The daily creative accountability challenge is nearly over, and it’s been quite an experience! I just wanted to take some time to do a little wrap-up, talk about what went well and what was difficult, and propose something for the next chapter.
I consider that I’ve reached the initial goal that I’ve set out to achieve (1 post a day on average during the challenge period) but the results were not evenly distributed. Some days I didn’t post anything. Some days 2 posts came out. Some posts were incredibly long and content-rich. And some were sparsely furnished.
SO WHAT WENT WELL?
- The blog is running again, and I intend to keep it that way.
- I got a bit of drawing into the mix.
- The project forced me to get more organized and audit everything that had been left unfinished.
- I definitely cut through a lot of bullshit excuses that I had (the challenge is called Break Up With Your Bullshit after all)
- It was inspiring to see what others were doing during the challenge (mostly through the private Facebook group)
IN THE TO BE IMPROVED UPON DEPARTMENT:
- The production rate (1 post a day) was not sustainable. Not even close. In order for a daily challenge to succeed you need to be able to arrange your life to set enough time aside every day, and also have some sort of back-up plan or pressure-release in place for the days that aren’t so easy. I was already going through some major life changes before the challenge started, so from the get-go I wouldn’t say my tank was full, energy wise.
- Related to the above point: I can be really stubborn about achieving some of the goals I set, to the point of sacrificing a lot of sleep to “make it work”. I’m seriously considering doing a temporary pivot with the blog just to address this issue, that’s how important I think it is.
- I didn’t program anything. Not even a tiny codepen 😔To be fair, I don’t think the sample is big enough for me to say this is a problem as such, but
I shouldI’m going to make it a priority to dive back into some JavaScript in the short term.
- The daily format was not conducive to the core intent. Posting something daily is a lot of overhead, and doesn’t leave a lot of space for actually advancing my projects. There is value to doing regular check-ins for accountability, but the ratio has to be just right.
- By the end of it (and right now 😭) I was squeaking out posts at like, 1:00am, and not posting about it on Twitter because everyone’s asleep. Just… Why?????
COMING SOON, TO A BLOG NEAR YOU (THIS ONE!):
I think it’s obvious that I won’t be maintaining the daily blog format. Going forward I’m going to commit to a weekly one, with some extra content that might show up if I’m in the mood for it. The next major post will be on Nov. 28, because I am rewarding myself with a break. I’ll also need to think about how I’ll bake accountability structures into the mix, and what changes that might mean for the blog. The fact that it’s just one giant stream of linear content just reinforces the need for a redesign.
So yeah, that’s it for this very intensive chapter of the blog, and I’m looking forward to sharing the next one with everyone who’s reading ☺️
(If you see any typos in this it’s because I published without proofreading in order to get to bed sooner 😬)