avatarAlex Philippe

Summary

The author is documenting their journey on day 60 of a 100-day writing challenge, reflecting on the use of AI writing tools, sharing personal strategies for maintaining motivation and productivity, and providing updates on their progress and statistics.

Abstract

On the 60th day of a self-imposed 100-day writing challenge, the author reflects on their progress, which includes publishing 60 articles on Medium. They have encountered some challenges, such as a backlog of articles needing editing and difficulty joining the Medium Partner Program due to geographical restrictions. The author has experimented with AI writing tools like WordHero, finding them useful for generating introductions and conclusions but not always consistent. Despite a modest increase in followers and views, the author remains motivated, attributing their consistency to morning writing habits, accountability partnerships, and engagement with writing communities. They also emphasize the importance of self-care practices like meditation and exercise to avoid burnout. The author's commitment to quality is evident in their editing process and the use of tools like Grammarly. They conclude by listing the articles written since the last update and expressing satisfaction with their achievement thus far.

Opinions

  • The author views AI writing tools as a mixed bag, sometimes providing impressive output but other times yielding useless results.
  • They prioritize sharing personal experiences over the potential controversy of using AI in writing.
  • The author is not fully satisfied with the AI tool's performance, likening it to a lottery due to its inconsistency.
  • Despite the challenges, the author finds value in the process and is motivated by the progress made, considering the publication of 60 articles a significant personal achievement.
  • The author is disappointed with the traffic to their series on memorization, acknowledging it as a niche and technical topic.
  • They express frustration with the limitations of the Medium Partner Program, particularly the geographical restrictions imposed by Stripe's availability.
  • The author is critical of their own adherence to some initial habits, such as participating in writers' communities, but is optimistic about catching up.
  • They find Obsidian helpful for making connections in their writing, indicating a preference for tools that enhance cognitive processes.
  • The author is pragmatic about

WRITING

100 Days of Writing: Day 60 — Experimentations with AI

It’s clunky!

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

On Feb 1st, 2022, I embarked on a 100-days writing challenge, where I aimed to write one story per day on Medium.

I’ve decided to do a check-in every 10 days. The last one was here. And today, I will give you my progress on day 60.

It’s getting tense!

This is article number 60 and I’m writing this on the 60th day of the challenge, which means I’m on track.

But I’m losing ground a bit. Some of the articles in my publishing backlog are not fully edited, while my goal was to produce one fully edited article each day.

However, I’m also writing longer articles, which explains a bit why it’s getting tense for me these days.

Experimentations with AI

After reading an article from Corrie Who Writes who uses the Jarvis AI writing tool, I decided to give it a shot.

I’m not using Jarvis right now but a competing tool called WordHerlo, as I found a great lifetime discount on AppSumo.

There’s a lot of controversy about AI tools, and it’s easy to understand. Writing personal stories and generating writing with an AI tool look like polar opposites.

However, my priority is to build value by sharing my personal experience. And if AI gives me new ideas or helps me make more catchy sentences, it fills my purpose.

Right now, I’m not fully satisfied with the tool as it looks too much like a lottery. Sometimes, I get impressive output, other times it’s completely useless.

Maybe my writings don’t blend well with most of the generic ideas found on the internet.

What I found the most useful in the WordHero app are the introduction and conclusion generators. I often struggle to write catchy assertive sentences, so the AI tool helps me make my writing more dynamic.

In conclusion, right now, I don’t find a lot of time gained on my writing, but maybe I’ll find ways to make it more worthy of my time.

Full disclosure: I didn’t use this tool for this article.

Building up my series on memorization

If you follow my articles, I bet you did not miss my practical memorization series as I published 4 more episodes this week.

To be honest, it hasn’t been successful from a traffic point of view. This is a very specific topic and rather technical. The articles build on each other, and it’s hard to get hooked when you climb on the bandwagon. And it’s one of the reasons my traffic did not increase much.

But I enjoyed making it. And it will be a great resource whenever someone wants me to point to a resource to learn how to memorize effectively. If you want more of that, let me know at alexandrephili [@] gmail [dot] com.

Rejected again by the Medium Partner Program

During the last check-ins, I talked about my struggles to join the Medium Partner Program. Right now, I’ve been rejected because I’m not in a country supported by the program.

I did another tentative to join the program last Sunday thanks to a friend who is in France and I asked him to apply for me.

Well, unfortunately, I got rejected again. It’s pretty ridiculous to me because the reason the country I am right now (Mauritius) is not supported is that Stripe does not work here.

However, I’ve got a stripe account in France since I’m French and I’ve got a bank account there.

Well, I could probably use a VPN while using Medium to pretend I’m in France. But that’s too much hassle for me right now. And I’ll be in Europe in two months anyway. So I’ll close the subject for now.

My statistics

Now let’s see my statistics.

First, the story stats:

Screen capture by the author

Since the last check-in, I increased my views from 4974 to 5372, an 8% increase. It’s a bit disappointing. But at least I crossed the psychological 5000 views threshold.

