2nd goal: writing

Akrasia
#1

Hi all,

Since the stretching is going great, I’ve just added my 2nd habit/goal.

It’s writing for 7 pomodoro sessions each week, “end goal” is to write an 8000 word post. I already have about 2k words.

This is something for me that is classic example of akrasia.

Cheers,
Robert

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#2

Awesome!

Are you using one of the fancy autodata-for-writers things? Or doing it the old fashioned way?

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#3

I’m using a simple pomodoro app on my iphone or http://e.ggtimer.com/pomodoro

for adding the item on Bmndr I use the iphone app.

#4

Oh interesting, so you are Beeminding the time you spend writing as opposed to the number of words written? (I’m not saying one is better than the other – I don’t write anything haha)

#5

yes. Time is the asset that I’m investing. So 25 minutes is enough to get up to speed, write some decent quality and add it to the existing post. The end goal is a post of 8k words. Then I’m evaluating.

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#6

Makes sense!

I’d be curious to see what happens if you were to also Beemind your word count, just for the data / quantified self aspect. I mean create a word count goal with a slope of 0 so you never derail. Then at the end you could see if there’s any interesting patterns (e.g. do 3 pomodoros in a row produce more words? does a brainstorm pomodoro make your next pomodoro more productive? etc.).

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#7

Just archived the goal. I’m convinced I can spend my time better than working on this goal. It’s a suboptimal activity. But it still takes 7 days for it to be archived. I’ll see if I keep this conviction during the next 7 days. I’ll just write more here to formulate a structure / definition of the next habit.

When does one become good at setting habits/goals?

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#8

Make a bunch of them and see which ones work for you!

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#9

I think it’s natural to have a lot of false starts when it comes to habits/goals, regardless of whether we’re talking Beeminder or otherwise. It’s just a bit more in-your-face when you discover your Beeminder goal is lousy, because New Years Resolutions just fade away when you forget about them.

I wouldn’t get discouraged. But it can legitimately take a long time to discover what framing/structure for goals can keep you motivated.

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#10

I’m going to brainstorm with a mindmap instead of the writing.

Source 1:

#11

Stopped the 2nd habit of writing, I discovered that the best way is just to slowly add things that improve life just a little bit. e.g. stretching.

2nd habit will be a useful one, wake up before 6am: https://www.beeminder.com/bcool/wakeupbefore6am

Already thinking about the 3rd habit to implement.

#12

This habit didn’t work out as planned. So I’ll be studying how to set goals/habits every day for at least 1 minute. (4th goal)

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