20230101-55_days_at_typing.md (3722B)
1 It is a year to the day [since I started](20220101-absolute_git.html){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} the [100DaysToOffload](https://100daystooffload.com/){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} challenge. 2 3 The idea of the challenge is to publish one hundred blog posts in a year. For those that have been keeping track I managed just over half the requirement, publishing entry [number fifty-five](20221226-tty_twister.html){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} on the 26th December. 4 5 From the very start I knew that publishing one hundred entries would be a lot of work but I was motivated and prepared to give it a shot. I made a list of as many ideas as I could and with my creative juices flowing started writing everyday. Most of my writing has been on my phone, a lot of the early ones were written while holding my sleeping infant daughter. 6 7 Let us take a look at the distribution of entries over the last year 8 ``` 9 ls -1 entry/2022* | cut -c 11-12 | uniq -c 10 12 01 11 12 02 12 5 03 13 4 04 14 3 05 15 1 06 16 1 07 17 3 08 18 1 09 19 4 10 20 5 11 21 4 12 22 ``` 23 24 As you can see I started off the year strong. Twenty four entries in the first two months. That is almost half my final number published already. 25 26 March was a bad month. I caught Covid-19 and was ill for about two weeks. For a couple of months after I also felt exhausted all the time, although having a one year old to look after did not help. Due to this I stopped writing every day, which in turn stalled my motivation and even my creativity. 27 28 The summer was a blur of work and parenting, barely getting a single entry published for a few of the months. Around this time I started to develop some rules on my writing. I had been drafting posts when I thought of what to write, but if a draft remained untouched for a few weeks, or I couldn't find the words, then it was forgotten. A number of the ideas I had on my list were either started as a draft or ignored if I couldn't think of how to expand on the premise. 29 30 My entries are also quite short on average. I have been told by some readers that they like this. Even my most lengthy entries can be read in 10 to 15 minutes. I try to develop my drafts in one or two sittings. If I can write a whole entry in half an hour then it will most likely get published. 31 32 Using that mindset has helped me to pick up the publishing a bit more near the end of the year to a comfortable rate. 33 34 A lot of the shorter entries were written at the beginning of the year but I quickly used up that backlog attempting to stick to publishing every two to three days. By the end of the year I was writing as and when the ideas came along. Either something new I was working on, or I had fleshed out an idea enough to start writing. 35 36 Considering between 2016 and 2021 I had only managed sixteen entries, I would say fifty-five in 2022 was a success. It has certainly got me into the habit of writing more and not only trying to write about technology. My [forged in metal](20220223-forged_in_metal.html){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} entry was one of the most enjoyable to write. 37 38 Looking forward I won't be attempting the 100DaysToOffload challenge again (for now) but will continue writing when I can. A few entries a month seems to be a sustainable rate for me at the moment. 39 40 There are no analytics on this site (by design) so I have no idea how many people visit and read, but if you are one of them then Thank You. I hope you have enjoyed some of my ramblings. 41 42 As always, if you would like to get in touch my contact details can be found on my [home page](https://pyratebeard.net){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"}. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.