I’ll probably submit more articles in “Better Human” as this publication usually works better for me in terms of views.

Now let’s see the audience stats:

Screen capture by the author

I only got 27 more followers in 10 days which is not great compared to my other check-ins.

I did not comment much on fellow writers' articles and did not publish any viral articles, so this result was to be expected.

I’ll try to do better by the next check-in.

My secret sauce

As usual, let’s check in on the habits I had in mind while starting this challenge:

Developing consistency and motivation

  • I will develop a habit of writing for one hour each morning when I wake up. Yes, I’m still doing it. Still writing the rough draft of my articles in the evening and editing in the morning.
  • I will do calls with my accountability partner to help me stay focused on my goals. This one is challenging. I had difficulties communicating with my partner lately as he did not reply to my messages. But he’s finally contacted me, and he seems motivated again. I’ll see where it goes. I can still get another partner if it does not work out.
  • I will actively participate in various writers’ communities — currently, I’m part of the Write Useful Books and ILLUMINATION slack workspaces. Definitely lost that habit. I’ll see if I can at least catch up with the Write Useful Books community.
  • Other than that, as I said, this challenge is getting very tense. I still manage to write one new article draft each evening and publish polished articles each day of my workweek. But some articles are not totally edited. I’ll try to catch up on these this weekend.

Finding inspiration

  • I will read medium articles and follow interesting writers that I enjoy. Yes, I did that on the Medium app of my smartphone, that’s how I discovered the AI writing article.
  • I will read a book each day for at least 30 minutes. I’m now reading The art of impossible by Steven Kotler. This book is very well researched and I enjoy it a lot! I’ll try to write an article very soon about the previous book I read: The break out principle by Herbert Benson.
  • I will do daily walks in nature. I still do this. Sometimes it’s challenging when I am tired or very busy, but I like to do it. And I had some great article ideas in the process.
  • Other than that, I’m now using Obsidian for writing my articles. And it often helps to make connections with subjects I’ve read about over the years.

Avoiding burnout

  • I will do meditation or take a nap each morning after publishing my daily article. Yes, doing it. Naps and the Body Scan Relaxation Technique have been the most effective tools to recover.
  • I will do vigorous exercise during my walks in nature. Still doing it, now I do it earlier to avoid the mosquitoes!
  • I will write articles in advance. Still not doing it. I don’t know if I will manage to do it since I already have some editing work to catch up on.
  • Other than that, I’m still drinking a lot of water to help cope with stress. I also found that drinking water before a meal helps me to alleviate pain in my stomach while stressed.

Ensuring I write quality articles

  • I will never publish an article the same day I wrote the first draft so that I can edit it properly. Still doing this. And it feels great!
  • I will use Grammarly to spot my grammar mistakes. Still using it! Still using the basic Grammarly option.
  • I will practice writing exercises, such as studying my favorite authors and reusing their writing plans. I have started to take notice of the style of writing of the authors I follow by email. Most notably, Eric Barker from the blog Barking up the wrong tree.
  • Other than that, I need to finish the course on Business Writing that I started at Coursera!

The 10 posts I wrote since the last check-in

Lastly, here’s the list of stories I wrote since the last check-in in case you’ve missed them:

51. No More Slouching: 6 Time-Tested Tips to Improve Your Posture (+2 Bonus Ones) 52. Dancing With the Mentors: A Shortcut to Greatness (to be published) 53. Practical Memorization: Part 2 — 10 Tips to Choose the Best Loci for Your Memory Palaces 54. Practical Memorization: Part 3 — 10 Ways to Trick Your Brain into Memorizing Anything 55. Practical Memorization: Part 4 — 6 Object Association Types to Create Memorable Images 56. Practical Memorization: Part 5–6 Tips to Create Powerful Symbolic Mnemonics 57. 3 Amazing Senior Stories: No, You’re Not Too Old To Succeed 58. The day I discovered what it means to be happy (to be published) 59. 5 ways to boost your productivity with the Observer Effect (to be published) 60. (this article)

In the last 10 days, I also published this article from my backlog:

And here are other articles from before that I still need to publish:

  • Friday Evening Hangover — How to Get Productive When You Don’t Feel Like It?
  • Break Free From Procrastination by Washing Your Hands
  • Overcoming a Creativity Block With the Malkovich Principle
  • Deep Insights: 7 Books That Caused a Mini-Revolution in My Life
  • Avoiding Disastrous Personal Crises with a Risk Register
  • Solitude + Goal = Big Magic

—

I hope you enjoyed this article. As you can see, it’s getting tough for me these days. But hey, that’s day 60 right? 60 articles is a great achievement for me and I feel good about it. And I also get to play with exciting toys like AI writing tools. What could you ask more from life? 😉 I hope this inspires you on your writing journey.

On February 1st, 2022, I’ve embarked on a 100 days writing challenge. This is post number 60.

Writing
Productivity
Business
Self Improvement
Challenge
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