I'm not going to make my wordcount target.

Sometimes people fail at things. The thing to do in such a case is to make sure you learn from it. So: what happened? How was this year different from last?

First and foremost, I think the flexible target was a mistake. I work best with short deadlines. Last year, I repeatedly came down to the wire, putting off writing until late in the evening, and often going over the deadline by half an hour or so. This year, I wrote a little toward the beginning, and once (this post) at the end.

In future, I think I should go for even shorter deadlines than a day; possibly a pomodoro. I'm also trying out Floobits as a sort of text-only screencast, so that people can watch me write in realtime.

Second, I think the target was too large. Last year started with a 250-word day; this year expected a 1000 words/day average. I chose that rate because it was the average rate over last year's targets, but it still came out to be enough to feel intimidating. I bit off more than I could chew; I need to cut my goals into smaller chunks.

I suspect that breaking into smaller parts will enable me to write more in total. If a writing session doesn't drain me, I should be ready for the next one sooner. If you want to run a marathon, alternating between sprinting and resting is less efficient than a steady jog.

I think that 250 words over half an hour to an hour is a perfectly respectable target. This post is 278 words, and it's only taken me fifteen minutes.


This post: 278 words
Final total: 2004 words
Final target: 10,000 words