Day 547: The value of a writing streak
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 starting to really get my IBS under control, and while I still get headaches occasionally, they’re not as often as they were before I started taking my allergy medication and supplements.
My improved health has meant improved energy and better sleep, which seems to all work together to help me get a little bit of work done everyday. I’m hopeful that I can slowly increase that amount as I feel better.
Kept up my streaks
I actually surprised myself that I kept up my writing streaks despite not feeling very well some days. Even during Thanksgiving, I did at least 100 words each on my writing and blocking every day.
I mentioned above that it was really hard to keep up my streak. I would often resent the fact I needed to do it, but I still made myself do it anyway because it only took a few minutes, and afterward I was always glad I had gotten that little bit done. I kept the story in mind since I worked a little bit on it every day, so now that I’m feeling better, I don’t have to spend time rereading what I’ve written to remind myself what I’d done and what I need to do next.
I also admit that it motivated me to keep up my streak because my streak numbers were growing and I didn’t want to break it. I wasn’t terribly motivated when I’d only been doing the streak for a couple weeks, but now that it’s getting close to 30 days, it made me not want to break the streak.
I still haven’t figured out what I’d do as a reward for each streak milestone, and I still think it’s important that I figure that out. I probably should have figured this out before I started the streak, in order to help motivate me. I did some playing around on Canva, and I found a graphic template that I can repurpose for a streak badge. I could maybe post that on the sidebar of my blog.
So, my overall thoughts on this whole streak experiment: Yes, streaks do work, but only if the bare minimum each day is easy. My daily minimum is only 100 words for my writing and blocking, which is doable even if I’m in pain from my IBS or headaches.
I really wasn’t sure if the streak experiment would work since there have been so many days when I felt really sick, and I haven’t been able to consistently work a full workday 5 days a week. But doing a little writing each day has been extremely helpful so that the story is fresh in my mind and I don’t have to do so much rereading to refresh my memory if I’ve taken a few days off. Since my writing schedule has been so inconsistent, this has been doubly valuable to me.
So, even though I was skeptical that a streak would even work for someone trying to work around a chronic illness, I’ve found that as long as my daily minimum is low enough, the streak does help me. My writing on the days I am sick is not very good, but the point of the streak is not the work I get done on those “daily minimum” days. The value of the streak is that I am able to dive into my writing faster on the days I feel better, which improves my productivity.
***
Editing: Time spent: 20 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 31 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 556 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1078 words/hour
Writing streak: 26 days
Blocking: time spent: 56 minutes
Blocking streak: 20 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: A writing streak seems to work even though I’m chronically sick because it makes me more productive on the days I feel well enough to get more work done.
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 starting to really get my IBS under control, and while I still get headaches occasionally, they’re not as often as they were before I started taking my allergy medication and supplements.
My improved health has meant improved energy and better sleep, which seems to all work together to help me get a little bit of work done everyday. I’m hopeful that I can slowly increase that amount as I feel better.
Kept up my streaks
I actually surprised myself that I kept up my writing streaks despite not feeling very well some days. Even during Thanksgiving, I did at least 100 words each on my writing and blocking every day.
I mentioned above that it was really hard to keep up my streak. I would often resent the fact I needed to do it, but I still made myself do it anyway because it only took a few minutes, and afterward I was always glad I had gotten that little bit done. I kept the story in mind since I worked a little bit on it every day, so now that I’m feeling better, I don’t have to spend time rereading what I’ve written to remind myself what I’d done and what I need to do next.
I also admit that it motivated me to keep up my streak because my streak numbers were growing and I didn’t want to break it. I wasn’t terribly motivated when I’d only been doing the streak for a couple weeks, but now that it’s getting close to 30 days, it made me not want to break the streak.
I still haven’t figured out what I’d do as a reward for each streak milestone, and I still think it’s important that I figure that out. I probably should have figured this out before I started the streak, in order to help motivate me. I did some playing around on Canva, and I found a graphic template that I can repurpose for a streak badge. I could maybe post that on the sidebar of my blog.
So, my overall thoughts on this whole streak experiment: Yes, streaks do work, but only if the bare minimum each day is easy. My daily minimum is only 100 words for my writing and blocking, which is doable even if I’m in pain from my IBS or headaches.
I really wasn’t sure if the streak experiment would work since there have been so many days when I felt really sick, and I haven’t been able to consistently work a full workday 5 days a week. But doing a little writing each day has been extremely helpful so that the story is fresh in my mind and I don’t have to do so much rereading to refresh my memory if I’ve taken a few days off. Since my writing schedule has been so inconsistent, this has been doubly valuable to me.
So, even though I was skeptical that a streak would even work for someone trying to work around a chronic illness, I’ve found that as long as my daily minimum is low enough, the streak does help me. My writing on the days I am sick is not very good, but the point of the streak is not the work I get done on those “daily minimum” days. The value of the streak is that I am able to dive into my writing faster on the days I feel better, which improves my productivity.
***
Editing: Time spent: 20 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 31 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 556 words
Writing: Overall writing speed: 1078 words/hour
Writing streak: 26 days
Blocking: time spent: 56 minutes
Blocking streak: 20 days
Time spent doing other writing-related business: 0
My takeaway for today: A writing streak seems to work even though I’m chronically sick because it makes me more productive on the days I feel well enough to get more work done.
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