Tag Archives: writing habit

1 Hour a Day or 7 Hours in One Day?

With any good habit I try to form, my natural procrastination threatens me with logic. Why try to write an hour each day when you could just set aside 7 hours in one day each week? The company I work for recently introduced an alternative work week, that would allow me to have half a day off each week. Wouldn’t it be easy to use that time for writing and take the rest of the week off? Assuming I could make myself sit and write for 7 hours straight, that could be more productive than eeking out a little each day.

Then realism hits me. I’m about as likely to follow through with that as I am to run a marathon once a week and lie on the couch the other days. Or, while I’m at it, why don’t I write for 365 hours straight (that’s only 15 days) and then take the rest of the year off. These are the things I think about when I’m trying to get out of doing something.

As usual, the easiest answer is the best. Do it now, so I don’t have to do it later. Done.

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Filed under April 2011

Write 1 Hour Every Day for 1 Year

60 minutes a day. On paper it doesn’t look like much, just 1/24 of my day. I spend more than that getting to work and back, getting the kids to bed, or learning how to start a $%*#! blog. In reality, one hour seems as elusive as a lemonade stand in a snow storm. In other words, even if I find an hour, do I want to spend it writing? My time is like the audition list for a cheesy reality show – the flashier, frivolous items tend to get picked first.

The truth is that I much prefer having written to writing. The unfortunate answer to this is TO WRITE. I have been working on several projects in fits and starts for years. Occasionally I finish something, but I lose focus quickly and don’t hone and perfect it.

That’s why I’m committing to writing 1 hour every day for the entire year of 2011. Journals, blogs, and notes don’t count toward the total. Staring at the screen while thinking of my next line does count. On my birthday I will write. On Thanksgiving I will write. I will write when I’m sick. I will write when I’m discouraged. I will write on vacation, on business trips, and when my computer isn’t working.

What am I writing? It doesn’t really matter. I’m doing this to create a habit. I’ll talk about my projects over the course of the year.

15 days until blastoff!

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Filed under Preparation