To become good at anything, there is no substitute for regular practice in a spirit of discipline and apprenticeship. 10 days ago I challenged myself to publish a 100 words article every day for 10 days.
It was a simple challenge, and I had two objectives. 1) To develop a certain discipline in writing regularly. 2) To see if by simplifying the process of writing in my mind (100 words only), I would actually approach the task with less apprehension. Here is what happened:
- I wrote and published 10 articles in 12 days.
- The average article size was 299 words (instead of the target 100.)
- I spent on average 30 minutes per article (that’s about 9 words per minutes.)
- I enjoyed the process (even though it was not as easy as I had thought.)
There are a few lessons I learned and I would like to share them. These lessons will be most useful to anyone who has find writing a daunting or painful or difficult experience.
- Writing is easy when you do it one sentence at a time.
- To turn writing into an habit, I have to do it at a set time of the day, every day.
- Write on any topic that comes to mind. What’s important is that you get your thoughts on paper (or screen.)
- The possibilities become unlimited once a productive activity (like writing) is turned into a habit.
Now that the challenge is over, what’s next? I will tell you tomorrow. Engaging in this process gave me a set of new ideas. For now tell me, what are your favorite lessons from the list above?