Day 572: Streaks versus public accountability
Merry Christmas! I kept up my writing streak and worked a little even today. It helped that Christmas this year was quiet.
I originally started this daily writing blog to be a sort of lab notebook to record my experiments to improve my productivity—what I tried, what happened, and an evaluation of the experiment.
But a second reason for starting this daily writing blog was for public accountability for my writing. It worked to make sure that I did some writing every day and didn’t slack off, because I had to blog about how much writing I’d gotten done. It was harder to admit when I’d only worked for a short amount of time, or only written a few words.
This was before my health really derailed me. Now I’m kind of lucky when I feel well enough to get an hour of work done.
But I’ve also noticed that since starting my writing streak, the streak has taken the place of public accountability. Instead of needing to blog about how much work I did (or didn’t) get done each day, I am always getting at least a little work done each day, because I don’t want to break my streak.
Before the first 30 days, keeping the streak was really hard. I didn’t want to have to get some work done on days when I felt exceptionally crappy, and I resented the fact that I had to drag myself to the computer to get some writing done, even though it was only 100 words as my bare minimum. But the small bare minimum requirement also enabled me to keep the streak for those first 30 days. After that, I stopped resenting the streak because I simply don’t want to break it.
I did worry that the small bare minimum meant I would let myself be lazy and only do a little work every day, but my average is about 400 words a day, and my average time spent is about 24 minutes. And on top of the writing, I do some blocking for an average of 36 minutes a day.
So while some days I might just do my 100 words, most days I’m doing a lot more, and I’m slowly making progress on my books, both writing and blocking. At the moment, I’m writing chapter 5 of book 4, and I’m almost done blocking the rest of the scenes in book 4.
I had a small IBS flareup the past week, but I still managed to get an hour or two of work done every day, and part of the reason for that is because of my streak. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I’d sit down to at least do the bare minimum, and I usually ended up doing a bit more than that. I didn’t spend more than a couple hours on work each day, because my insides were still feeling like a blender, but I did make progress on the book despite how I was feeling. And that makes me feel rather proud of myself.
The flare up is passing and I’m starting to feel better, so I hope to be able to keep up the good work with my diet and get my energy back.
So as far as productivity experiments go, I think the streak experiment has been a winner. However, I also know that the streak works for me because I have an achievement-based personality. In other words, I get satisfaction from finishing tasks or achieving a goal, such as reaching a streak milestone. Someone with a more social-based personality might get more motivation from a public accountability method like a blog or social media.
Also, the streak seems to mostly work to help me keep my mind on my book, because I work on it at least a little every day. And then on the days I feel better, I get more done since I don’t have to try to remember what I’d done the last time I was feeling well enough to get work done—it improves my work efficiency, basically.
A nice side effect of the streak has been what I mentioned earlier, about how it forces me to work even when I’m not feeling 100%, but I end up working a little more than just bare minimum. So I’m getting more work done on days I otherwise would feel too sick to want to do much of anything. It’s just a few more words done, but those few words eventually add up. So the streak improves my overall productivity, too.
So, YAY the streak works for me, but it might not work for everyone in every circumstance. As I mentioned, my achievement-based personality meshes well with the streak method, but another personality type might clash with it.
Also, I hadn’t originally thought the streak would work because I’m so sick all the time, but since I’ve been slowly starting to feel better, the streak has helped. If I were still feeling like death warmed over like I did back in November, I don’t know that the streak would have worked for me—I might have just stopped it, because forcing myself to work when I feel terrible doesn’t really make me feel any sense of accomplishment, only resentment. I still don’t feel great, but I at least feel human again, and I think that helps the streak to work for me. After forcing myself to work even on bad days for the first 30 days of the streak, now it’s a bit easier to get myself to keep up the streak.
So even though the streak has worked for me so far, I can’t really say that I think the streak would work for other people with chronic illnesses or pain, because forcing yourself to work when you feel sick only fosters resentment and stress, not a sense of achievement or satisfaction. I think that the streak only worked for me because I started feeling better.
***
Editing: Time spent: 12 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 18 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 361 words
Writing streak: 51 days
Blocking: time spent: 0
Blocking streak: 45 days
My takeaway for today: Streaks seem to work well for my personality and took the place of public accountability. The streak worked for me because I started feeling better.
