Day 843: Dictation, day 33
I had a really bad IBS flareup for the past two weeks. It was so bad that I had to take full sick days because of the pain and nausea.
Some days, the pain subsided for a few hours. I did get the cleanup editing done on the dictation from 9/6 and 9/7, and I also managed to do the final round of edits on the 4th book of my series, which I had given to my editor.
But on a whole, I felt pain and nausea almost all day. I never knew when I would start to feel better. And while the IBS usually felt better in the afternoon, by then I was usually too exhausted from dealing with the pain all day.
I also realized that while it might seem like dictation is less work than typing, it’s actually more difficult. I have to concentrate harder when I dictate, so it takes more energy. When I’m tired, I can barely string together two sentences, so dictation is completely out.
I’m a bit upset at myself. I had set a personal deadline of September 14th to get as much work done on book 5 as I possibly could, and that passed without getting any more words done. It’s frustrating that as soon as I set a personal deadline for myself, my IBS suddenly got so much worse. I haven’t had to take full sick days for a couple weeks, and I had thought I was getting better.
It’s like, as soon as I set a word count deadline for a specific day, something inside me wants to sabotage myself. I wonder if the deadline itself is causing me stress, and the stress is making my IBS act up?
I finally started feeling a little better this morning, although I did have intermittent bouts of pain. However, I decided to go walking and dictating.
It was really hard to get myself to start walking and dictating. I struggled a lot more with procrastination today than I have before, I think because I got out of the habit of going walking and dictating. I also found myself procrastinating last week when I found myself feeling a bit better (but still exhausted) and had some time to do a little bit of dictation in the backyard. I ended up doing some dictation exercises but not my writing dictation, mostly because I procrastinated doing it for so long and then it was time to cook dinner.
I really need to get into the habit of doing the dictation every day or else I’ll just return to my old struggles with procrastination. The problem is that the dictation has been SO hard to do when I’m feeling sick.
On days when I only intend to do the bare minimum of writing, maybe I should just do 5 minutes of dictation directly into Dragon on my computer. That way, I’ll at least keep up a habit of dictation.
Anyway, today I went walking and ended up doing about 20 minutes of dictation on my book. Since I wasn't certain how long I would be able to be out walking and dictating, I did not to my dictation exercises in order to have as much time as possible to dictate my book.
Ideally, I would have plenty of time to write every day, but because my IBS is usually worst in the mornings, and doesn't start to get better until the afternoon, I wasn't certain how long I would feel okay. So I decided to skip the exercises just to make sure I got some writing done today.
I probably haven't given the dictation exercises enough time. However, I'm not sure if I really see much of a difference in how I dictate. Maybe it's simply a matter of how my brain works when I write. If I start to feel better later, I'll try to do the dictation exercises again. For now, since I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write every day due to the IBS, I'll skip the dictation exercises just to make sure I get work done.
Since today's Thursday, I had a lot of house chores to do. I was still feeling a bit of discomfort earlier, so I checked my email, which I can usually do even if I'm not feeling well.
It's now later in the afternoon, but my IBS has finally started feeling better. I decided to try dictation again in the backyard this time. I'll see how much I can do. I'm hopeful that I might get a couple thousand words done today.
***
I got another 40 minutes of dictation done in the afternoon, and then ended up taking extra time to do the cleanup editing after dinner. As I expected, my dictation speed was very slow, since I haven’t done any dictation for 2 weeks, but I think I managed to get a bit more comfortable with it by the end.
It’s only 2 hours of work, but considering how I was feeling this morning, it’s better than nothing.
Writing streak: 322 days
My takeaway for today: Try to do my bare minimum of writing via 5 minutes of dictation directly into Dragon, just to keep up the habit of dictation. It might help battle my habit of procrastination when I haven’t done dictation for a while.
Some days, the pain subsided for a few hours. I did get the cleanup editing done on the dictation from 9/6 and 9/7, and I also managed to do the final round of edits on the 4th book of my series, which I had given to my editor.
But on a whole, I felt pain and nausea almost all day. I never knew when I would start to feel better. And while the IBS usually felt better in the afternoon, by then I was usually too exhausted from dealing with the pain all day.
I also realized that while it might seem like dictation is less work than typing, it’s actually more difficult. I have to concentrate harder when I dictate, so it takes more energy. When I’m tired, I can barely string together two sentences, so dictation is completely out.
I’m a bit upset at myself. I had set a personal deadline of September 14th to get as much work done on book 5 as I possibly could, and that passed without getting any more words done. It’s frustrating that as soon as I set a personal deadline for myself, my IBS suddenly got so much worse. I haven’t had to take full sick days for a couple weeks, and I had thought I was getting better.
It’s like, as soon as I set a word count deadline for a specific day, something inside me wants to sabotage myself. I wonder if the deadline itself is causing me stress, and the stress is making my IBS act up?
I finally started feeling a little better this morning, although I did have intermittent bouts of pain. However, I decided to go walking and dictating.
It was really hard to get myself to start walking and dictating. I struggled a lot more with procrastination today than I have before, I think because I got out of the habit of going walking and dictating. I also found myself procrastinating last week when I found myself feeling a bit better (but still exhausted) and had some time to do a little bit of dictation in the backyard. I ended up doing some dictation exercises but not my writing dictation, mostly because I procrastinated doing it for so long and then it was time to cook dinner.
I really need to get into the habit of doing the dictation every day or else I’ll just return to my old struggles with procrastination. The problem is that the dictation has been SO hard to do when I’m feeling sick.
On days when I only intend to do the bare minimum of writing, maybe I should just do 5 minutes of dictation directly into Dragon on my computer. That way, I’ll at least keep up a habit of dictation.
Anyway, today I went walking and ended up doing about 20 minutes of dictation on my book. Since I wasn't certain how long I would be able to be out walking and dictating, I did not to my dictation exercises in order to have as much time as possible to dictate my book.
Ideally, I would have plenty of time to write every day, but because my IBS is usually worst in the mornings, and doesn't start to get better until the afternoon, I wasn't certain how long I would feel okay. So I decided to skip the exercises just to make sure I got some writing done today.
I probably haven't given the dictation exercises enough time. However, I'm not sure if I really see much of a difference in how I dictate. Maybe it's simply a matter of how my brain works when I write. If I start to feel better later, I'll try to do the dictation exercises again. For now, since I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write every day due to the IBS, I'll skip the dictation exercises just to make sure I get work done.
Since today's Thursday, I had a lot of house chores to do. I was still feeling a bit of discomfort earlier, so I checked my email, which I can usually do even if I'm not feeling well.
It's now later in the afternoon, but my IBS has finally started feeling better. I decided to try dictation again in the backyard this time. I'll see how much I can do. I'm hopeful that I might get a couple thousand words done today.
***
I got another 40 minutes of dictation done in the afternoon, and then ended up taking extra time to do the cleanup editing after dinner. As I expected, my dictation speed was very slow, since I haven’t done any dictation for 2 weeks, but I think I managed to get a bit more comfortable with it by the end.
It’s only 2 hours of work, but considering how I was feeling this morning, it’s better than nothing.
Writing streak: 322 days
My takeaway for today: Try to do my bare minimum of writing via 5 minutes of dictation directly into Dragon, just to keep up the habit of dictation. It might help battle my habit of procrastination when I haven’t done dictation for a while.
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