Day 928 - Blogging for accountability to prevent laziness

-

The problem with not blogging is that I got lazy and I don’t have the accountability of needing to confess on a blog post what I did or didn’t do that day. I fully admit I was lazy yesterday and after only about an hour of writing, I did some reading.

I do know that I haven’t been reading enough and so I probably needed to refill the creative well. I feel much less antsy today and more focused on work.

I had forgotten that I need the accountability of blogging in order to prevent myself from slacking off. I hadn’t been blogging because I haven’t learned anything new in regards to my productivity and efficiency. I’m doing my “frogs” each morning, then getting started on work. I first do my self-editing on what I wrote the day before, then I get started on writing the scene for the day.

My writing speed is a bit slower than before because I sometimes take the time to look up research. I know it’s not efficient, especially since I want to write faster, but I found during the self-editing pass on my last book that when my rough draft is too rough, the editing simply doesn’t catch everything. I’m just not good enough at self-editing to focus on details if there are too many other things I need to fix. So I’m going slower and trying to make the rough draft cleaner, in hopes that the self-editing pass will be more detailed and comprehensive if there aren’t as many things to fix. I don’t know if it’ll work, so this is an experiment to see how the book turns out.

Anyway, each day my schedule has been pretty much the same and I haven’t tried many experiments to improve my productivity, so I didn't blog because I thought that might give me more time for writing (since I tend to take too long when I blog). But it turns out that not blogging is a bad thing since I didn’t have the accountability I needed to keep myself from having a lazy day yesterday. And actually, the day before wasn’t all that productive, either. So I’m going to try to get back to blogging regularly.

I know I realized this before, this is not new to me. But I always forget and then have a few lazy days, and then remember that I need to blog for accountability. It doesn’t matter if absolutely no one reads this—I know that I have to confess what I did that day, which motivates me not to be a slacker.

I admit I’m a bit distracted today because Christmas is coming up and we have lots to do in preparation. I’ve made a list but I always worry I’ve forgotten to list something. So the list and that worry has distracted me a bit today.

I’m also distracted because my book just released on Wednesday and I’m running ads for the first time in order to try to increase sales. The entire thing is new to me and honestly reminds me a lot of gambling, so I’m a little excited and apprehensive at the same time. It takes me a while to look at my ads and try to figure out what’s going on, and that took up the majority of my time this morning.

So I’m a little late getting started on my writing. However, I’ve finished my “frogs” so I don’t have any tasks that might nag at me while I’m working, and because I did a lot of reading yesterday, I feel like my creative well is a bit more full today. Or at least, I feel more focused on my work today than I did yesterday, which usually means my creative well is topped off.

***

I finished the scene I was working on, writing for over 2.5 hours and 2700 words. There’s a weird kind of rush when I finish a scene. I suppose it’s endorphins, which encourages me to finish a scene the next day, and the next. I’m glad I got it done.

Writing streak: 407 days

My takeaway for today: When I don’t blog, I don’t have accountability and am more likely to get lazy since I don’t have to confess on a blog post what I did or didn’t do for work that day. Try to blog every day even if it seems like it’s not much different from the day before.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 783: Evaluation 7

-
It’s been almost seven months since I wrote my last Evaluation 6 , but I finally got around to Evaluation #7! Here’s the gist of what I’ve learned over the past few months about my writing and productivity. New schedule My IBS was slowly been starting to feel better recently. I am still extremely strict with my diet, but I am also starting to experiment with what foods I can and can’t eat. I have also started a new eating and sleeping schedule, which I have dubbed my “chrono-diet” because I’m trying to take advantage of my circadian rhythm, according to the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (I had borrowed a copy from the library but I enjoyed it so much I went ahead and bought it). I have started waking up at 6 am and exercising first thing, then having breakfast after exercise. I do house chores and/or work until noon, which is when I eat lunch. I’m supposed to not eat until dinner around 5:30 or 6, but I haven’t been able to break the habit of snacking in the aftern...
Read more

Day 252: Evaluation 5

-
It’s been a while since I’ve done an evaluation, so I figured I was overdue. In no particular order: Good health = good work I had some really bad health issues lately that kept me from writing entirely. However, I found it strange that I’ve been feeling very creative and motivated yesterday and today, despite getting in a lot of work hours yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t had any IBS issues for the first time in a couple weeks. Not even a little discomfort. This is kind of duh! in hindsight, but I think I underestimated how much my IBS was affecting my energy levels. I’ve been careful about what I ate, but I was also trying to figure out exactly what I could and couldn’t eat, so it resulted in some bad IBS bouts. So now I know I really need to be strict about what I’m putting in my mouth so that my health doesn’t adversely affect my energy for work! Sprints Another sort of duh! moment in hindsight, but sprints have been helping me with my productivity. At f...
Read more

Day 21: Bullet journal, Surrender statement

-
Today was my writing Sabbath so I didn’t do any writing today, but I spent a lot of time doing writing-related things. I did some blogging, and I also reviewed my writing To Do list. I cleaned it up by checking off what’s been done, deleting what I no longer need to do, and making note of what I need to do this coming week. Before I started bullet journaling (in an electronic journal app, Day One Journal ), I had my To Do lists in a couple different places and I’d usually forget things I needed to do. Now I have them in my bullet journal, which combines journaling with task organizer, and I’m less likely to forget. I still set reminders for myself in my phone, but since I’m using my journal throughout the day every day, I’m more likely to see things I need to do. I found some of my old To Do lists today and incorporated some things in my bullet journal. One of them was my writing Surrender Statement, which is a prayer I pray before starting each day’s work. What’s a Surrender Sta...
Read more