writing, not training Dragon.
I think I dictate more slowly when I dictate within the Dragon app, but I also think that seeing the text as I dictate is very helpful, so I think I’ll still do that. My memory is just too fuzzy (possibly because of the IBS, but also highly likely because I’m in peri-menopause), and when dictating into a recording, without seeing what I’ve written, I have often completely forgotten my train of thought, or what I’d just dictated in the previous paragraph. It’s very annoying.
One thing that makes dictation difficult for me is that my computer really doesn’t have enough memory to run Dragon as well as the other apps I use when writing, such as Scrivener and Numbers (I use spreadsheets to not only record my writing stats, but also to do a scene index where I have a rough map of each scene. It’s a visual representation of the book in a spreadsheet. The important elements of each scene (Goal, Obsacles, Disaster or Reaction, Dilemma, Decision) are each in their own cells, and it helps me to keep track of the pacing of the book.)
I don’t really have the money for a new computer right now, so I just have to grin and bear it when I want to run Dragon. But the fact that I have to close down all my apps (including my time tracking app Toggl and my Day One bullet journal, where I record my daily To Do list) just to do dictation is a barrier to entry that just makes it a little bit harder to make myself do the dictation.
I was feeling pretty good yesterday, health-wise, but since my health had taken a turn for the worse pretty quickly the day before, I was a bit paranoid and decided to write via typing rather than in dictation, just to make it easier for me to just do the writing. It also takes less energy for me to write via typing, and I figured that conservation of energy might be best since I hadn’t been feeling very well.
I did the typing in 4thewords, but didn’t actually get a lot of words written. I’m not entirely sure why, but my writing pace was only 650 words an hour. It might have been simply because I wasn’t actively trying to write quickly—I was just writing like normal, so I was probably editing as I go.
I debated over if I should try dictation today or just type for my writing, and decided to type. It’s the same reason I did my writing via typing yesterday—I’ve had IBS issues that make it difficult to guarantee that I’ll be able to work in the afternoons, so I might as well go the route of least resistance to write, and maybe have a little more energy to do the blocking. If I’m not having issues this afternoon, great—but if I feel sick, I’ll at least have gotten as much done in the morning as I possibly could.
***
My writing speed wasn’t great, but I think it’s because I was a bit distracted by IBS and a bit of a sinus headache. I did manage to get 42 minutes of writing, done, though, which was great!
Also, I ended up not doing any editing since the writing was pretty clean. So I was probably editing as I go, which also made me write slower.
***
Maybe streaks do motivate me?
I know I was JUST complaining about how I’m not very motivated to keep my writing streak, but I have to admit that I was motivated to do the blocking in order to start up a streak. I did blocking yesterday, and it occurred to me that I start a blocking streak in order to get myself to do it even when I don’t feel all that great. So I ended up doing my blocking today just to keep up my streak.
So I guess streaks do motivate me! Sort of.
So since I made an effort to do my blocking streak, I guess I should keep track of it below.
I didn’t get a ton of work done on blocking today, but I at least got a little done, and every little bit counts. I also had some health issues as well as a bunch of house chores that needed to be done today, so I had a little less time for my writing today than normal.
***
Writing: Time spent: 42 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 594 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 859 words/hour
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing streak: 7 days
Blocking: time spent: 30 minutes
Blocking streak: 2 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Be grateful for the work you do get done, rather than feeling guilty about the work you didn’t get done, and just continue to work around your health.
My second takeaway (from Wednesday): Just blaze through the dictation without bothering to correct anything, and just make note of things to correct later. But continue to dictate within the app since seeing what I’ve written seems to help.
My third takeaway for today: Maybe streaks do motivate me to work, since I did my blocking today in order to keep up a streak.
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 exhausted all day that I could barely even think about work. So being able to put in a couple hours of work is actually a win for me. Every little bit helps.
Kept up my streak, but still not really motivated
I did my 100 words on Tuesday despite taking a sick day, but I almost didn’t get it done—I got to it only a few minutes before midnight. For the other days this week, I’ve put in 25-30 minutes each day.
My problem is that I’m just not very invested in keeping the streak alive. I have no real motivation to do it other than that “it’s good for me,” which of course only reminds me of things like being forced to eat watercress. (Blech)
Maybe I’ll feel more motivated when my streak is larger? Although before, I did break it when it was already at 25 days or so, and while I regretted it afterward, the threat of breaking it wasn’t strong enough to push me to make the effort to keep the streak alive, especially because at the time I wasn’t feeling well.
I guess I’ll continue to try to grow my streak while also trying to figure out what I can do to motivate/reward myself. (This would have been a lot easier if I didn’t have IBS, because I’m very food-motivated. I could think of ALL KINDS of treats I would reward myself with, which I can’t eat now.)
