You all remember well when I said I would try to write every single day for 60 days, right? I bring some news: it’s hard.
I had this idea: to take 4-5 hours a day to write a post and finish it within a week. Simple enough, right? I thought it so…
Initially, I build up a plan with all the subjects I’d like to cover! Good idea, but I had enough topics to write a book, not a blog post. It took me two weeks of writing and I couldn’t even get to half of it 😅.
As I further dedicate myself to the glorious art of writing (sarcasm 🙃), I discover how tricky it is as well. At least I can share my experience with you.
- 🟢 Planning
- planning the subjects I should cover was a very good idea.
- I kept focus between writing pauses.
- I had a broader sense of the whole text.
- 🔴 Feasibility
- elaborating the plan took me a whole day, but executing it would take me a whole month.
- don’t make it perfect
- planning too much is idealization.
- 🔵 Plan in steps
- divide the text into simpler subposts.
- focus on one subposts at a time.
- the subposts have to be finished within a week.
- split the plan and then split it again.
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🔵 Planning should forsee my motivation.
- having a blog is an endless task: I am the only one to set the limit.
- On my last post, I was excited on the first week, but kind of lost the thrill on the second week because it felt endless. That’s why I believe that the plan for the next week should be done with this mindset: “where can I get by monday if I dedicate 3 hours everyday this week” instead of “I need to dedicate 3 hours per day to get this post done by the end of the week”. There is a big difference.
- plan to yourself, not to the post
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🟢 Routine
- I don’t like routine a lot, but I confess it helped me with the last post. Every weekday now I wake up, make my bed, have breakfast, brush my teeth and take a shower before going to the computer. I’d like to add exercises and meditation to this as well, but more about this on the future. After this simple morning routine, I definitely feel like I can get more focus and get in the zone easier.
- I do it whenever I can did not work. Now, I try to deal with this blog just like a job: from 9AM until 5PM with a 2 hour break. This really helps me stay motivated on the long run.
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🔵 Weekends
Relaxing is unstructured whereas focusing is planed, Cal Newport
- The quote is from the Deep Work book. I am going to try to do work on the site next weekend.
- structure the weekend and the pauses too.
I feel like I learned a lot with the previous experience. There are still other things to be considered and enhancements to be made, but I am content with how things are going for now. Soon this might start to get some traction.