Small Wins

Today is the seventh day of the writing journey. The one thing that held me accountable was to stop wasting time on low-priority things and focus back on the one thing - writing. I even had to cut down a bit on the reading time. Developing the muscle for writing is the goal.

Seventh-day streak is a small win, and I intend to treat myself. The treat options range from trying out the new burger place with their limited-time sous-vide short rib burger or the good old Maple pecan bourbon at kind ice cream. It is essential to find something simple you can enjoy as a reward. It is a slippery slope. Yes, I have been on one.

Reflecting on the past week, most of my daily writing success goes to "not thinking" about what to write about when it is time to write. I have a range of topics jotted down with a one-liner that can be expanded. Most of my writing ideas come when I don't have time to write. I take note of the ideas in my trusted, frictionless note-taking app called RoamResearch. RoamResearch has been an invaluable friend in my journey to stay organized. This one is stuck after dabbling in too many other tools, even with a not-so-stable mobile app.

My writing routine has been to start writing for 30 mins after the kids' dinner. I stacked the writing time with the kid's homework so both could "work" simultaneously. The habit is so ingrained now that my eldest one grab's my laptop when it is time in addition to grabbing his homework. I get called out if I am not concentrating. Win-win.

After the 30 min sprint of writing, the kids get ready for bed. After much struggle, they get in their pyjamas and off to bed with Mommy. I slip into my make-shift office with serene quietness and pound away with non-writing tasks. Mostly it is loading up images from lunch walks, reviewing them, and sometimes editing them. Catch up on any to-dos from past days and sometimes respond to emails and book work meetings. Recently I have been tinkering around with Adobe Portfolio to set up the photography website(check out manypixelmemories.com)

Once I feel I have put enough distance with the writing, I embark on the editing process, which depending on the length of the writing, varies from 15mins to 30mins. The golf lesson post took a longer time to edit. This puts me at 2230 to 2245 when my body sends distress signal-sleep time. I aim to finish all my writing by 2200 to get a decent sleep. I miss the days when I used to go to bed at early. Enough planning and grinding might get me there.

The past week has been pleasantly rewarding, and if this continues, I want to start my business blog - ValueRefined. Stay tuned!