Where do you want to be in the next 30 days? What goal do you want to achieve? Improving your skills as a writer? An artist? Learning a language? Improving your physical fitness? Do you want to change your eating habits? How will you measure your progress?
What can be tracked can be improved. – Chris Fox
5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox.
I recently read this book by Chris Fox with the mindset toward improving my writing skills. His book reminded me of a universal principle in risk management, compliance, and project management: what isn’t documented does not exist. Documenting the progress of a project, a skill to learn, or an area of personal growth that you want to improve is an accelerator for change.
In the book, I learned about writing sprints. This exercise is a pre-defined dedicated time to write and do nothing else. (p.2) Sprints range from 5-20 minutes in length. Once the time begins, you write without stopping and continue writing until the timer sounds. Eliminate distractions and when you start, write – nothing else. (p. 9) The intent is to write every day.
Document the writing sprints, and then monitor your metric over time. Measure your start and end times, as well as the number of words you write during the writing period. Set goals to double your amount each week.
The author encourages you to give yourself permission to suck. Do not edit during your writing sprints (p. 29). This advice is similar to Anne Lamott’s advocacy for “shitty first drafts.”
Deliberate Writing and Measuring Progress
- Start small
- Process takes work
- Focus on being consistent – ingredient to success
- Is about incremental improvements
- Constant steady progress each day
- Track your progress
- Progress keeps you coming back
- The motivation to keep going
- Mindset is everything (p. 53)
- The value of a positive mindset
Where do you want to be in the next 30 days? 60 days? Six months? A year? Track your progress along the way. What are you learning? How are you changing? What is working for you?
I welcome your comments.
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