When this year started, I committed to write about my ideas and experiences. I have not written so much these days, and I enjoy storytelling and deep discussions. I also want to expose my thoughts to peer review and feedback.
Then 2020 arrived. I will pause and wish that you and your families and friends are well. We’re doing well also; thanks for asking.
Now, despite the late start, I cannot let pandemics, blazes, or plain laziness be my excuse any longer. So I will answer here what I asked myself, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
What took you so long, Andrew?
The first few months of 2020 weren’t full of pinned-up creativity. While I did have more time, I encountered hurdles. I was not very motivated. That lack of motivation makes sense now, but why hadn’t I written anything in 2019, or 2018… or any of the years after grad school? Lastly, what was my strategy for writing more often? If the goal was important to me, how did I think I could go about achieving it?
A few things came to mind.
Problems with my approach
I did not have any strategy for accomplishing my goal.
All I had was a goal. A shapeless and ill-defined one. “Write more often.” Write about what? How much of it? Where? I hadn’t really thought about any of that. I found three areas that cut into not only my time for writing but my time for other pursuits:
Distractions
No matter the pursuit, there must be time to pursue it. Before smart phones, ubiquitous social media and other apps like, YouTube, steaming, etc., I found plenty of time to work on all sorts of projects. Slowly, that time had been whittled away. How can I write, or do anything if my free moments are spent in front of some screen, consuming others’ creativity?
When the pandemic hit, I found that I was spending HOURS on these devices. Screen Time reported multiple hours a day variously engaged in something on my phone, tablet, or computer after work. Hours! That’s a lot of time.
Lack of a Single Source
For anything I could pursue — writing, programming projects, my now-infamous board game — there would be an origin. Some small germ that needed to be nurtured, then planted. As they arose, what had I been doing with them?
Specifically for writing…
- Some ideas were scribbled in one of my many scattered notebooks
- Others were collected into various pieces of software: Microsoft OneNote, Apple Notes, or some app like that.
- Others still were just in my head
I had no clear place to reference past ideas. If I ever managed to claw back some time from these insidious gadgets, I would then struggle to even find something to work on.
Tricky and Ambiguous Topics
Even in those moments with no distractions and a clear idea, I wanted to research, prepare, then present my idea as something unique and new. On one hand, the web is already full of unoriginal posts meant primarily as an advertisement for the author, which I want to avoid. Another issue is that some technical topics may invite debate, which I want to be prepared for. Lastly, I do not want to appear combative or plainly wrong. In those moments, my only task was to consider starting the necessary research BEFORE writing a single word. I never set aside a place to do this work, or to determine if an idea even required all of this effort (or if I still wanted to tackle it at all).
My previous approach relied on a trifecta of unplanned coincidences! If I could simply dispel the call of the apps and gadgets, and quickly find an idea that was clear, unique, uncontroversial, and well-researched, I would have written more.
My New Process
Before I made any more promises to myself, I decided I needed to address these concerns first.
- How to claim more time back from these gadgets?
- How to organize my ideas into some cohesive source so I can focus on the writing itself?
- Once organized, how to make progress on both shorter- and longer-form items?
Gadget Time Limits
Reducing overall screen time is an obvious start. Better use of the necessary screen time also matters. We are all home a lot more than before, so I need to limit the amount of mindless scrolling.
Writing Kanban
I gathered up all dispersed ideas and entered them into a central database using Airtable. After creating the schema, I used the built in Kanban view to help organize the state of the articles, so I can tell at a glance what needs my attention. Each idea has a status: to do, in research, in outline, in draft, in review, and published.
This means I can add refinements to any idea as I go. Airtable also provides a way of creating a new entry form, so I have a simple bookmark to add new ideas from any device.
Organizing all my content in one place like this has helped me research topics and ideas I had, AND let me see which ideas are further along.
Results
Well, I wrote this, so that’s a start. I also came up with a schedule so that I can take all the ideas I have right now and find a time and place for them:
- Aim for a single, longer post a month
- Every other week or so, post something of a shorter format, like updates to long running projects I have, interesting finds, or any open source projects I am working on.
The most important result is that I feel like I can actually get more writing done! Hopefully by focusing on what tripped me up before, I can stay focused and engaged on my goal going forward. Maybe I can apply this to some other areas as well.
What comes to mind 