Dagger's Progress as a Nomad

[SymphonicDan]

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

You seem to have sorted out the writing thing for now, but reading through the longer post I was thinking maybe you're having trouble because you don't have a routine? Like you don't have those cues that most people who work from home do (according to the blogs I've read, that is) - go to a specific place at a specific time and suddenly it's writing time and your brain recognizes that. Like, there's no "wake up, read your email, make some coffee, sit at your desk and do the thing." Idk if this would help you at this point or if you've recommitted already based on the realizations you had, but can you try to set a thing for yourself that would carry over no matter where you are in the world? Wake up, explore a little, write for x amount of time wherever you happen to be, etc?

 

I find this really is the key trick to use... so often, I convinced myself that I can work without structure, but it never happens  I just don't have the discipline... but then you set up a place that you associate with work, and suddenly work happens with much less friction than before.

[Dagger]

21 hours ago, fleaball said:

You seem to have sorted out the writing thing for now, but reading through the longer post I was thinking maybe you're having trouble because you don't have a routine? Like you don't have those cues that most people who work from home do (according to the blogs I've read, that is) - go to a specific place at a specific time and suddenly it's writing time and your brain recognizes that. Like, there's no "wake up, read your email, make some coffee, sit at your desk and do the thing." Idk if this would help you at this point or if you've recommitted already based on the realizations you had, but can you try to set a thing for yourself that would carry over no matter where you are in the world? Wake up, explore a little, write for x amount of time wherever you happen to be, etc?

You have a very good point. I do in fact have no routine, except for letting my morning things take up five hours and it's suddenly lunch and then poof, the day is gone and what happened? (Not really in a bad way, but not necessarily in a good way either.)

 

What helped in Italy was that I had multiple reminders per day that there are only so many hours in the day. Breakfast at nine, HIT class at 11, lunch at 1, etc. After each meal/class, I said to myself: "so you have ca 2 hours (most of the time) and you can write for 15 minutes during those two hours or you can skip it, you'll have X number of time blocks more today before it is time for bed."

 

I don't have those regular reminders right now. So I either need to add that into my life in some way or create a routine. When I met @SymphonicDan today, I suggested that perhaps there are like two ways to do routines while traveling. One is to set up a rigid-ish one. Get up at X, eat breakfast, start writing at Y, or similar. The other is more modular. Like if before noon is taken up by sightseeing, then pick a time in the afternoon to put in the writing module/time. This kinda was what I first meant to try while here in London. The "start at the top or half of the hour" goal that I never really formalized (that might be a reason I didn't really do it). I wanted to train myself to work when I said I would work.

 

This didn't work my first two weeks here, but then I can't say I've really tried in the last week, and the first week I was sick, so...

 

I clearly need something. I think I'm going to figure out some kind of reminder system of time passing, without making me try to control time again. Okay, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Since I was a teenager, I've always had a watch on my arm, because I always wanted to know the time. If I knew the time, I could control my life right? Well... No.

 

So when my fitbit broke in Costa Rica, I didn't bothered getting a new one (I had one with a clock on my wrist) and neither did I go back to my previous watch. I've been living watchless since. Instead I try to connect with my body, mind, energy, etc. to decide what I need and when I need it and what I'd love. Worrying about time or how long something would take, etc. didn't make me very happy.

 

I also do know there is freedom in having a schedule too. It is easier to see what activities you can fit in the cracks between scheduled events, and it is paradoxally easier to get done what I'd love to do since I realize it is the only time I can do it. When I can do it at any point of my day, that point doesn't have to be now, right?

 

Anyway, I'm not really trying to figure out a solution in this post. It was more putting my thoughts on paper. But if you guys have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them no matter if I can use them or not.

[Dagger]

20 hours ago, Wolfen said:

Awesome! So proud of you. I've got to get to work on my freaking book.

You spend a lot of time on many activities already. It is more than understandable that you have trouble fitting in another one. And now I feel like adding: when it is the right time, it'll happen. But don't mind me.

