One Apple A Day #200
Two hundred apples.
Not bad for something that started as a little experiment.
I began the One Apple A Day project with two aims in mind.
One was to improve my writing, and the best way to do it is through writing.
The second one was to experiment the creation of habit. I have never considered myself a disciplined person, but I am aware of the power of rituals. There must be a reason if they say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”.
So, I decided to create a daily habit of writing. My daily apple.
The target was to write every day for 90 days.
Inspired by some posts on http://thewritepractice.com/ at the beginning I went for 20 minutes, every day at the same time of the day and in the same place. It didn’t work out very well for me. Yes, I kept writing, but the “same time same place” constraint wasn’t helping. Also writing 20 minutes was too much. I made some changes. I relax the constraints of time and place. The important thing was to write every day. I kept a weekly rhythm tracker (inspired by Darren Hardy) to monitor my consistency. I also divided the 20 minutes in two; I spent the first 5 minutes reading something about writing —from grammar lessons to inspiring posts— and then I wrote for 15.
Because I knew me, from the very beginning, I decided that every apple must be published somewhere. I had this old Tumblr blog I wasn’t using, so it seemed a perfect fit.
During the time I have some downs. Some periods where I had struggled with keeping up the daily habit. I discovered that the environment plays a big part in this. When I had to travel or relocate, my consistency crumbled. But I have always been able to get back on track. Now I reach the apple number 200, and I’m very proud of it.
Lately, I’ve been dedicating 25 minutes to this habit with a mix of grammar exercises and proper writing. I feel it’s time to step up the game and connect it more with my writing goals.
So, I will experiment some changes, but I will keep writing every day and posting here.