It’s been 66 days since I started writing everyday. And I’m losing steam to continue.
What spurred me to get on 200wad in the first place was that I felt like I had a huge backlog of stuff that I kept putting off till later. The frustration of perpetual postponing led me to a 66 streak run as of today. There were other bonus reasons of course, but that was the dominant one.
But looking back at the writing topics I listed on Day 2, it seems I covered most of it. It feels like I had written most of what I initially set out to write. And to be honest, I do feel like I’m running dry on interesting topics to write. Interesting to me, that is. I could write posts for my #publicbook, but that doesn’t interest me enough to want to write it everyday.
If you achieved your original purpose for writing on 200wad, then what next? Invent a new one to keep writing everyday? Drop the streak and write only when you want/need to? Drop it entirely, without guilt, and say thank you?
Another difficulty I have is how writing 200 words everyday still doesn’t feel like a habit yet. @nicksimard talked about this in a recent post, asking if daily writing was a habit yet. It really got me thinking and honestly, right now, it’s starting to feel like a chore more times than it doesn’t. Unlike when I just started. When it starts to feel like work, do you push through and continue?
Or is this a natural slump in the cycle of forming new habits? Reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits, he mentioned:
On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And how long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.
What a crazy coincidence!!! He said it take 66 days on average to form an automatic habit, right where I am right now on my streak! ? But then again, perhaps I might be closer to the 254-days end of the spectrum?! Oh god I can’t imagine.
Meditate on this, I shall……