Tiny experiments: my pact to write for thirty days
I often fail to publish my writing. Even though I have lots of things I’d love to write about, and despite the hours I’m already putting in every week, I rarely get to the finish line. I just never feel satisfied with the quality of my work. And sadly, my efforts to improve the quality just led to more dissatisfaction. Up until recently, I didn’t know how to overcome that problem.
But recently, thanks to the book “Tiny Experiments” by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, I learned about a new technique which I decided to try.
The technique is called “making a Pact”. In essence, the idea is to “pledge to engage in a particular activity for a predetermined period of time.” It’s as simple as stating something like “I will [action] for [duration]”.
The action should be simple and repeatable, while the duration should be long enough to learn something valuable, but no longer.
Since my goal is to publish more of my work, I committed to the following pact: “I will write two paragraphs of publishable content every day for the next thirty days”.
Notice that the pact is focussed on outputs, not outcomes. This is a deliberate choice. It makes success easier to attain: just showing up every day is enough. Whether I hit that goal or not is entirely in my sphere of control.
At the end of the thirty days, I’ll sit down and reflect. Remember, this is supposed to be an experiment. So hopefully, I’ll have learned something.
Specifically, I’m looking for answers to the following questions:
- Will I be able to publish more?
- Does writing become more fun and less stressful?
- Can I easily integrate it into my busy days?
And most importantly: do I want to continue, stop, or modify this experiment?
So far, I’ve written for eleven days in a row and managed to complete five articles. It’s been a lot of fun, and even though it’s been stressful at times, I’ve managed to find some spare time every day.
I’m happy about the results so far and I’m confident that I can make it through the remaining 19 days. But still, it won’t hurt if you want to wish me luck.