#28 - On Writing

Stop Overthinking and Do the Thing | A Logbook can Change your Life

Jan 29, 2021

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This week I am sharing about writing, overthinking, and the use of a personal logbook.

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On Writing

It is natural to have doubts about our ability when we set out to do something new. I had that doubt about my writing. I was on the edge thinking whether to start a blog or not for a very long time. Many questions ran through my mind. Will I be able to write like other good writers? What will I be writing about? Will anyone care to read my posts?

After writing on and off for a year now I have answers to these questions. You do not have to be a poet to write. You just need to understand the basic language construct. As long as you are able to express your ideas clearly, you are writing well. All you need is the desire to write. You will get better as you write more. To write consistently you need three things.

Writing Prompts – We all have a lot of ideas about many different things. But we let it slip our mind. The best way to capture your thoughts and ideas is to keep a Personal Logbook. Scribble anything and everything that comes to your mind. This helps with creating a backlog of ideas from which you can pick your writing prompts. Most of what I am writing now has come from my logbook.
Writing Time – Committing to doing something at the same time every day frees you from making the same decision again and again. You decide once and stick to it. I have set an hour from 11.30 to 12.30 every day to write. The only thing I now have to decide is, what to write about.
Writing Partner– We can get better at anything if we can get honest feedback. You need someone who can tell you what is wrong with your writing and how you can improve. Find a feedback partner and exchange feedback on each other’s writing.

Your first 100 posts are going to be shitty. But to get to the 101st post, you need to get through the first 100 posts. Julian Shapiro calls this The Creativity Faucet.

“At the beginning of a writing session, you must write out every bad idea that reflexively comes to mind. Instead of being self-critical and resisting these bad ideas, you must openly accept them. Once the bad ideas are emptied, strong ideas begin to arrive.”

He further writes “Most people never get past their wastewater. They resist their bad ideas.” Flush out the first 100 or so posts and you will see a new and a better writer in you. Now go write.

Stop Overthinking and Do the Thing

Often time I overthink small things. I will type something to post but hit backspace instead of posting it. I overthink calling someone I have not been in touch for a while. I overthink greeting people. I overthink saying good morning to my kids. I overthink saying I love you to my wife. I overthink asking for help from others.

In the book “Wonder”, the lead character Auggie’s doctor tells him he might need a hearing aid at some point. As expected, his hearing worsens. But he thinks the hearing aid will look weird on him. And he feels his friends might make fun of him. So he avoids telling it his mom and dad about his hearing troubles.

Eventually, his mom finds out and he gets a hearing aid. His hearing improved. It did not look bad on him as he thought. And none of his friends even noticed it when he went to school.

Funny how sometimes we worry a lot about something and it turns out to be nothing.

We just have to let go of overthinking small things and tell ourselves that it will turn out ok. Stop overthinking and do the thing.

A Logbook can Change your Life

A personal logbook is where I scribble various things throughout the day. I first came across the concept of a personal logbook in Austin Kleon’s blog. Logbooks were originally used in ships to record important events in the management, operation, and navigation of the ship.

Why not a personal logbook to manage, operate, and navigate oneself? It paints a clear picture of what happened during the day.

When I started keeping logs, I was mostly tracking my what/when. I have since expanded the usage of my logbook to scribble random thoughts, to check in on my mood, and to capture any open loops. Here is what I write in my logbook.

Time Tracker – It is easy to spend time in this distractionful world, and complain about lack of time for important things in life like health and family. Most people who complain about lack of time do not know where they are spending their time. Tacking what you are doing in a 15 minutes interval for a few weeks can reveal a great deal of how you spend your time. Instead of a new shine tool, I use my logbook to track my time. Every time I transaction to a new task, I simply write down the time and what I am about to do. Here is my time log from this morning

Daily Planner – I take 15 minutes every morning and plan what I want to do during the day. I check my calendar to see if there any meetings I should prepare for. I pick three tasks from my task manager and identify the Most Important Task out of those. And commit to a time of the day for each of these tasks. Here is my entry from today

Random Thoughts – Throughout the day, I scribble random thought that comes to my mind.

Emotion & Mood – I write down how I react to people especially my wife and kids. I am more aware of my mood swings. Doing this has changed my relationship with my wife and kids.
Journal – I write down important happenings during the day. Who/What/Where/When. This helps me avoid staring at a blank screen the next morning when I sit down to write my Journal(Morning Pages)
Tasks – I capture anything I want to get done in the future(Idea from Getting Things Done).
Ideas – I write down any ideas that come to my mind. Many of my work has come from these scribblings.
Writing a personal logbook has changed my life in many good ways. It has helped me to cut down on unproductive work. It has improved my awareness. My relationship with my kids and wife has improved. I have kept a daily journal since I started writing keeping logbook.