WRITING

100 Days of Writing: Day 70 — Obsidian Addict

Obsidian Personal Encyclopedia + Medium Articles = Big Magic!

Obsidian screenshot capture by the author

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 70.

Still in the trenches

This is article number 70 and I’m writing this on the 70th day of the challenge, which means I’m on track.

But I still have difficulties keeping up with the rhythm and some of the article drafts in my publishing backlog are not fully edited.

I’m still writing long articles, but at times, I also write listicles. This helps me cope with my writing calendar.

Obsidian addict

I’m now writing my article drafts in Obsidian, while I was using LogSeq before.

The main reason why I switched to Obsidian is to link my writings to the rest of my Personal Knowledge Encyclopedia.

For example, I have my journal entries and many ideas and notes I have taken on various productivity topics in Obsidian.

So when I write a new draft, it’s now more convenient to gather my ideas from notes that I have already taken and pillar ideas that I collect in the form of Zettlekasten permanent notes.

Obsidian is also a more mature software, so there is less friction in using it as there are fewer bugs than LogSeq. And this makes me more serene about the security of my data.

The bad side of using Obsidian is that sometimes I find fascinating ideas that I am tempted to research. When I do that, hours go by unnoticed. And it makes me late on my article writing.

But from a learning perspective, it’s a great tool. It’s just that I don’t have much time for endless research right now.

My first hater

I am also celebrating my first hater! Yes, I know, it is supposed to be demoralizing.

But the article in question was designed to be a provocative article. So at least, it got some of the reactions I expected.

Here is the article in question: Elden Ring: Would You Spend $50,000 to Become a Digital Hero?

For information, the hater comment was not posted to my Medium article but on the original article on my blog. And as it was insulting, I removed it. Hey, free speech has its limits!

My statistics

Now let’s see my statistics.

First, the story stats:

For the first time, my number of views decreased. Yes, this is depressing. The last view count was 5372, now it’s 4077, a 24% decrease.

Well, these days, none of my articles went viral.

I thought the article “The Day I Discovered What It Means to Be Truly Happy” would score well because it was all written as a very personal story. But it did not take off, maybe because it was too depressing.

Well, shit happens, right? The positive side is that it will be easier to do better by day 80. The bottom line is that I did not reduce the quality of my articles, which is the most important for me.

The number of followers I gained is 22. Not great either, but at least I crossed the 300 followers threshold.

I won’t work much on this metric as I am already late on my writing. But I’ll still comment from time to time on articles from other authors, which might help get the needle moving.

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. No news from my new accountability partner for 2 weeks. I plan to get another one.
I will actively participate in various writers’ communities — currently, I’m part of the Write Useful Books and ILLUMINATION slack workspaces. Still not doing it, unfortunately, too much on my plate right now.
Other than that, yep, this is getting challenging. I’m in survival mode, so it’s hard to do everything I planned.

Finding inspiration

I will read medium articles and follow interesting writers that I enjoy. Yes, I discovered some nice articles, I especially liked this article by Jano le Roux which is so compelling!
I will read a book each day for at least 30 minutes. As promised, I wrote an article about the book “The Breakout Principle”, but it’s not been published yet. The book I’m currently reading right now is The art of impossible by Steven Kotler.
I will do daily walks in nature. this one was challenging. It’s been about one week since I haven’t done it. I need to catch up on this.
Other than that, here’s a video about precommitment that was inspiring to me: The battle between your present and future self. I really enjoyed the storytelling on it. And it made me think I have a lot of progress to do on my storytelling.

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. As I already mentioned, I’m not as consistent as before on this. I need to catch up!
I will write articles in advance. Definitely not doing it since I already have some editing work to catch up on.
Other than that, I’ve had some difficulties sleeping lately, I’ll try to address this issue.

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. I did only one exception to this rule since the last check-in. Well, it could be worse.
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 a Google Sheet where I keep the list of my favorite Medium authors, and I’ve had a couple of new additions lately, among them are Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi and Jano le Roux.
Other than that, I am now using a better writing process I think, thanks to Obsidian, where I now have a list of all my upcoming articles. I called this list my “Incubation list”.

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:

61. Breakthrough Pauses: Yes, There is a Recipe to Produce Genius Ideas (to be published) 62. Crushing the Negativity Bias : What I Learned After 1793 Days of Journaling (to be published 63. These 4 Simple Rules Are Enough to Get You Started as a Coach 64. The Glass Man: How to Stop Hiding Behind Excuses and Stratagems 65. 5 Practical Tips to Do the Hard Work 66. Everyday Poka-Yokes — 5 Foolproof Ways to Do the Right Thing 67. The Virtuous Pump: 5 Ways to Feel a Sense of Progress in Your Day 68. Burning the ships … or not! (to be published) 69. Unshakable Weekly Reviews: power-up your workweek with a touch of social interaction (to be published) 70. (this article)

In the last 10 days, I also published this article from my backlog: The Day I Discovered What It Means to Be Truly Happy

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
5 ways to boost your productivity with the Observer Effect

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I hope you enjoyed this article. As you can see, I am still in the trenches, keeping up with the rhythm of 1 article written per day. The traffic was not great these past 10 days, but I’ve learned a lot. So in spite of the setbacks I had, I’m satisfied with what I accomplished. 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 70.