February Challenge: Write Every Day

I’ve been struggling a bit with juggling my writing projects as the semester picks up, so I’m trying something new as I head into February. I’ve been doing really well with making small, ritualized changes and establishing new habits. All that attention I’ve been focusing on Sleep has had a tangible effect, just like when I focused in previous months on getting Organized or Uncluttered. I still have to check in with myself on all those areas, but focusing on creating good habits instead of on one-shot outcomes has really taken most of the effort out of them. I don’t have to think about keeping my house neat or my email caught up hardly at all anymore, and I’m getting there with the sleep thing. In February, I’m focusing on Writing.

So here’s the plan: instead of addressing all the smaller, less intimidating tasks on my ToDo list first thing in the morning – writing emails, making phone calls, writing blog posts(!) – I’m using a timer and working on Most Important Tasks first. Most Important Tasks are also known as Scariest, Most Whine-Inducing Tasks. They are the tasks most integral to furthering my Big Life Plans (hence the anxiety and avoidance). Ironically, they are also the tasks that I find the most fun once I get going on them. I just need to actually get started on them, and then things truck along nicely.

My attention span mid-morning is a little over 2 hours, so that’s my time frame. I have more than one writing project, so I’m thinking about that time in terms of circuits that I do every work day.

Circuit 1: 30 MINUTES – FICTION: My daily word count goal is low so that’s plenty of time to meet and exceed it even if I’m really stuck.

Circuit 2: 60 MINUTES – DISSERTATION: It’s amazing what you can accomplish in an hour if you’re focused. I re-learned this at Dissertation Boot Camp in January. If I have to use this time for research, that’s fine, but it has to be offline research. No internet!

Circuit 3: 45 MINUTES – TASK OF THE DAY: Most often this will be more dissertation writing, but occasionally it will be fellowship or grant applications. Those have deadlines, and I want to make sure I’m getting them done with time to spare.

Here’s the key – this is a small change, as I spend this time writing every day already, but it’s a drastic change, too, in that I’m limiting what I work on during that time to the things I most need to get done. There’s plenty of time in the afternoon to do all the piddly things I’ve been doing in the morning.

All month long, this is the change I’m going to focus on making. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Tagged as: habit change, writing