Writing consistently is hard. Writing a lot is hard. Writing a lot consistently is hard. But not if you train yourself to do it.
One of the things I struggle with is writing consistently throughout the week. I can write 3,000 words in a day, but not consecutively. They’re usually followed by a 0-word day.
May as well write 1,500 words both days, right?
Right.
Now, I’ve been lifting weights on and off for over 20 years. Mostly off, but that doesn’t matter. One method of training is progressive overload, in which you increase either the weight you lift or the number of reps you perform each week. That’s a good way to get stronger over time.
I figure, why not apply that to writing? I mean, I am trying to write consistently. What better way than to follow a regimen that increases slowly over time?
The progressive overload for writing program
Peep this.
What if instead of trying to max out your writing every day, you followed a program that slowly increased your volume? That’s what I’ve created here.
I can set my start date and training cycle. I set up my starting word count and how much I want it to increase daily & weekly. I set up which days I want to write and rest.
Now I just need to stick to it.
What do the settings to the right look like throughout the week?
The daily word count increases by 100 words every day, marked as Write in the weekday mode selector. The active rest day is set for 1 pomodoro, and the true rest day is 0 words.
The next week, the starting Write day is 100 words more than the initial. The pattern is continued for as long as the training lasts, in this case, 90 days.
Slowly increasing the amount of words written per day, until 90 days later, we’re easily jamming out 12,000 words in a week.
At that point, the training cycle is complete, and it’s time to look at the data.
Was the full cycle completed? Great, reset it where you left off and continue growing more and more comfortable writing daily.
Was there a point where it got overwhelming and dreadful to sit down and reach the word count? That may be your upper limit, and it’s time to reduce the daily word count. Maybe you noticed there was a certain day of the week that never reached the goal word count. That’s not bad; that just means that day needs to be a rest day, either active or true.
Growth, baby, growth
It felt weird to write only 1,051 words today. Mostly because I still had juice left in the tank, and it took less than 1 hour.
But I know that tomorrow, it’s going to be easy to do it again. And at the end of the week, I’ll have my “hard” day, followed by two days of mental relaxation.
The best part is that the daily word count can be customized to any need. Perhaps you like to start your week off with the largest word count. Easy, just set the within-week increase to a negative number to lower the word count from Monday to Friday.
Maybe you want to write the same amount every day. Maybe increase slowly or more aggressively. It’s all possible.
I think this is my ticket to reaching those mythical consistent 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000-word days.