How’d you guys do on your November resolutions?
Not to brag, but I did pretty well on mine except for forces beyond my control. For most of November, my laptop couldn’t connect to the internet without making a horrible noise, so I bombed on Duolingo.
I still worked out every single day in November, for a total of 1,448 minutes, an average of forty-eight minutes per day. That’s not too shabby. I used my phone and squinted at youtube videos. It was not ideal.
I also meditated nearly every day, garnering an A for myself in that category as well. Woot.
I did Nanowrimo, national novel writing month, and I got an A on that too. I wrote almost 50,000 words (46,345) of a really bad love story gone horribly wrong.
It was not easy and there were definitely days I struggled, but the first draft is…done. It’s something of a mess and there’s no real ending and I don’t know if it’s worth the thousands of hours it would take to make the draft into something I don’t hate. I spent 89.25 hours writing these words, an average of three hours a day.
This is the sixth book I’ve started since finishing my first book in September 2017. None of them are very good. I’m going to put this one away for a couple of months and then reread it in maybe January to see if it’s worth editing. It still feels worthwhile even if it doesn’t go anywhere.
I gave myself an A for keeping my phone in the other room. This is a really good resolution for me personally. Personally, the phone is a vapid waste of time. Personally, if I’m on my phone, I’m scrolling through internet garbage or opening the same apps over and over again to see nothing new.
Not having my phone lets me get into the deep flow of the work without distractions or be present with my company or just be in the moment. The phone is a distraction just by existing in my line of site.
As I mentioned, I got an F on the Duolingo thing because my laptop wasn’t able to use the internet and I had to wait a few weeks for the necessary part to come in. This handicap is probably why I finished Nanaowrimo. Scrivener, my writing program, was the only thing on my laptop I could use without the fans coming on.
On the bright side, I got an A on the no sugar month. I did have sugar a couple of times, mostly apple pie because it’s that time of year.
To round it off, I also got an A on flossing.
A’s and F’s. The story of my life.
It was a good month!
How’d you do? Oh, I asked that already.
I know you’re trying to stay away from your phone, but you can use it for Duolingo. The app works real well.
Yeah, I should have done that.
Wow. Kickin’ ass and taking names.
I’m stealing that – no more writing with the phone anywhere near me!
I’m sure it’s rad, go easy on yourself.
It’s all rad.
Hey, have you ever given any thought to writing a movie and entering it into a contest? I’m rewriting a movie I wrote for the 5th time and I think i will enter it into some of the contests in 2020, the due dates range from late feb to april. https://www.scriptreaderpro.com/screenwriting-contests/
I’m definately going to try #4, it awards a free trip to Los Angeles. If you feel like giving it a read let me know I could use the feed back.
Also you could probably take your love novel and turn it into a movie, if each page is 1 minute of screen time you just have to shoot for 90-130 pages.
Never thought about writing movies
While I think your resolutions are very important, I wonder if they can become a bit overwhelming and stressful. When I retired early, a lot of my friends thought I was crazy. I tried to explain stoicism to them, and the battle with consumerism that forced people to have to keep working at an unsatisfying job, but few understood. Your blog helped me a lot because you had the same ideas. The idea was to not live a life full of expectations, most of which were perpetually unrealistic. One my biggest complaints was having friends and family tell me that they felt they had to accomplish something every day, and feel like they were being productive. I have nothing against being productive, but making that a daily priority seems to go against everything I preach about. It causes me stress to set goals, then not be able to achieve them. I still like getting up every day, and deciding what to do. I have so many hobbies that it never is a problem finding something interesting, even if it ends up being reading a good book. So, I guess my question is are you turning your resolutions into something that will cause you stress? You love to write yet you track every minute, “89.25 hours”. I think the better way of thinking about it is 89.25 hours of joy. You weren’t at a job or some other activity not of your choice for that amount of time, which actually would have been a waste of time.
I like having the hard numbers, but I hear ya. I just set the timer and write for however long I feel like. It’s not a chore and it is a joy.
And, as September and October showed, I do sometimes take a break from the resolutions to just get up and decide what to do then and there.
I’m really not much of a book reader, but I do read stuff every now and then. I’m currently reading a book called ‘Life is too short to be spending it in an office’. Well, it’s a Dutch book, so I had to translate the title here, but you get the idea. It was written by Lonneke Lodder. A Dutch woman who sold her expensive Amsterdam apartment, quit her job and went off to live a more basic, but much happier, live in Northern Spain.
I’ve also just bought ‘Bullshit jobs’ by David Graeber (in English, being multi-lingual rules!). It should arrive in a week or so. Do you know this book and have your read it? I think I’m going to like it.
I’ve never heard of either book, but they sound like my cup of tea.
I stumbled upon your blog and enjoyed reading your blog posts! I am also trying to learn Spanish as my new hobby whenever I have time. I usually listen to audio clips from language transfer which last for less than 10 minutes. I haven’t yet tried Duolingo.
That’s a great idea!
How do you keep your concentration while writing for 3 hours? 50k words is great.
Put away your phone, set a timer and give yourself space to think and write. At least, that’s what works for me.
Nice. I’m probably blocking myself!
Me too