Day 948 - Walking and dictating

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to be better about my social media. Unfortunately, that also means that social media has become a distraction for me during the day whereas before it wasn’t at all, since I wasn’t on it at all.

So I have to confess that I spent too long on social media today before I started writing, and so I began work a bit later in the day than I had wanted to.

I know that getting away from my computer is best in order to remove the distraction of social media, so when I started my dictation today, instead of sitting at my desk to dictate like I did before, I took my digital recorder and dictated while walking around my house. Not as nice as when I walk outside, but it was raining so I had to make do.

Walking around helped me to focus on the dictation and get it done without being distracted by social media, so I consider that a win.

I dictated a tiny bit faster than yesterday, but I also had less to delete, and so my dictation was overall more efficient than yesterday. I finished a short scene, but I didn’t continue because today’s a designated marketing day.

Since I’d gotten started late, I didn’t have as much time to do my marketing as I’d wanted, and I ended up working past my bedtime. But I think I got a lot done—mostly planning out my marketing for the next few months. It helps me to have a To Do list with all my tasks separated into small items that can be done in only a few minutes. That way, I remember to get everything done, but the tasks are separated into things I can do over several days if I need to.

I hope I can continue the dictation streak. I think I end up writing more when I dictate because it’s easy to just continue talking until the scene is done. Also, since it’s such a pain to get the dictation transcribed with Dragon NaturallySpeaking (mostly because my computer is so old and slow and I’m running an older version of Dragon to correspond with my aging OS), I end up wanting to finish the scene so that I can have as few files to transcribe as possible.

In contrast, when I’m typing, somehow it’s easier to just stop in the middle of the scene if I get tired. Also, now that I’m doing more social media, I have to be wary of being distracted by social media, even and especially in the middle of a writing session. At the moment I just don’t have the self-discipline and I don’t trust myself to not get distracted.

So I think that the dictation can actually save me by forcing me to write away from my computer and all the distractions there.

As for my procrastination this morning, what I think I will do is what they always tell you to do to battle procrastination—do it first thing. I was trying to do my cycle editing before I started my writing, but instead I can do my dictation first and then do the cycle edit while I’m waiting for my dictation to be transcribed.

Writing streak: 427 days

Dictation streak: 3 days

My takeaway for today: Walking and dictating takes me away from the distractions of social media on my computer.

My second takeaway for today: I think I write more when I dictate since it’s easy to keep talking until a scene is finished and I’m less likely to stop in the middle of the scene.

My third takeaway for today: To prevent procrastination, I’ll try doing my dictation first thing in the morning, instead of the cycle edit, and do the edit while I’m waiting for the dictation to be transcribed.