I’m half-way through the 31×31 challenge and so far I’ve only finished one play in a day, but I’ve managed to come up with 13 interesting ideas (I had to skip a day). Not all of them are worth developing further, but I feel that at least a couple of them are good enough to use as base for future work. More than anything, I’m happy that I managed to find the time to write, every day, no matter what. If I can keep up this habit, I’ll be a contented person for the rest of my life!
So, in terms of what is helping: As I said in my earlier post, using the Pomodoro Technique hugely helps. I get lots done in one short but very intense burst. Also, I’m using the “Way of life” app, which allows you to track habits. It is exactly what I was looking for. Many times I’ve read about how Jerry Seinfeld swears by the “Don’t Break the Chain” method, by which you are meant to write everyday no matter what, or else you would break the chain and would have to start the whole process again. I see how that method can be helpful and a good motivator for many people. But it doesn’t work for me; I’ve tried it, and found that if I wasn’t able to write on a particular day, because life happens, then I would lose motivation and wouldn’t write again for a while. Instead, this app allows you to have something similar, but more flexible and “accommodating” of real life pressures. So if you write, you mark the day as green; if you don’t, you mark it as red, but if you don’t write because of exceptional circumstances, you can just “skip” that day, without breaking “the chain”. The more green I see on the screen, the more fired up I am to continue (even when there is one skipped day thrown in there!). I just hope I’ll be able to stay on track!
Spirited Quill 