Day 971 - 450 day writing streak!

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Okay, actually I’m posting this on Monday because I had bad IBS on Saturday and couldn’t post this then, but my writing streak reached 450 days! I’ve written at least 100 words or 5 minutes every single day for 450 consecutive days.

It got easier for me to discipline myself to keep the streak as it grew longer, simply because I didn’t want to have to break it! It was sometimes hard to do those few minutes of writing on days when I had bad IBS pains or a sinus headache, but I knew I could at the very least lie in bed and write a few minutes on my phone, so I had no excuse.

The biggest benefit has been that I have kept my head in my story. Before, whenever I skipped writing due to IBS or a headache, sometimes I wouldn’t get right back to work for a few days—the IBS especially usually flares up for a few days at a time. So by the time I got back to writing, I had to reorient myself with the scene and the story. It felt a bit like a hill I had to bike over, but I’d stopped pedaling at the bottom of the hill, so I had to work harder to regain lost momentum. 

Since I’ve been writing every day, I haven’t had to do that. It has made me much more efficient and productive when I finally do get back to a regular day’s writing.

Also, even on days I intend to only do the bare minimum, I usually write more. Especially with dictation, I can dictate for almost 15 minutes sometimes before the IBS pain distracts me again.

So, I would definitely recommend trying a writing streak. If you want a more detailed analysis of what I did and why I think it worked, check out the post I did on day 731.

Writing streak: 450 days

Dictation streak: 26 days

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