I’ve caved….Redefining the writing streak requirements

Well, my conscience isn’t completely at ease about it, but I decided to do it anyway. Whoa, that should immediately set off alarm bells—any action preceded by such a statement is bound to have negative results.

This past summer, in an effort to motivate myself to establish a habit of daily writing on my dissertation, I created a minimum requirement for a day to count as a “writing day” and thus extend whatever “writing streak” I happen to be on at the time. Amazingly, the writing streak that began this summer grew to 100 days, and now stands at 136. Wow, I can’t believe I have written every single day for four and a half months!!  

If all of those writing days had been serious efforts, undertaken with a clear and focused mind, I would be much further along on my paper, and would probably already have my research proposal approved. Unfortunately, many of the writing sessions have been foggy ramblings, conducted late at night with no plan whatsoever except to add a day to my writing streak.

My writing professor, whom I credit for convincing me to track my writing minutes, thought I should count all writing in my log, whether it is journaling, or brainstorming about my research project, or blog-writing, or whatever. Against her advice, I decided to exclude recreational blog writing, fearing that counting it would give me a way-too-easy method of hiding from my dissertation.

I have had a change of heart….or perhaps I have violated my conscience, and have taken the first step of a long descent into a dark swamp, in which dropping out of grad school and swearing off writing forever are minor compared to all the other transgressions I will commit in that place.

Here’s the new definition for a writing day: Blog writing counts, as long as it is about the dissertation. So if I don’t feel like writing my dissertation, I am allowed to blog about why I don’t want to write my dissertation, and I can count this as a writing day (as long as I write for 30 consecutive minutes). Hopefully this will have the effect of renewing my motivation, so that I will want to write on the actual dissertation the next day. If not, hopefully after I create 5 blog entries on 5 consecutive days about how I don’t want to work on my paper, shame will set in, or at least a niggling feeling that something might be wrong. This should still have the effect of making it difficult (unfortunately not impossible) to hide from my dissertation. In fact, posting my writing about not writing on a public blog is far likelier to have a positive effect than hiding my writing about not writing in a file on my computer.

So, well-wishing friends, is this a good thing? Or have I completely blown it? Or does it even matter? I just don’t know. Like Frodo upon Amon Hen, trying to decide which road to take, I mistrust the way that seems easier. But hey, I just finished my writing session for the day—this counts!! Now I can go to bed without even looking at my dissertation. Never mind, I have nothing to worry about—this new definition is great!