[Dagger]

20 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

 

I find this really is the key trick to use... so often, I convinced myself that I can work without structure, but it never happens  I just don't have the discipline... but then you set up a place that you associate with work, and suddenly work happens with much less friction than before.

So true, and we talked about some of this today.

 

I had a great time today, Dan! I'll also probably have doms tomorrow. Not so sure I like that.  My feet are so tired after all our walking, I should totally have taken the tub back, but by the time I realized I'd be less on my feet if I finished the walk. Haha.

 

I am not working tonight though. I'll do a little Japanese practice at least.

[J3NN]

7 hours ago, Dagger said:

I also do know there is freedom in having a schedule too. It is easier to see what activities you can fit in the cracks between scheduled events, and it is paradoxally easier to get done what I'd love to do since I realize it is the only time I can do it.

This is why I ordered that rituals class. It helps you set up morning and evening routines. I'm trying to do that to get my groove back. They don't have to be big monumental routines. Like you said, blocking by meals (which is hopefully something you do regularly) can be trigger enough. 

 

The biggest trick for me is tracking it. If you want to make it a habit. Write it down, track it and make notes about what isn't working so you can tweak it. The four week challenges are perfect for that. It's long enough to try something, but not so long it feels impossible.

 

Good luck. When I get the book I'll let you know if I learn anything amazing.

[Vibrantella]

The biggest trick for me is tracking it. If you want to make it a habit. Write it down, track it and make notes about what isn't working so you can tweak it.

I agree wholeheartedly! My BuJo, with daily goals/to-dos and the evening ta-das/achievements, really helped me be more aware of what I want, need or refuse to do. Any daily journal or diary or logbook will do...

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[Dagger]

13 hours ago, J3NN said:

This is why I ordered that rituals class. It helps you set up morning and evening routines. I'm trying to do that to get my groove back. They don't have to be big monumental routines. Like you said, blocking by meals (which is hopefully something you do regularly) can be trigger enough. 

I have in the last few days made small moves towards having a morning and evening routine. I've never really had an evening routine before and I have no plans to make it more than I do right now (I don't have trouble sleeping, so I'm not doing it for any reason except I want to). My morning routine is not quite finding its form yet, maybe because I want to keep it fluid this time around. But I am working on both.

 

For those curious, my morning routine is generally at least one of these activities: check email (I'm trying to not judge myself here, that is more important to me than releasing this thing), meditation, drawing a tarot card, doing some self reflection, loosely planing my day, and breakfast.

 

My evening routine is: lay down on the bed, but not with my head on the pillow, and think about the day and the next day. Like the highlights, what stands out. I haven't done this for more than ca 3-10 minutes. It is just a chance for my brain to dump things I might not have given it a chance to dump earlier in the day.

 

13 hours ago, J3NN said:

Good luck. When I get the book I'll let you know if I learn anything amazing.

I hope you learn amazing things so I can learn about them!

[Dagger]

4 hours ago, Vibrantella said:

I agree wholeheartedly! My BuJo, with daily goals/to-dos and the evening ta-das/achievements, really helped me be more aware of what I want, need or refuse to do. Any daily journal or diary or logbook will do...

I'm glad it works for you.  Thank you for sharing!

 

I go through seasons with tracking, sometimes I need a lot, sometimes I need little. I'm currently in a little phase.

[SymphonicDan]

Thanks for hanging out Dagger  It was super interesting talking to another fledgling digital nomad too.

 

And those monkii bars are hard work! If our travels coincide another time I'll show you my gymnastics rings for comparison.

 

How much further through your writing are you now? You don't want to start a habit of leaving it until the last couple of days every time!

[Kvedulf]

Hey Dagger! How's things? How's the travel going? I said I was going to spam some people

[Dagger]

11 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Thanks for hanging out Dagger  It was super interesting talking to another fledgling digital nomad too.

 

And those monkii bars are hard work! If our travels coincide another time I'll show you my gymnastics rings for comparison.

I look forward to it!

 

11 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

How much further through your writing are you now? You don't want to start a habit of leaving it until the last couple of days every time!

I waited with replying to this until I could say I'd actually written some more since we met.

