Day 850: Dictation, day 40
I made the mistake last night of going to bed too late. I'm still trying to finish the library books that I borrowed which are due in a couple days, so I stayed up too late trying to read. As a result, I got up late this morning.
My IBS was feeling better this morning, and I had enough energy to get some exercise done, which made me glad. When my IBS is bad, my exercise usually gets neglected, and that can make my body ache in various places when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours writing.
I was going to do my dictation right after my exercise, but I had some time-dependent house chores that needed to be done first. I also ended up doing a few “frogs", so now it's afternoon and it feels like yesterday, where I did my frogs before I started work on the writing. So I completely failed at trying to get the writing done first.
Maybe because it's the early afternoon, but I also procrastinated again before starting my writing work. I'm still not entirely sure why I do this. I really do enjoy the writing, but for some reason, getting started is a huge hurdle in terms of inertia.
I haven't yet had a chance to read the books on procrastination that I have on my ebook reader, so I will have to try to do that today. Actually, I will do that after I finish reading my library books.
I wonder if it would have been easier to get started on work if I had woken up earlier. Maybe I would be less likely to procrastinate if I started the work earlier in the day? I'll have to do my best to go to bed on time and get up earlier tomorrow morning.
Since I wasted time procrastinating, I decided to simply get started on my writing without doing any other dictation exercises. A part of me thinks this might be a bad idea, and I should do dictation exercises before I start working on the writing, but since it is so much later in the day, I feel like I don't want to waste time doing dictation exercises when I could be doing the writing instead. Also, while I did feel like there was some improvement in my dictation after I did the exercises, I didn’t do them consistently or very many times, and the few times I did them, I didn’t see any significant difference in my dictation speed according to the numbers. So the dictation exercises feel like a “nice” thing to do if I had time, but not something I absolutely need to do in order to do the dictation of my manuscript.
I also admit, that a part of me doesn't want to do the dictation exercises because I find them kind of boring. And since it has been so hard for me to overcome the inertia and get started on my writing, I want to just start the writing and get right to work.
***
I dictated for an hour and I could tell that my dictation speed wasn’t very fast—I stopped a lot to think, and I even had to rewrite several paragraphs at once. So I was a bit surprised that my speed was around 3000 words per hour, so not as bad as I thought. Unfortunately I ended up deleting a lot and only had about 2700 usable words after cleanup editing.
Will my dictation speed increase the more I do it? I hope so. I’m glad I’m keeping track of the number of days I’ve been doing the dictation, because it’s a good reminder that I’ve only been doing this for 40 days, and those weren’t even consecutive days.
Reading back over what I blogged earlier, I wonder if I should try brainstorming ways to make the dictation exercises a bit more fun? That might help me to do them, which might give them a chance to help me improve in my dictation.
I’m a bit disappointed that I’m only doing about 2 hours of writing work a day, but I’m getting a little less than 3000 words a day written, which is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully if I can start to feel better soon, then I can have more energy to write for longer. Also, if I can wake up earlier and get started on my dictation earlier, I might be able to dictate for longer than I have been.
Writing streak: 329 days
My takeaway for today: Keeping track of the number of days I’ve been doing dictation is a good reminder and a definitive way to see that I haven’t been trying this for very long at all.
My second takeaway for today: Brainstorm ways to make the dictation exercises more fun for me so that I will be more eager to utilize them to improve my dictation.
My IBS was feeling better this morning, and I had enough energy to get some exercise done, which made me glad. When my IBS is bad, my exercise usually gets neglected, and that can make my body ache in various places when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours writing.
I was going to do my dictation right after my exercise, but I had some time-dependent house chores that needed to be done first. I also ended up doing a few “frogs", so now it's afternoon and it feels like yesterday, where I did my frogs before I started work on the writing. So I completely failed at trying to get the writing done first.
Maybe because it's the early afternoon, but I also procrastinated again before starting my writing work. I'm still not entirely sure why I do this. I really do enjoy the writing, but for some reason, getting started is a huge hurdle in terms of inertia.
I haven't yet had a chance to read the books on procrastination that I have on my ebook reader, so I will have to try to do that today. Actually, I will do that after I finish reading my library books.
I wonder if it would have been easier to get started on work if I had woken up earlier. Maybe I would be less likely to procrastinate if I started the work earlier in the day? I'll have to do my best to go to bed on time and get up earlier tomorrow morning.
Since I wasted time procrastinating, I decided to simply get started on my writing without doing any other dictation exercises. A part of me thinks this might be a bad idea, and I should do dictation exercises before I start working on the writing, but since it is so much later in the day, I feel like I don't want to waste time doing dictation exercises when I could be doing the writing instead. Also, while I did feel like there was some improvement in my dictation after I did the exercises, I didn’t do them consistently or very many times, and the few times I did them, I didn’t see any significant difference in my dictation speed according to the numbers. So the dictation exercises feel like a “nice” thing to do if I had time, but not something I absolutely need to do in order to do the dictation of my manuscript.
I also admit, that a part of me doesn't want to do the dictation exercises because I find them kind of boring. And since it has been so hard for me to overcome the inertia and get started on my writing, I want to just start the writing and get right to work.
***
I dictated for an hour and I could tell that my dictation speed wasn’t very fast—I stopped a lot to think, and I even had to rewrite several paragraphs at once. So I was a bit surprised that my speed was around 3000 words per hour, so not as bad as I thought. Unfortunately I ended up deleting a lot and only had about 2700 usable words after cleanup editing.
Will my dictation speed increase the more I do it? I hope so. I’m glad I’m keeping track of the number of days I’ve been doing the dictation, because it’s a good reminder that I’ve only been doing this for 40 days, and those weren’t even consecutive days.
Reading back over what I blogged earlier, I wonder if I should try brainstorming ways to make the dictation exercises a bit more fun? That might help me to do them, which might give them a chance to help me improve in my dictation.
I’m a bit disappointed that I’m only doing about 2 hours of writing work a day, but I’m getting a little less than 3000 words a day written, which is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully if I can start to feel better soon, then I can have more energy to write for longer. Also, if I can wake up earlier and get started on my dictation earlier, I might be able to dictate for longer than I have been.
Writing streak: 329 days
My takeaway for today: Keeping track of the number of days I’ve been doing dictation is a good reminder and a definitive way to see that I haven’t been trying this for very long at all.
My second takeaway for today: Brainstorm ways to make the dictation exercises more fun for me so that I will be more eager to utilize them to improve my dictation.
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