Life unloaded
Published on 2024-02-03
I generally try to avoid talking about the thing I'm currently trying to do with my gemlog, except as an occasional aside, since it feels too easy. But I've been having a low-energy day today and I could use an easy topic to write about.
Slightly before New Year's I decided that I wanted to dedicate some time every day for 100 days to write something. This was, in fact, what I thought the 100 days to offload challenge was. It turns out they don't actually expect you to write every single day--just to write 100 pieces over the course of a year. But writing every single day turned out to work really well for me, and so I'm sticking with it.
There is a kind of open question, though, of what I'm going to do when I hit day 100 (probably around early April at this rate).
I really expected that this would fall off for me. I figured that after a while I'd end up with, say, 6 low-effort posts Sunday to Friday, and maybe one more thoughtful piece on Saturday when I'd have the time. But I really don't feel like that's happened. Lots of the pieces I've put out are okay, but surprisingly enough I feel like almost all of the pieces I've written are better than any of the ones I've written on my blog on the web over the years. They're often comparable in length, too. The line between what I feel should go on my gemlog and on my blog has become very blurry.
I think my baseline quality for writing has gone up quite a bit. It's not super surprising, all things considered. I've always liked writing but now I'm actually making it a part of my life, and getting a lot of practice in a judgment-free space I've created for myself.
Once 100 days are up, I expect I'll still write quite often, but probably not every single day. I do, however, want to make time every day to do some kind of artistic endeavour. I might try doing some kind of 100-day sketching challenge, or maybe make a point to get out of the house and do some photography every day. Something. Because actively making the time to do the things you love is extremely rewarding, and now that I've started, I don't expect I'll ever want to stop.
This is probably the first day since December 29th that I haven't particularly felt in the mood to write a piece for my gemlog, but once I sat down words just started flowing out, and I certainly seem to be enjoying it. That gives me a little hope.
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