Online Writing Experiment Week Three Update
February 18, 2009
I realize I'm long overdue on my third and final
update on my online writing experiment. But I'm happy to report that I
did, in fact, finish the experiment.
Although I wasn't quite as productive as I wanted to be, I was able to crank out three new pages. Here they are...
How To Flip The 80 20 RulePush Up Workout UpdateOnline Writing Experiment Week Two UpdateWith these three new additions, I
was able to complete my original goal of ten completed pages. Including the three above, here are the four pages from week one...
Guide To Reading NonfictionWriting Experiment IntroductionPersonal Development Experiments IntroductionWant A Lower Electric Bill?And the three pages from week two...
Customized Pictures Of MyselfOnline Writing Experiment Week One UpdateWhy Readin Fiction Is A Good ThingOverall,
I would have to say that the quality of the content is pretty good.
Maybe not quite as good as when I don't feel rushed to reach a page
goal. But certainly well worth the time to read, in my opinion.
What I've Learned
During this experiment, I think the biggest and best things that I learned had
nothing to do with online writing. It had more to do with learning how to consistentely form new habits.
For
this experiment, I made the requirement that I only had to write for
just 10 minutes. And if I wrote any more than that on any given day, it
was just extra.
This was absolutely key!
Even though I only
had to
write for ten minutes, usually by that time I was already in "work
mode" and I often would end up working for 30-60 minutes. Sometimes
more!
I know that if I had set the goal to write for something
like 30 minutes or an hour, there would have been many days where I
simply would not have been able to get started. I would have either put
it off or end up skipping days when I wasn't really in the mood.
However, because I told myself that I only had to write for
just ten minutes, it would give me a slight confidence boost and get me to my computer to start writing.
Another thing that I have to give a lot of my success to is the use of a trigger moment. I didn't do this in my
push up experiment because I had never thought of it before. But if I had, it would have made the experiment ten times more useful.
What
it is, is using a specific moment that you already do on a daily basis
to trigger the habit that you want to start. For this experiment, I
used eating breakfast as my trigger. Because I eat breakfast every day,
no matter what! So every morning after I ate breakfast, I would
immediately go to my computer and start writing.
There are many
other trigger moments I could have used. Waking up, brushing my teeth,
and showering just to name a few. There was no particular reason I
chose breakfast as my trigger other than it just sounded good at the
time.
Overall, I feel that having a trigger moment when trying
ot form a new habit is absolutely essential. It gives you consistency
and makes your habit become
nearly automatic much sooner that it would otherwise.
From now on, it's very likely that I will
always
have a trigger moment. It's just a good and smart way to remind
yourself to get started. I also like the idea of setting very easy and
reachable goals when I start. I believe it will both help me get
started trying new experiments, and finishing the ones that I do start.
The Future Of This Experiment
OK, so one thing I definitely am
not going to do again is a "page quota". I didn't like saying to myself that I had to finish 10 pages in 21 days.
Not
because I don't think it makes me more productive, because I believe it
does. But because I want the content on this site to always be of the
highest quality. And having a page quota I feel rushes me and prevents
me from being able to do that.
One tip that I have learned about writing online content is to choose
quality over quantity.
The Internet, as you might imagine, is filled beyond our wildest dreams
with quantity. It's been said that over 80% of the Internet is nothing
but spam. And in my opinion, if you factor in "poor content" sites,
that pushes that number closer to 99%.
The last thing I want is
for this site to be just another "blog type" site where it gets updated
every day with basically nothing useful and only
occasionally hitting home on a key point.
Every
page on the site I want to be extremely useful and to serve a purpose.
And I don't think that can be done with page quotas.
If a page
takes three days to complete, so be it. As long as the time it takes is
worth the value that it will bring to people like you. I have no
problem working at a slower pace in order to produce the highest
quality.
So in the future, you won't hear of any more writing
experiments. Unless it is to incorporate writing in my morning/daily
routines. Which I'm already planning to do in the very near future.
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