I resolve to make most of my time this year fit into stretches where I will do X every day, where X is something like “read a research paper” or “write a blog post” or “commit something to a git repository”. Then I mark the day off on my calendar. This don’t break the chain method is remarkably effective at getting me moving. I get started on something because I’ve convinced myself that I have to, and then I keep going because I want to. It’s just getting started that’s the tough part.
I resolve to do National Novel Writing Month, because it sounds awesome (just read the web site) and it fits in beautifully with the Don’t Break the Chain method above. I reserve the right to pick my own month, though.
I resolve to do some useful research in the field of transactional memory. This obviously doesn’t apply to anybody else, but it’s important to me.
I resolve not to get stuck doing a group project with people who are utterly incompetent and/or plagiarists. Apparently I’m both technically skilled and unassertive, and there’s a certain type of person who exploits this. Now that I’ve been exploited by three of these dickbags simultaneously, I trust I’ll find it easier to be an asshole about this if necessary. (And yes, thinking about them in rude terms is necessary for this.)
That’s all. It’s probably better to focus on a few very concrete things and make them habits; that way self-improvement becomes a systematic ratchet instead of a confused bar-fight.
The stats feature is dead sexy, but I can get the same cool graphs with a spreadsheet program and five minutes. (And that web site is cluttered with random German, for some reason.) Is there some other neat feature that you’re talking about?
By the way, congratulations on getting your novel written.
I think the best part in Nanowrimo is the communality, the shared experience of everyone writing at the same time and complaining about how their writing is crap. By changing the month, you’ll miss out on that entirely.
Okay, that shared experience and feeling of community sound like they’ll make it much easier to stick with it through the whole month. That’s valuable. November it is, then. Thanks!
I resolve to make most of my time this year fit into stretches where I will do X every day, where X is something like “read a research paper” or “write a blog post” or “commit something to a git repository”. Then I mark the day off on my calendar. This don’t break the chain method is remarkably effective at getting me moving. I get started on something because I’ve convinced myself that I have to, and then I keep going because I want to. It’s just getting started that’s the tough part.
I resolve to do National Novel Writing Month, because it sounds awesome (just read the web site) and it fits in beautifully with the Don’t Break the Chain method above. I reserve the right to pick my own month, though.
I resolve to do some useful research in the field of transactional memory. This obviously doesn’t apply to anybody else, but it’s important to me.
I resolve not to get stuck doing a group project with people who are utterly incompetent and/or plagiarists. Apparently I’m both technically skilled and unassertive, and there’s a certain type of person who exploits this. Now that I’ve been exploited by three of these dickbags simultaneously, I trust I’ll find it easier to be an asshole about this if necessary. (And yes, thinking about them in rude terms is necessary for this.)
That’s all. It’s probably better to focus on a few very concrete things and make them habits; that way self-improvement becomes a systematic ratchet instead of a confused bar-fight.
I am very interested in figuring out what our community can in general do to deal with our unassertive tendencies.
Could you say more about what you’ve observed on this?
My motto is “As polite as possible; as rude as necessary”.
I have a number of friends who do NanoWrimo regularly, and they agree with me that it’s a great way to write bad novels.
Yeah, but then you don’t get the cool features on the website.
The stats feature is dead sexy, but I can get the same cool graphs with a spreadsheet program and five minutes. (And that web site is cluttered with random German, for some reason.) Is there some other neat feature that you’re talking about?
By the way, congratulations on getting your novel written.
I think the best part in Nanowrimo is the communality, the shared experience of everyone writing at the same time and complaining about how their writing is crap. By changing the month, you’ll miss out on that entirely.
Okay, that shared experience and feeling of community sound like they’ll make it much easier to stick with it through the whole month. That’s valuable. November it is, then. Thanks!