Different Directions

The different writing goals I’ve set for myself over the past few weeks have been a mix of compliance and failure. Changing things up at the midpoint definitely helped, but it didn’t take long for bad habits to get in the way again.. Overall, things were still a ton of fun. I was able to try a lot of different styles of writing that I don’t get to explore as much here.

Need for a Change

The beginning of the trial I was feeling good, writing just about every night. The problem was my writing was really accomplishing what I wanted. The 750 words I was writing simply become a journal, which I had already given a try early on.

I then tried to write on different subjects, but then I wasn’t doing well in hitting the word count I was aiming for. Thus, another change was in sight.

Changing the frame of the trial from 750 words to 250 words before I left for work definitely helped. I found myself getting up early and exceeding my word count on several days.

Unfortunately, this did not last as long as I would have hoped. Staying up late one night too many led to bad mornings of getting up with little time to write led to rushed or skipping writing that day.

Cross Discipline

My favorite part of this trial was branching out into different styles of writing I don’t often get to explore with the format of this blog.

I wrote essays on different media, a movie review, and some general thought pieces on things that interest me. I have a particular interest in personal finance, and I really enjoyed a piece I did on debt.

Throughout this trial I’ve actually thought of starting a separate personal blog that was a lot less structured, and really to serve as a place to publish works that don’t really fit the idea for this blog. It also gives me the excuse to have less of a regular release schedule there. It’s not a wholely new idea and still up in the air, but let me know if that’s something you would be interested in reading.

At the End of It All

This trial was really a learning session for practicing different approaches  for accomplishing better writing habits. It was also a huge opportunity to strengthen other writing styles.

In some ways it was a success, but unfortunately in others it was not so much. I do think writing in the morning is the best method for me. The thing I need to focus on is other habits to enable that.

With that in mind, I am going to try a habit I’ve been putting off for some time. I am going to try and wake up at 5 AM every weekday and 6 AM on the weekends over the next four weeks. I have never been a morning person, and so I want to push myself far beyond my comfort zone.