Phew. Got knocked around a bit last week getting sick, but I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised: it was a ridiculous couple of weeks, what with a grandparent dying, a grandparent getting critically ill, and me suddenly acquiring a mini leadership role at work o.O So yeah. Not especially surprised, really, that as soon as I had a weekend off, the body went GREAT, WE ARE GETTING SICK, and promptly did.
In the past, being knocked out for a week like that would have pretty much knocked me out of writing for at least another couple of weeks as I tried to get back into the swing and habit of things. But thanks to this new/old technique I’m using, as soon as I was feeling mostly able-brained again on Sunday, it was pretty straightforward to pick things up again.
(Note I didn’t say easy. It’s never easy to get to the computer to write. Procrastination and prioritising literally everything else on top of writing because you’re secretly afraid that your writing is going to be terrible and it’s not justifiable to spend the time on it is a major downer in a lot of writers’ schedules.)
So what am I doing differently? Glad you asked š
I am, as best as I can manage, tracking effort, rather than output.
In practice, that means focusing on tracking minutes spent writing, rather than word count achieved.
Obviously I record the word count too, because record keeping and completeness etc etc, but the time spent writing comes first. And I also record how many words per minute I wrote, which becomes incredibly motivating: suddenly, instead of thinking that it’s too late to write or I’m too busy or whatever, I can literally type a couple of sentences for less than five minutes, and that counts in my spreadsheet as time spent writing, and I still get a sticker in my diary for it.
It’s hard to make a case not to write when you see that you can write a solid 160 – 200 words in literally five minutes – and the sprints add up, and what they add up to faster than words is motivation.
Especially, might I add, because of that little detail of giving myself the sticker in my diary of Yes I Wrote Words, regardless of how long I spent doing so. The 24th of October, when I wrote 25 words in 2 minutes and that was it for the day? Yep. Still got my sticker. The 11th of October, when I raced through 1764 words in 55 minutes? Yep. Same degree of stickeritude.
Because what this says to my subconscious is that yes, writing is good, all writing, and doing more feels good.
I’ve tried it the other way, counting words, and that inevitably for me leads to dissatisfaction with my output. Oh, I only wrote 200 words today. Urgh, I haven’t written more than 500 words in a day all week. URGH, why I can’t write faster? Why aren’t I better? Why aren’t I more? Tracking productivity just leads to spiralling, sooner (sometimes after a few days) or later (maybe a year, if I can navigate through without any Life Speedbumps).
Instead, focusing on “Did I write, yes or no?” and counting minutes leads to questions like, Did I write today? Can I force myself to focus for just two minutes here (knowing perfectly well that two usually turns into ten)? Even if I have no clue where the scene is going, can I just write one sentence so I can get my sticker for the day? How can I fit more minutes of writing into my day? When can I write next? Can I squeeze in a couple of minutes in the waiting room? What about while dinner cooks on the stove?
This kind of thinking snowballs for me too, but in a positive direction. Instead of a negative pattern of URGH WHY CAN’T I WRITE FASTER, writing becomes a game of OMG HOW CAN I STEAL A MINUTE OR TWO HERE OR THERE SO I CAN ADD STUFF TO MY SPREADSHEET, WHEE, LOOKIT ME SUCCEEDING!
…Why am I telling you all this?
Because I’m betting a lot of you are creating things, too. I bet there’s something you wish you could do faster, or create more of, or be better at. And I think you’ll find that counting effort rather than productivity has the surprising effect of improving both š
If you’d tried something similar, let me know! And if you’ve hit that negative spiral of measuring yourself by your output, let me know too, and I’ll feed you cookies and reassure you that you’re a quality human being, regardless of how many Units Of Stuff you make in a day <3 <3 <3