Day 0 Of My Insane Challenge To Write 1000 Words Everyday
I was driving back home this evening while listening to Deep Dive by Ali Abdaal (which is an incredible podcast if you want to try it out). This particular episode was with Nathan Barry who is an author and entrepreneur. At this point I had mildly zoned out of the conversation and was captured by the magic of the drifting clouds when I was brought back to world when Nathan mentions he wrote a 1,000 words for 600 days in a row.
Anyone who has tried writing knows that cranking out 1,000 words each day for two years straight is not an easy feat and at this point Ali very eloquently puts my thoughts into words and says ‘what the actual fuck’.
I listen to him talk a bit more before he explains how writing a 1,000 words each day can change your life in every sense by helping you build a skill that will be yours forever. It’s simple but it’s not easy, he says.
It took me a few hours to wrap my head around everything they spoke about but the main takeaway from it can be summarized as follows:
- Writing (and making money) are skills
- Skills can be built by practice and only practice
- Learning a skill like writing can be very simple but simple does not equal easy
Growing up as a reader, I have wanted nothing else but to write and make money out of writing. While most of my life I have preferred writing fiction, there is something to be said about writing on the internet that seems like the most invaluable tool in your toolkit. Online writing opens up a door of possibilities for you.
So with my Streaks app downloaded, I have decided to take up the insane task of writing 1,000 words everyday on Medium.
What Makes This Difficult For Me?
There’s many reasons why writing 1,000 words everyday is going to be extremely challenging. The most crucial challenge is my day job. For context, I am an external auditor with a Big 4 company and work in the offshore team in India. While I enjoy my job, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity.
Part of my job involves a lot of coordination with the onsite team that sits in New York which poses a lot of obstacles. On a typical workday, I can be busy with meetings as early as 8pm or as late as 10:30pm. As a morning person, I like logging in early which can be a challenge on the days of such meetings.
Prioritizing work tasks can create some friction with my goal of writing but a reminder that would help would be to write 1,000 words even if the quality isn’t what I would like it to be. Baby steps by working up that work muscle.
Another challenge is going to be my fitness goals. Starting March 2024, my goal was to slowly start losing the weight I have put on since COVID-19 hit us four years ago. The past months have been challenging but more importantly, they have been rewarding. In a span of four months, I have been able to shed around 6kgs which might sound low but seemed impossible until last year.
My daily goal is to walk anywhere between 8–9k steps and some fitness enthusiasts might think that is too low but considering the nature of my job, it is reasonable. More importantly, it works for me.
With these two time consuming activities taking up most of my day along with some well-deserved rest time, writing might take a back seat but the idea is to try see this personal challenge through.
How Can I Make This Work?
There’s probably a lot of ways to do this. However, I think the best way for me to do this in the earlier stages of the challenge is to ensure I have a running list of topics that I can write on. One of the reasons you’re getting this introduction post to the challenge is that I decided to do this only a few minutes ago and the best way to knock today’s 1,000 words was to document what I would be writing about.
The important thing is to analyze what it is that I am seeking out to achieve from this challenge. Writing has been the thing I love for so long but I have never been confident of my skills. This might be due to my lack of experience but as a University student, I was working a couple of part-time gigs as a ghostwriter and working for an agency took much of the pressure that I feel while publishing my writing under my name.
The objective is to write, write and write until I learn how to improve.
Why Do This On Medium?
Medium is one of the few websites that encourages people to write. Building a website can be a tedious task that can lead to several unproductive hours trying to build an aesthetic landing page. But Medium has the tools and is distraction free. Another good reason to do this is it can help me compile my portfolio of writing samples.
One other thought I had was to share snippets of my writings to my Twitter account. While I try to actively stay away from social media, I would love to try these out in a professional capacity.
As I write this, there is a palpable energy and sense of pride that is blossoming in my heart. It feels like a new beginning — like the moment you decide to read a new book and turn the first page over.
Often times in life we need to pause and ponder over whether the things we’re doing everyday are helping us build a better future and adding a skill to our ever growing arsenal.
If you’re interested in watching the Deep Dive episode I was talking about at the beginning of this post, I will leave a link down below. I hope you find value in this incredible podcast like I did.
