Best way to create a writing goal with minimum friction? Using Freewrite.

Akrasia
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I use a Freewrite to write and do it most days, with the idea being that it’s distraction-free creative writing time. Freewrite automatically uploads your documents to the cloud (dropbox/google cloud/evernote). I stink at adding data to Beeminder because I try not to use technology too much as I just get too easily distracted on it. As a result of this, I don’t even see the ocean of emails reminding me to add data!

I was wondering if there was anyway to connect that cloud service to Beeminder using one of the tools available (maybe IFTTT)? Something that could detect a document had been edited on that day, and automatically input data as a result? Would be a game-changer for me if you could as I try to use my phone/email as little as possible and too frequently forget to add data when it’s self-inputted.

The only other option I could see working is if I could add data if an email is sent to a specific account. Freewrite gives you the option to email you a copy of your work so far by just pressing send. If I could have a way for my email to automatically recognise that an email had been sent from the Freewrite
address, then automatically forward that over to another address which would add a data point, that would work amazingly well.

Are any of these ideas possible?

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I think make.com might work for you. It can watch changes to directories on Dropbox for example.

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If the service that it’s uploaded to can give you a URL that can be accessed without needing to log in, then you can use a URLminder goal to automatically track the word count. Dropbox and Google Docs should let you do that. I am not sure if Evernote would.

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Brilliant this has worked perfectly! Thank you so much!

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Which of the two options worked perfectly? I’m using a Freewrite, and work on multiple documents in a day, that get uploaded to the same folder in Dropbox. So it’s not one file that gets created, but multiple. How would I track word counts in different documents? Thanks.

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