 

12:53: *stops here to wait until I write today*

 

15:00: *have written a little before going for afternoon tea*

[Dagger]

6 hours ago, Kvedulf said:

Hey Dagger! How's things? How's the travel going? I said I was going to spam some people

Heya Kvedulf!

 

Things are pretty awesome at the moment. I love the travel so far. Currently in London amusing myself. And it isn't spam unless it is unwanted, which it isn't!

[Dagger]

So yeah, yesterday, aka Saturday. Geez, my daily reporting (if I even do it) is so lack right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm really not having a problem with that. I'll get back to more structured when I feel like it. Probably come September.

 

Yesterday, I woke up, did my normal morning things until I suddenly had to be done with breakfast so I could take a shower, showered, went to the farmer's market, came back, finished my morning things, had a very light lunch, wrote for many five minutes, went to afternoon tea, spent more than two and a half hours having afternoon tea and stuffing myself with so much good food (but it was soooo expensive... ouch) and not to mention the tea—soooooo goood!—then I walked home (about an hour), chilled for an hour or so, had a super super light dinner just so I wouldn't wake up at 6 am super hungry, watched a couple of episodes of a TV show, did my evening thinking routine, and went to sleep.

 

The next five days will be interesting, haha (that are the last few days of August).

[Dagger]

Finding it so easy to take care of tasks that have been lingering instead of working on my novel. I'm being gentle with myself and letting myself do those tasks when they aren't only done for distraction or if it will be easier to let myself be a bit distracted first.

 

But I'm very much in a worse place than I was in July. By this time in July, I had almost a half novel already. Right now I have 3000 words of one. But don't despair, I'm making headway. :3

[Dagger]

I did something potentially naughty that could backfire.

 

I couldn't stop myself from reading the feedback on the first novel. I stayed strong for five days. Man, I thought it was longer, haha.

 

Anyway, I'm not going to discuss it here right now, because that might mess me up (I just realized). I'll tell you soon enough.  Aka Thursday/Friday.

[Dagger]

Added 3400 words to the novel today.

 

I'm up to 6500 words.

 

I've specifically decided to not complain about how more words earlier would have been better. That is water under the bridge and nothing I can change. And also true.

 

I need another 23500 words before midnight on Thursday, Pacific time. I also need to have about 2-3 hours to spellcheck, fix things and format the manuscript, so I really need those words done by 9 PM pacific time. That would, btw, be 5 am my time (September 1). Midnight pacific time is 8 am September 1. If I was in Stockholm or at least on the continent, then I'd have one more hour, but I'm not.

[Casbin]

Uhm, it would also be one hour later?
The main difference is your sleeprythm and you will make that work.

You will make it work, apparently the deadline is what fuels you to get to it.
But you've made some progress on changing things towards the way you want to write.
Walking that path is the tricky path but as far as I could tell you started to do just that?

Send from mobile

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, Casbin said:

Uhm, it would also be one hour later?

True.

 

9 hours ago, Casbin said:

You will make it work, apparently the deadline is what fuels you to get to it.
But you've made some progress on changing things towards the way you want to write.
Walking that path is the tricky path but as far as I could tell you started to do just that?

Yeah, deadlines fuels me, or rather it helps me sit down and do the work. It is like I've always done it and I'm teaching myself how to work consistently without a deadline or well before the deadline, obviously that ship has sailed for this deadline, but I'll try again next time.

 

Yup, I have started down it. Thanks.

[SymphonicDan]

Please don't be writing it all night on the 1st September though Dagger! You're trying to become a good writer, and that's difficult to do at 4am on deadline day...

 

[Dagger]

6 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Please don't be writing it all night on the 1st September though Dagger! You're trying to become a good writer, and that's difficult to do at 4am on deadline day...