Well, I did manage to get writing done every day this past week, and that’s a good thing.
Dictation still slow
I feel like I’ll be saying that for a long time before it improves. On Wednesday, I did dictation inside the Dragon app on my computer, but I got caught up in trying to train Dragon, so that probably slowed down my writing speed, which was only about 1000 words per hour. That’s the speed I typically write when I’m typing and editing as I go. (When I’m trying to write fast and I don’t edit as I go, I can get up to about 2000 words per hour, but then I take a little more time to edit it later.)
The dictation writing wasn’t terrible, but there was a lot I still ended up editing afterward. I especially had to add a lot of character reactions that I had forgotten to include when I dictated the dialogue.
What I really need to do is just blaze through, ignoring all the (copious) errors and dictating as quickly as Dragon can handle.
If I want to correct something, I should instead make a note of it and do it after I finish the writing sprint. I don’t need to train Dragon quickly, I can take my time doing it, so I don’t need to do the training right away. I need to remember that what’s more important is the writing, not training Dragon.
I think I dictate more slowly when I dictate within the Dragon app, but I also think that seeing the text as I dictate is very helpful, so I think I’ll still do that. My memory is just too fuzzy (possibly because of the IBS, but also highly likely because I’m in peri-menopause), and when dictating into a recording, without seeing what I’ve written, I have often completely forgotten my train of thought, or what I’d just dictated in the previous paragraph. It’s very annoying.
One thing that makes dictation difficult for me is that my computer really doesn’t have enough memory to run Dragon as well as the other apps I use when writing, such as Scrivener and Numbers (I use spreadsheets to not only record my writing stats, but also to do a scene index where I have a rough map of each scene. It’s a visual representation of the book in a spreadsheet. The important elements of each scene (Goal, Obsacles, Disaster or Reaction, Dilemma, Decision) are each in their own cells, and it helps me to keep track of the pacing of the book.)
I don’t really have the money for a new computer right now, so I just have to grin and bear it when I want to run Dragon. But the fact that I have to close down all my apps (including my time tracking app Toggl and my Day One bullet journal, where I record my daily To Do list) just to do dictation is a barrier to entry that just makes it a little bit harder to make myself do the dictation.
I was feeling pretty good yesterday, health-wise, but since my health had taken a turn for the worse pretty quickly the day before, I was a bit paranoid and decided to write via typing rather than in dictation, just to make it easier for me to just do the writing. It also takes less energy for me to write via typing, and I figured that conservation of energy might be best since I hadn’t been feeling very well.
I did the typing in 4thewords, but didn’t actually get a lot of words written. I’m not entirely sure why, but my writing pace was only 650 words an hour. It might have been simply because I wasn’t actively trying to write quickly—I was just writing like normal, so I was probably editing as I go.
I debated over if I should try dictation today or just type for my writing, and decided to type. It’s the same reason I did my writing via typing yesterday—I’ve had IBS issues that make it difficult to guarantee that I’ll be able to work in the afternoons, so I might as well go the route of least resistance to write, and maybe have a little more energy to do the blocking. If I’m not having issues this afternoon, great—but if I feel sick, I’ll at least have gotten as much done in the morning as I possibly could.
***
My writing speed wasn’t great, but I think it’s because I was a bit distracted by IBS and a bit of a sinus headache. I did manage to get 42 minutes of writing, done, though, which was great!
Also, I ended up not doing any editing since the writing was pretty clean. So I was probably editing as I go, which also made me write slower.
***
Maybe streaks do motivate me?
I know I was JUST complaining about how I’m not very motivated to keep my writing streak, but I have to admit that I was motivated to do the blocking in order to start up a streak. I did blocking yesterday, and it occurred to me that I start a blocking streak in order to get myself to do it even when I don’t feel all that great. So I ended up doing my blocking today just to keep up my streak.
So I guess streaks do motivate me! Sort of.
So since I made an effort to do my blocking streak, I guess I should keep track of it below.
I didn’t get a ton of work done on blocking today, but I at least got a little done, and every little bit counts. I also had some health issues as well as a bunch of house chores that needed to be done today, so I had a little less time for my writing today than normal.
***
Writing: Time spent: 42 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 594 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 859 words/hour
Editing: Time spent: 0
Writing streak: 7 days
Blocking: time spent: 30 minutes
Blocking streak: 2 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: Be grateful for the work you do get done, rather than feeling guilty about the work you didn’t get done, and just continue to work around your health.
My second takeaway (from Wednesday): Just blaze through the dictation without bothering to correct anything, and just make note of things to correct later. But continue to dictate within the app since seeing what I’ve written seems to help.
My third takeaway for today: Maybe streaks do motivate me to work, since I did my blocking today in order to keep up a streak.
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