Adjusting my daily writing objective to be done first thing in the morning has really helped me stay on track. Other than one day that involved a lot of travel, I’ve written my 250-word goal without issue. Addressing my writing early has helped me to get away from journaling and writing more topical pieces I don’t feel fit the format of this blog.
If You’re Going to Do Something Do It First
The struggle I had in the previous post was that I found myself burnt out by the end of the day. Hitting a word count goal quickly became writing whatever came from mind to page the fastest. To try and combat this, I adjusted my goal this past week. Instead of 750 words per day, I am only aiming for a minimum of 250. The caveat is that I need to complete the writing before I leave for the day.
This adjustment means one of the first things I do in the morning is write. What I love writing early is that I usually write well over my word goal. One day I wrote over 500 words.
Helpful Habits
A majority of my thinking happens during long walks. For a few weeks now I’ve been trying to get a nightly walk in. It was during one of these walks I had probably one of my brightest ideas, “what if I did this in the morning to help spark my writing?”
I started trying to get shorter walks in right after waking up. A quick walk around the block has helped get ideas flowing while my body still wakes up. If you ever have a case of writer’s block, I recommend a walk, no matter how short.
Morning walks have been extremely helpful when I’m staring at a blank page with little in mind, but luckily, I’ve had a lot of topics bouncing around. Often, I’ve had an idea in mind the night before and will start writing it immediately after making my bed – the true first task of my day.
New Topics
The format of this blog has been a lot of fun, but I am cautious to move away from the trial and weekly post setup I’ve been utilizing for well over a year now. This
A broad range of subjects interest me. I frequently read lifestyle and personal finance blogs and watch videos ranging from media analysis to cooking shows to outright educational content.
Taking this time to write in the morning has been a lot of fun to explore these other interests. I don’t expect that I’ll move away from this format on this blog, but I’ve long thought about creating a separate personal blog that was a little more loosely run. Posts might be made as written and completed, rather than on a particular schedule.
In the past week, I’ve written about debt, The Lord of the Rings, and even themes found in one of my favorite games. I have a suggestion from my cousin to write about “defeat” so I may be giving that a try in the coming days.
Everything so far has been early stage drafts, but I hope to expand and fine tune the ideas that I really enjoy writing about. One of the major objectives for this trial was to expand my writing in different directions, and even if I never “publish” what I’ve written over the past few weeks, I know I’m improving my craft. That is enough in my book.
Trying Out Before Buying In 