Day 27: Training Camp

I’m on day 27 of my challenge now, which feels like a tremendous accomplishment! First, because 27 is quite a few days — and next, because I made it to the first day of winter break (which, as those of you working in schools know, was an extremely heavy lift).

And I am exceedingly proud and grateful that my whole family has been healthy this fall. I have taken only one personal day off this fall (plus half a day for the girl's’ COVID shots). I know in the upcoming winter months this may not prove possible. 

At any rate, I made it here. I feel proud because I started this challenge right after Thanksgiving and have now lasted through until Christmas Eve, all while working full-time.

At this phase, I have proven to myself I can do this! I can make time daily for my writing and still fulfill my familial and professional responsibilities, continue to take care of my health and get enough exercise and eat right. Plus, I have started to unlock some of the ideas, questions, topics, and themes I want to explore in my writing. I am amazed by how easily they have come once I began committing them to paper. 

Now I have a few days to catch my breath, rest up and most importantly set up some systems to help myself proactively maintain this practice for the rest of the year. I’m going to reflect on what has been working, what hasn’t and how I can tweak or refine my process moving forward. 

For example, writing by hand in the early morning has worked well. I don’t even have to get out of bed (Friday the cat wouldn’t let me anyway!), but it means I am filling journals with handwritten notes.

Making my handwritten notes electronic takes precious time, but I enjoy the tactileness of pen and paper, and composing initially on a laptop seems unwieldy.

Can I use some electronic means to transcribe my notes?

I bet I can! I have a Rocketbook Notebook gifted to me by a student and their family a few years ago (best gift ever! Thank you, if you are reading this!)

Could I convince the app to transcribe my pages without me actually having to compose inside of the Rockebook (which is erasable and amazing!) as I want my notebooks to remain intact and chronological. 

That would save me serious time retyping my notes — but I hadn’t even considered using an electronic transcription tool up until now because I have been so focused on clocking my hour each day. What a tremendous idea! 

If the Rocketbook app doesn’t work, there must be others out there, right? 

Or, I could use the speech-to-text feature to dictate my notes to google — but that might take just as long as typing, which currently takes a very long time. I could also invest some time upfront in improving my typing skills. 

I need a reliable tape recorder to dictate ideas and record conversations. Jesse and l had a great one this morning that I already regret not recording. 

I need reference documents for my idea lists, resources, and index of each day’s entries so I can find specific notes later.

I need to develop an organizational system for storing my notes online, not just the ones I plan to publish on my blog, but all of them so they become accessible and searchable for me. 

Should I have a master file with all these notes, then break out pieces by topic, or should I leave them in chronological order? If I am working on multiple projects with disparate timelines, how should I treat these notes?

If I don’t have a robust organization system for physical and electronic notes, drafts and published pieces, how will I manage some of the bigger lifts I aspire to one day undertake as a writer?

So, I recognize the need to develop and work within those systems now. 

Luckily, this year-long challenge raises precisely these types of logistical concerns. This year will serve as a training camp or boot camp for me as a writer, just as someone might train for a marathon. By devoting a small amount of time to something every day for a prolonged period, I will necessarily adjusts other aspects of my life to fit it in. 

For example, you might commit to daily runs but fairly quickly discover you need to adjust your diet to match your activity level or choose more supportive shoes. The practice teaches you things along the way, and as you grow you become strong enough to take on bigger lifts in the future. 

And, as with marathon running, you need rest. As a wise friend recently reminded me, and because I don’t often consider it until I’m exhausted, I will consider rest this year and will try to take rest when I need it. 

Perhaps I will take one day off per week and double up over the weekend, or take a few days off throughout the school year and catch up over the summer. Overall, I will consider rest and what feels most supportive for me to make this sustainable in the long term. 

If anyone has ideas about these organizational questions or tools (including technology) that would help, send them my way! If current technology exists that could help me, I probably won’t know about it until 2025 unless you clue me in, so please get in touch or leave me a comment. 

Thank you for all the amazing feedback I have received so far. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. And it really is helping me stay persistent and be a little brave. 

Also, I watched The Bachelorette season finale for the first night of winter break last night and I am completely heartbroken. #TeamBrandon for life.