Tried a New Habit Method Last Night

Yesterday, I talked about the importance of forming good habits. So I went home, pulled up the timer on my phone and set it for an hour. I had three things I needed to accomplish. I needed to work on some of my non-writing career stuff, spend time reading and hanging out with my daughter, and then get some writing done.

I hit the Start on the timer. For an hour, I worked on my non-writing stuff. That hour went so quickly, I could hardly believe it when the alarm went off. I didn't get everything done I needed to get done, but I cut it off after 60 minutes. I was determined to be disciplined.

I reset the timer for an hour and called my daughter into the room. We read a book together, built my new desk chair together, and then talked about her day at school. This hour also went by quickly, much to my regret.

I got a few things around for the next day, and set the timer on my phone for another hour. This was the hour I would use to work on my book and my marketing plan. THIS HOUR TOOK FOREVER!!!!

It was so hard to focus, to force myself to punch words on my keyboard. To form complete sentences was excruciating. My mind wanted to rebel. It wanted to watch videos, peek at the news, flirt with my wife, anything except write. But I made myself do it. For 60 minutes my eyes did not wander from my word documents except to double check some things on dictionary.com or wikipedia.

At the end of it, when the alarm went off, I was so relieved, like finishing a race. But I did it. I plan to repeat the exercise tonight. I imagine it will be just as hard, but hopefully, I will get to the point where I don't need the timer anymore. But for now, I need something to hold me accountable, and a machine is all I got.

Peace,

-Troy