I completely understand what your message is, but I wanted to point something out. Also, I realize your message doesn't quite say this, because you say it is difficult to become a writer at 4am on deadline day. You aren't saying that it is impossible to be a good writer by writing like that. But a bit of lazy reading, like I did the first time I read your message still means that my thoughts below still fits. Not saying that you have to account for my lazy reading, but I needed to say the below since it bothered me.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~ 

 

How tired you are, how fast you are writing, how often you are writing, how regularly you are writing, how X you are writing, none of them doesn't matter for quality. It is a very damaging myth that shows up in a lot of places. Even if I write all night on deadline day, doesn't mean I'm not a good writer, it doesn't mean it won't be good writing.

 

I totally get that you didn't mean to imply that. Me and @fleaball and a few others (@Severine?) can prove with grades from last minute papers that quality doesn't depend on when you write it.

 

While I don't want to continue to follow my previous habits of finishing 50+% of a project the last couple of days before deadline, I don't want to put in my head the idea that not doing that makes me a good writer, because that basically says I'm a bad writer if I write like I have a few times before. I'm a writer, so I write. Sure I want to become better, but to become better all I need to do is write (no matter the hour) and perhaps study good writing outside of my own writing and study craft (story structure, characters, dialog, etc.). When I write, how tired I am when I write, nothing of that matters.

 

The only time fast writing or last minute writing can be worthless is if I decided that I'll just write whatever to try and hit the deadline. I don't care about quality, I'll just write my shopping list in the middle and then throw in a gun in a world that have no guns. Basically, if I try to write the best I can, it'll come out the best I can at that moment and a certain level of skill doesn't just disappear if I write in suboptimal conditions.

 

As I said above, I took a lot more from what you wrote than you meant to. You hit a nerve that about myths often told about writing, myths I'd like to kill so writers don't struggle unnecessarily.

[Plazmotic]

FWIW Dagger, I think I had the same response to the notion that deadlines = bad and that good writing = good writer. In school I was a pro at minimizing effort and maximizing returns when it came to writing reports and essays. And I’ve recently had the revelation that bad writing leads to good writing, just like repeated failures are the stepping stones to success.

[Dagger]

47 minutes ago, Plazmotic said:

FWIW Dagger, I think I had the same response to the notion that deadlines = bad and that good writing = good writer. In school I was a pro at minimizing effort and maximizing returns when it came to writing reports and essays. And I’ve recently had the revelation that bad writing leads to good writing, just like repeated failures are the stepping stones to success.

Writing just like all crafts require practice. The first time you sing a whole song, no one expects to get standing ovations from critiques. The first time you play a violin, you don't expect to be able to do it in Carnegie hall and have people clapping you to do an extra number or whatever. Somehow we think that the first time we write a short story or a novel that it has the potential to be a bestseller and we can live happily ever after.

 

So while I wouldn't use the words "bad writing leading to good writing", the concept of practice leading to better writing certainly applies. (In the same way I'm trying to stop saying food is good or bad, a feeling is good or bad, etc.)

 

I was digging more at the fact that writing a certain way or at a certain time means bad writing. Or that there is a specific way to be a good writer. Both of those concepts aren't true. There are successful writers (however you define that) who write into the dark (aka pantsing) and there are those who outline a lot. There are those who says that editing as you go ruins your writing, others who say that editing after you are done ruins your writing, and those who says that no editing at all means bad writing. Any way you slice it someone says a certain method is bad and you can find a lot of writers using those exact methods that that same person wouldn't call bad writers.

 

Of course, other people's opinions of your writing doesn't matter, because it is all about taste. So whatever way you write is correct for you at that moment if it works for you. When it doesn't work, try another. 

[Dagger]

So I guess I should mention how yesterday went. I don't remember the start of the day, sometime in the mid-afternoon I finally got to writing and managed about 500ish words. Then... I'm not sure. I eventually went for a long walk and when I got back I decided to have dinner (it was 8 pm) first and then I'd write more. Except I had this interesting talk while making dinner that I decided to stay and talk while I ate dinner and then... three hours later we stopped talking. I was tired and it was 11 pm.

 

So I've kinda revised my plan but I'm keeping my cards close to my chest for now since stating my plans doesn't currently seem to work. Wish me luck or dedication or a lot of creativity or something.

[Vibrantella]

Good luck!

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[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Do good things!!