Habits, boundaries of the project, practicing piano

So, this is the start of my self-imposed challenge… to write 100 consecutive days in a row. I’m not sure exactly why I’ve decided to do this, but I’m strangely excited to test myself as a writer. I’ve given some thought to how I should structure my writing. Do I write at the same time each day? Do I take Sundays off? Do I experiment with fiction as well as non-fiction? How will my Parkinson’s limitations factor in? These are all good questions to grapple with, to struggle with, to attempt to overcome. Will I emerge on the other end as a more sophisticated writer, one who has fought and overcome the enemy of time (the gift of time)?

So, given the few hours I’ve considered these questions, here are some of the parameters I’ve decided to follow.

1. Write for about one hour per day, 7 days/week.
2. No word count goals
3. Write about anything that is on my mind (in my notebook) that day.
4. Write at any time of day that works into that day’s schedule.
5. Break up my writing using the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes/5 min break; repeat)

Here are a few thoughts about each one of the above points.

As I’ve taught my students for years, habit building is a conscious process that needs to be done consistently. I tell my students that our actions will create habits, whether we want them to or not—whether they are desirable habits or those that need to be broken later on. The habits we “fall into” without much forethought and planning are often the most difficult to break. Take, for example, the habit of procrastination, or avoidance. If I want to get in the habit of practicing my piano scales every morning (incidentally, a very worthy goal for most piano students!), I need to accomplish a set of smaller tasks just to set myself up for success. I need to get to the living room, open the lid of the piano, sit at the piano, set the timer and start playing. At any point I can get sidetracked and my attempt will be thwarted. I can get tied up in the kitchen making coffee; I can notice something that needs to be addressed in the living room (for instance, a light bulb that needs to be changed); I can get to the piano and go to set the timer on my phone, only to get distracted by an alert that is especially interesting at the time. Any one of these “sidetracks” can be important in its own right. However, at that particular time and in the particular mindset of practicing, they need to be resisted and overcome.

So, I’ve decided to strengthen my writing habit by not missing any days. This might be difficult, especially with my need for recovery time due to Parkinson’s Disease, but I believe the benefits of consistency will far outweigh any difficulties I might encounter getting to my computer to write.
I’ve also read quite a bit from others, and believe this to be true in my own pursuits, about the gift of forgiveness we can bestow on ourselves when we’re attempting to form new habits. This should not be construed as looking the other way and allowing ourselves to fail. Rather, we seem to do better when we set up fewer roadblocks that might potentially catch us and make us stumble. For this reason, I’ve decided to have no minimum word count for each day’s writing session. Further, I have no set program of topics about which to write, or formats to follow. My goal is to set in concrete the goal of going to my writing desk daily and writing. Period.

I anticipate that some days will be more fruitful than others. I might write some weighty thoughts one day and only be able to muster some scant simple descriptions of how I feel the next. I might cobble together several days’ thoughts to form a cogent and interesting blogpost, or I may have several days’ worth of garbled thoughts that need another session or two to unpack and repack into something sensible. According to my parameters, it doesn’t matter! How freeing this is! As long as I’ve shown up, sat at my computer and written something, I’ll be a success! I believe in removing the obstacles and creating more chances to succeed, especially in a new endeavor.

End of session #1.
748 words. Two mini-sessions of 25 minutes with one 5-minute break.
Success!