Writing Log

January 2013

in Communication

As mentioned, I’m aiming to write at least 1,000 words a week in 2013. This is actually lower than my ideal, but I’m starting nice and low on purpose, to make sure it’s achievable. Once I can do this reliably I’ll up the number.

Total Word Count by Week

The following graph is generated from a simple Google spreadsheet. Each bar represents a complete week of 2013. The separate colors are from the separate word count entries I’ve added for that week; they don’t mean anything special.


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Writing in 2013

January 2013

in Meta

(This post is pretty meta—more of a personal reflection than a useful idea.)

So here we are … No calendars bursting into flames. No end of the world. No apocalypse. Lots of disappointed end-of-the-world-ers. It seems 2013 is happening after all.

I’ve written before about doing a past-year review and next-year plan. I also released a short PDF guide that goes into a little more detail about how I do it.

A big part of my planning for this year was deciding what to do with this very blog.

Review of 2012

First off, some honesty here, every bloody year I set some awesome, super-duper plan to write about all sorts of amazing and useful things. But not much happens, largely because of:

  1. General perfectionism problems. I truly am my own worst critic. If it’s not amazing, it’s not to see the light of day. I have a really hard time with this.
  2. Too much planning, not enough writing. Oh lordy, my planning sins are too many to count! I have made huge strides in doing more doing, yet I still spend far too much time thinking and planning. End result: a whole lot’a nothing.
  3. Prioritizing learning over writing. I made the conscious decision in 2012 to focus more on learning than writing. I’m okay with this, I think it was a good plan, but now it’s time to shift from a 99/1 reading/writing split to a more 50/50 split.

There are other reasons too, but those are a few of the biggies. What’s a guy to do?

The Plan for 2013

  1. Write more, period. Just as I tracked my pomodoros publicly for the past few months, I’m going to track my number of words written. The goal, for starters? A mere 1,000 words per week. Historically, any other writing goals I’ve set were way too high, leading to stress, burnout, and unhappiness (with regards to my writing, not life, thankfully). Time to start smaller and work from there.
  2. Write more frequent, shorter posts that try to convey a single idea. This will reduce the amount of time needed to write a single post (shorter delays), provide more rapid feedback, provide more satisfaction from seeing posts go live (i.e. success spirals), and reduce the resistance that comes from trying to keep a 5,000 word post organized, on topic, etc.
  3. Turn my pages and pages of notes into posts. During my year review I realized just how much content I have scattered across hundreds of pages of notes and mind maps. Time to start sharing.
  4. Remind myself regularly why I want to be a better writer. I already put up a post-it note above my monitor with a bunch of my reasons.

You may have noticed that some of these are taken directly from the procrastination equation. That’s because it works.

So, you may be seeing a lot more content on alexvermeer.com than before, and possibly less organized than before. You’ve been warned. (Also, my perfectionism demon has been temporarily culled.)

In short: blah blah blah disclaimer disclaimer blah blah blah, I needed to write this to help get me over the various barriers preventing me from writing more and create a little public accountability. :-)

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Post image for 8,760 Hours: How to get the most out of next year

Update (December 2016): Version 2 of this guide is now available! Announcement post here. Links in this post are updated to send you to the latest and greatest version.

Click here to download 8,760 Hours v2
 

The end of a year is the perfect time to review one’s life, goals, plans, and projects, as well as plan for the upcoming year. I’ve been fine-tuning my own review process for several years and thought others might be interested to know what I do and how.

So, I wrote up my general year review process in a short PDF guide titled “8,760 Hours”—a reference to the number of hours in a year. This is essentially the review process I use, minus a few details like clearing out my inbox.

Outline

The guide has six sections:

  1. Introduction. Why plan at all? To get more out of life, to take responsibility for your time.
  2. Tools. All you really need is pen, paper, and some time. There’s also a very quick introduction to mind mapping and mind mapping software. I then present my fourteen life categories that I use for breaking down my life into its constituent parts and analyzing them.
  3. A snapshot of the past year. Using the fourteen categories, how are things going? What went well or poorly in the past year? What is the status of your goals and projects?
  4. The next 8,760 hours. First off, what is your “ideal you”? What do you want each area of your life to look like in an ideal world? Which areas need the most work? What are your major projects or goals to focus on in the upcoming year? Set some priorities.
  5. Optimize for success. Setting goals is necessary but not sufficient. Using what’s known about procrastination and motivation we can optimize our chances of success. If you address uncertainties before they creep up, you’ll be better prepared for them. If you schedule regular reviews you’re more likely to stay on track. Squeeze it all into a one-page calendar to keep yourself motivated and remember the big picture.
  6. Additional Resources. A small collection of additional resources to help you implement the rest of the guide and for further reading.

Download

If you’re interested, grab the 22-page PDF guide here:

Click here to download 8,760 Hours v2
 

The guide is completely free, so take it, share it, use it as you see fit. Let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, or feedback so I can improve it in the next update.

All the best in the new year.

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Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

This article contains my book notes for Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. ((Chip Heath and Dan Heath. 2010. Switch. Crown Business.))

Summary (What You Need to Know)

Your brain is like an elephant with a rider perched on top. The rider does the planning and analyzing. The elephant provides the emotional energy. To create change the elephant and rider must cooperate. The Switch Framework helps create change by:

  • Directing the rider. Make sure the rider knows where to go, how others got there, and how you’ll get there.
  • Motivating the elephant. Knowing isn’t enough. Make sure the elephant feels drawn to the change. Make the change small (so it’s not intimidating) and encourage a growth mindset (“change is possible”).
  • Shaping the path. Change the environment to change the behavior. Build habits. Behavior is contagious: surround yourself with others exhibiting the behavior your want; help is spread.

That’s the gist of it! What are you trying to change? And are you factoring in the influence of the rider, the elephant, and the environment?

More Resources

My Notes

Switch asks: “Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?” ((http://www.heathbrothers.com/switch/. ))

The answer begins with the realization that we have two minds: an elephant and a rider. ((Switch makes heavy use of this elephant and rider analogy, which originates from Jonathan Haidt.)) In this analogy, our mind is like a rider perched atop a large elephant. The rider is our analytical, long-term planning, thinking, and understanding mind; the elephant is our emotional, short-term, passionate, motivational mind. The rider provides the planning and direction; the elephant provides the energy.

Alas, our elephant and rider have issues. [click here to keep reading…]