September 29, 2010

I want to check in with you writers who are doing the “Grab 15″ from Habit #1 and the 100-Day Challenge. How are you coming with “chunking down” your goals into tiny slices you can accomplish in 20-minute segments of time? (Leave an update in the comments.)

It reminded me of a blog post from two years ago, and I’m going to run it below because it goes along with our daily writing challenge.

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I’m a sucker for daily reminders from various websites. I get writing reminders, fitness reminders, and blog notices. Today in a couple of fitness emails I realized the solution to a writing problem I have this morning.

First, there was an email from SparkPeople on getting fit called “Success is an Attitude.” A woman wrote: “I plan to lose 50 pounds over a year. I am not setting myself up for any big disappointments by trying to lose too much too fast. Every day is a new day. Every day can be a successful day.” Smart lady, I thought.

Then I read an article from Runner’s World about “The Ten Rules of Weight Loss.” The first rule said, “To lose 10 pounds of body fat a year, you need to eat 100 calories less per day. Cutting too many calories from your daily intake will sap your energy level and increase your hunger, making you more susceptible to splurging on high-calorie foods.”

Parallels with Writing

Ah-ha! Do you see a parallel with writing? I sure do. My natural tendency is to get behind schedule, grit my teeth, buckle down, and plan to write 5,000 words every day for two weeks to finish a project. Who am I kidding?

I can maybe keep up that grueling schedule for several days, but soon I’m depleted, with back and head aching, and I want to eat everything in sight and vege out through a couple of chick flicks. Then it takes me a week to make myself write again, thus averaging out my writing to something like 1000 words per day (or less).

Why not just write 500 easy words every single day–or several times a day in 30-minute slices? That would be a breeze! They’d add up, I wouldn’t get that familiar neck and hip pain from sitting too long—and I would meet the deadlines.

Chunk It Down!

I need to take the attitude of the lady who planned to lose fifty pounds by losing one pound per week. A little bit done every day. What was it that she said?

That way every day is a new day. Every day can be a successful day. What a great description of the perfect writing life!

10 Comments »

1. 

   I’m on the way. Determined my goals, strengths, and obstacles. Created a timeline worksheet and a master task list. Posted the “Seven Essential Habits” near my desk. Completed a couple of twenty-minute tasks. Now to stick with it! Thanks for your help, Kristi.

   Comment by Deanna — September 29, 2010 @ 1:08 pm

2. 

   Hello,
   Here’s my update. I’ve got a long list and my large goals/projects aren’t to clear but my list is getting done. I’ve only listed items which take no more than 30 minutes to do. If I do find a listed item that takes longer I cross it off my list & break it down into smaller pieces. I plan to work on my goals/projects this weekend.
   Ally

   Comment by Ally M — September 29, 2010 @ 2:09 pm

3. 

   Yes, every day I am able to work on my novel. I missed a couple of days because I was mucho sick, but that’s life. At least the kids and pets were taken care of and they are far more important than any novel.

   Comment by Vijaya — September 29, 2010 @ 2:26 pm

4. 

   I’ve been keeping a daily record for my fifteen minutes of daily writing. The first day I wrote “Wrote, time not measured, too many interruptions from children,” can you hear my lack of enthusiasm? As I continued to give it my best shot I wrote things like ‘I think I wrote,’ to ‘starting to adjust to writing in a busy and loud environment,’ to ‘getting lots done.’ The comment I recorded that really showed progress was the one that said, “Wow. Not so much writers block, everything is advancing faster, the quality and quantity is remarkable and I can focus while my children make the legs of my chair a May-pole!” I have not lost anything from sparing fifteen minutes (or so) each day, I have gained – in fact, I gained more than I thought I ever would!

   Comment by Andrea — September 29, 2010 @ 2:37 pm

5. 

   “Every day can be a successful day.” Yeah. I’m totally going to print that out in three-inch letters and wallpaper the wall beside my desk with that phrase! (Can’t hurt for the rest of my family to be reminded either!)

   As far as my challenge, if I can finish a scene, I’m successful. If I keep going and finish a *chapter*, I’m golden! So far, so good.

   Comment by Yvette — September 29, 2010 @ 7:43 pm

6. 

   So far I’m loving “chunking down” in the 100-day challenge. Instead of putting big tasks on my to-do list like “research X” or “edit Y” I write “research X for 30 minutes”. I now feel like I’ve accomplished my goal for the day because I’m not writing down a big goal that takes a lot of time to complete as a daily task.

   Comment by Laura Helweg — September 30, 2010 @ 8:07 am

7. 

   Kristi, how do you make short enough tasks to do in only 20 minutes? I struggle with this, because I’m too much of a perfectionist, I guess. I like to complete a task, not feel like I’ve left it undone. For example, my task was to find a market for a particular devotion. By the time I check out the market guide, find some fits, look online for more information, and rule out some markets, I was well over the time and able to add to my task list. Do I need to narrow down my tasks even more or am I just slow?

   Comment by Trudy — September 30, 2010 @ 11:41 am

8. 

   100-Day Challenge — Wrote 1200 words last night. Planned for 20 min; wrote for 45. Tends to happen that way. But I’m planning on the 20 min, 5 nights a week to finish my wip by January. Then multiple 20 min intervals on weekends to work on freelance stuff. I’m enjoying this part. A little hung up on the “hidden assets” though.

   Comment by PatriciaW — September 30, 2010 @ 11:51 am

9. 

   That’s so true. Large is overwhelming. Small consistencies are better.

   I love SparkPeople, by the way. Thanks to their bite-sized exercises on Youtube, my jeans now fit much better after two months of small consistencies. A war is won in the small battles, I think.

   Comment by Beth Mac — September 30, 2010 @ 4:15 pm

10. 

    Such fantastic comments and good news! You are all really doing well at retraining your brains. In fact, these comments are too good not to share elsewhere!

    Comment by Kristi Holl — October 1, 2010 @ 8:01 am

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