Accountability, again

I am a person who does better with clear and concrete goals.  And accountability.  I’ve written about that before.  I began my 30-day blog challenge on June 23 and finished it on July 22.  I publicly committed to blogging thirty days in a row, and so I did.  The topics, quality and length of the posts varied – but, I stuck to my commitment and did it.  It was tough and also rewarding.  I never meant to continue blogging every single day, but I figured I’d fall into a routine of blogging a few times a week.  I blogged twice at the beginning of August.  And then…nothing.  My mistake was thinking that a natural (magical?) blogging routine would grow out of my thirty day challenge.  My mistake was not setting up goals and accountability for myself.  I knew that I wanted to continue blogging on a regular basis.  I’m not sure why I didn’t realize that I needed a clear goal.  Otherwise, all the excuses and busyness that prevented me from blogging before would stop me again.  Yes, I was applying to and interviewing for part-time jobs.  Yes, we were busy with all sorts of end-of-summer events.  Yes, I was gearing up for the school year ahead – getting my sons ready for their freshman and junior years in high school and starting to plan the homeschool year with my daughter.  But there’s always something.  There was always something during the thirty day blog challenge too.  But even when there’s always something, I want to write.  I have to learn that lesson over and over again, it seems.    

I was thinking about writing goals while reading a couple of interesting articles. The first was on a website called 99U-Insightson making ideas happen.  The article, "How I Kept a 373-Day Productivity Streak Unbroken," was written by author Jamie Todd Rubin.  He writes about how a shift in thinking  - from assuming that a daily writing habit required large blocks of uninterrupted time to realizing that he could maximize writing in smaller chunks of time (even just 10-20 minutes) - transformed his writing life.  In the article, Rubin outlines some other strategies that have helped him continue his 373-day (now longer) writing streak:  writing as early in the day as possible; having multiple writing projects to choose to work on; and tackling projects from different angles when writer's block appears.  As a follow up to that article, he wrote more specifically about the details of his writing streak on his own website with a post titled "FAQ on My Ongoing Consecutive Day Writing Streak."  Rubin explains what "counts" as writing in his streak and what he has actually produced and published during his streak.  He includes statistics and programs that he uses to keep track of his writing.  Honestly, I didn't really understand or care to understand all of that technical stuff.  But, obviously, it works for him.  As of today, he has written for 413 consecutive days!  I find Rubin's story to be very motivating.  He found what works for him.  And since he is a published science fiction author, he has also found success.     

My own goal, of course, will be different than Jamie Todd Rubin's.  I am not planning to write everyday for hundreds of days.  My own goal for right now is to blog three times per week.  I don't plan to use an elaborate program to track my blogging goal.  I will keep track of it on a paper calendar.  However, to bring in the important element of accountability, I may decide to track my three posts per week in a more public way.  I'm still thinking about that.  Well, that's my first post for this week.  Two more to go!