The limits of the Magic Spreadsheet
So for those of you who have been reading and following, you know how much I touted the Magic Spreadsheet in a previous post. I still stand by that post but as the past 9 months have been rolling along, some of the disadvantages of the spreadsheet are starting to appear and I’m starting to see where the model falls short.
The biggest hurdle I’ve found myself trying to maintain has been the idea that every 30 (or so) days, you ‘level up’ and an additional 50 words is added to your quota. To put that in perspective, right now I am at level 9. Just made that a couple of days ago actually. At the 9th level your minimum word count becomes 650 words per day.
Every Day.
In theory that’s not too bad. After all the jump from 250 to 300 wasn’t bad, nor was the jump from 300 to 350. Etc. But I’ve found that the jump from 550 to 600 was damn near impossible.
Perhaps it’s a factor of life circumstances. I was getting busy with CPA studies when I leveled to the 600 quota. Family needs were getting busy and my own state of mind was starting to enter that “fraying” part of it’s cyclical nature. Focusing was proving difficult.
Perhaps it was the nature of the way I write. With my outlines I prefer to finish my day of writing either in the middle of a scene or at the end of one. I hate… absolutely hate ending a scene only to start another one and only put a minimal number of words in it just to meet a quota. So to combat that, I was writing longer more laggy and draggy scenes that took 1000 words to do what could have been done in 800. Why? To meet the escalating quotas of the magic spreadsheet. I was fighting so hard to maintain a pace that simply wasn’t for me that the quality of my work suffered and I questioned my ability to keep writing.
Then I found my answer
Last month I made a decision to throw the quota out the window. I’ve set myself on a 500 words a day pacing which feels right for me. Eventually my points will cap out and I’ll fall behind on the leader boards. But I’ll still be writing every day, maintaining the streak. That’s what the magic spreadsheet means to me… maintaining the streak for as long as possible.
Whenever you start a program. Whether it’s an exercise program, a writing program, or something else that you use to hold yourself accountable to others and to yourself, it’s important that you know what you want to get out of it. Are you trying to learn how to escalate your daily word count until you’re able to write 10,000 words in a day? Are you simply trying to get into the habit of writing something every day?
For me I found my limit… 500 words a day. Every day. I still love and whole heartedly support the spreadsheet and the work Tony has put into it. The only thing that’s changed is the way in which I use it to help me in my craft – maintaining a daily word count. Eventually I may up my own personal quota, but when I do it will be when I am ready to. Not when the spreadsheet tells me to.
It’s okay to have limits. It’s even better to know what they are. Pushing them every now and then is a fun challenge. But don’t let the drive to push those limits take you to a point where your product suffers for it.
Until Next time
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