Day 25 of 100: 4 Things I Have Learnt
Today marks 25 days since I started the 100-day writing challenge. In this post I evaluate my progress so far concerning the challenge and determine whether it is helping me achieve my goal.
In a previous post, The 100-day writing challenge and my writing tips from Atomic Habits, I mentioned realizing that the challenge was my way of implementing the tips I shared in two other previous articles. You can read the tips here:
These tips are meant to help me become a consistent writer and improve my craft.
I have been using them since and before I started the challenge
25 days ago I committed to publishing an article for the next 99 days on both Medium and Simily, and with that improve other habits that help me develop my career. These include networking, promoting my articles, and pitching to clients.
Have I achieved everything I planned for the past 24 days?
No, I haven’t.
I haven't published an article for a total of 7 days during the 25-day period.
I have explained my setbacks in achieving that goal in two previous articles. You can read them here:
With the failure to publish an article every day for the past 25 days, starting August 03 (also the day I broke my streak), I have slowed down my pitching and marketing clients.
During this period, however, I have improved my networking habits on LinkedIn and learned more about LinkedIn’s algorithm than I did the whole of last month.
The only explanation I can come up with as to why my inability to keep up the writing streak affected other productive habits is that I relied on my laptop too much, the tool whose inability to access was the highlight of my second setback.
Although I haven’t achieved everything I planned when I started the 100-day writing challenge, the challenge in itself, with the evidence of my stats, has been worth participating in and has helped me achieve my writing goals.
The setbacks toward the challenge slowed me down, but they only proved what I already knew.
Writing every day makes me a better writer and increases my authority as a consistent and relevant writer. Participating in the challenge grounds me to write every day, and thus, helps me achieve this goal. Ergo, participating in the challenge is worth it.
Have I learned anything since participating in the challenge?
Yes, I have. About writing and myself.
1. Strategy over Motivation
In the course of the challenge, I published the article Day 7 of 100: I found a loophole where I shared a loophole in my productivity that I found thanks to participating in the challenge.
I mentioned that setting up and writing a schedule is not enough for me. On that day, I realized that I need more grounding than a to-do list to accomplish what I want to at the end of the day.
Committing to the 100-day challenge has helped me ground myself. Before participating in this challenge I only wrote when motivation stroke, but that’s not enough.
What makes you a consistent writer and the kind of writer that I want to be is having a strategy and sharing my thoughts with you whether I have the motivation or not. Writing is more about having a strategy than waiting for motivation
2. I need better planning habits
Seriously, I do.
The reason I experienced my setbacks is the lack of proper planning. I was traveling and forgot to pack my laptop charger.
It wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t feel the pain of not living up to my commitment to the challenge.
Thanks to the challenge, I am improving my planning habits specifically my travel planning habits to avoid any occurrence that affects the development of my career by employing the use of a checklist.
It really does take you a rainy to appreciate a concept you have always been aware of your whole life.
While this time this was the only thing affected, a different aspect might have been affected next time, and this new habit will ensure that will never happen.
3. I rely too much on the bigger screen
I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.
The Medium mobile version does not have a feature that allows writers to create and publish on the go. For this reason and several others, I’m often on my laptop.
It has never been a problem, but when I didn’t have access to a laptop, I failed to be as productive with other tasks that are mobile-friendly.
Frankly, I have no idea if I want to change how much I rely on my laptop, but I want to be more flexible and be able to handle mobile-friendly tasks on my phone without affecting my productivity.
4. The Medium community is kind
And a community I am proud to be part of.
I received a lot of support when I shared my setback and not once, did I receive harsh or negative comments for not living up to my commitment.
Special thanks to Joel Brown for reminding me that our setbacks do not define us; how you get back up and move forward does and for having faith in me as a writer.
Now that I am past the setbacks, I will be working to compensate for lost time and ensure that nothing within my power will distract this challenge at least for the next 25 days.
I have always insisted on using building blocks to help achieve a major goal.
The 100-day writing challenge seems like a huge task to accomplish, hence, I use smaller building blocks in the form of periods and focus on those.
The challenge in itself is a building block towards a bigger goal on the board.
Extra tip: I regularly monitor the progress of my building blocks. They help me evaluate my overall performance and tweak my strategies when the need arises.
As my strategy to increase my creativity, become a better writer and increase my authority as a writer, the 100-day writing challenge upon evaluation of the first quarter of the strategy’s period is serving me well and requires no modification at the moment.
Remember, a writer writes! That’s just it. Build your identity through habits and build your habits by considering a change in your identity.
Happy writing!