I originally started this daily writing blog to be a sort of lab notebook to record my experiments to improve my productivity—what I tried, what happened, and an evaluation of the experiment.
But a second reason for starting this daily writing blog was for public accountability for my writing. It worked to make sure that I did some writing every day and didn’t slack off, because I had to blog about how much writing I’d gotten done. It was harder to admit when I’d only worked for a short amount of time, or only written a few words.
This was before my health really derailed me. Now I’m kind of lucky when I feel well enough to get an hour of work done.
But I’ve also noticed that since starting my writing streak, the streak has taken the place of public accountability. Instead of needing to blog about how much work I did (or didn’t) get done each day, I am always getting at least a little work done each day, because I don’t want to break my streak.
Before the first 30 days, keeping the streak was really hard. I didn’t want to have to get some work done on days when I felt exceptionally crappy, and I resented the fact that I had to drag myself to the computer to get some writing done, even though it was only 100 words as my bare minimum. But the small bare minimum requirement also enabled me to keep the streak for those first 30 days. After that, I stopped resenting the streak because I simply don’t want to break it.
I did worry that the small bare minimum meant I would let myself be lazy and only do a little work every day, but my average is about 400 words a day, and my average time spent is about 24 minutes. And on top of the writing, I do some blocking for an average of 36 minutes a day.
So while some days I might just do my 100 words, most days I’m doing a lot more, and I’m slowly making progress on my books, both writing and blocking. At the moment, I’m writing chapter 5 of book 4, and I’m almost done blocking the rest of the scenes in book 4.
I had a small IBS flareup the past week, but I still managed to get an hour or two of work done every day, and part of the reason for that is because of my streak. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I’d sit down to at least do the bare minimum, and I usually ended up doing a bit more than that. I didn’t spend more than a couple hours on work each day, because my insides were still feeling like a blender, but I did make progress on the book despite how I was feeling. And that makes me feel rather proud of myself.
The flare up is passing and I’m starting to feel better, so I hope to be able to keep up the good work with my diet and get my energy back.
So as far as productivity experiments go, I think the streak experiment has been a winner. However, I also know that the streak works for me because I have an achievement-based personality. In other words, I get satisfaction from finishing tasks or achieving a goal, such as reaching a streak milestone. Someone with a more social-based personality might get more motivation from a public accountability method like a blog or social media.
Also, the streak seems to mostly work to help me keep my mind on my book, because I work on it at least a little every day. And then on the days I feel better, I get more done since I don’t have to try to remember what I’d done the last time I was feeling well enough to get work done—it improves my work efficiency, basically.
A nice side effect of the streak has been what I mentioned earlier, about how it forces me to work even when I’m not feeling 100%, but I end up working a little more than just bare minimum. So I’m getting more work done on days I otherwise would feel too sick to want to do much of anything. It’s just a few more words done, but those few words eventually add up. So the streak improves my overall productivity, too.
So, YAY the streak works for me, but it might not work for everyone in every circumstance. As I mentioned, my achievement-based personality meshes well with the streak method, but another personality type might clash with it.
Also, I hadn’t originally thought the streak would work because I’m so sick all the time, but since I’ve been slowly starting to feel better, the streak has helped. If I were still feeling like death warmed over like I did back in November, I don’t know that the streak would have worked for me—I might have just stopped it, because forcing myself to work when I feel terrible doesn’t really make me feel any sense of accomplishment, only resentment. I still don’t feel great, but I at least feel human again, and I think that helps the streak to work for me. After forcing myself to work even on bad days for the first 30 days of the streak, now it’s a bit easier to get myself to keep up the streak.
So even though the streak has worked for me so far, I can’t really say that I think the streak would work for other people with chronic illnesses or pain, because forcing yourself to work when you feel sick only fosters resentment and stress, not a sense of achievement or satisfaction. I think that the streak only worked for me because I started feeling better.
***
Editing: Time spent: 12 minutes
Writing: Time spent: 18 minutes
Writing: Total number of words: 361 words
Writing streak: 51 days
Blocking: time spent: 0
Blocking streak: 45 days
My takeaway for today: Streaks seem to work well for my personality and took the place of public accountability. The streak worked for me because I started feeling better.
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