30-day project postmortem

A project has ended. For the last 30 days I’ve been drilling down into writer’s block. Each day had an assigned topic. I would research and think about that topic and write about it here. And if I could think of a practical exercise, I would start an experiment.

And it has worked. I’m feeling much more confident about my writing.

But drilling down into topics like attention, energy, positive emotions, self-talk and mental imagery have helped me more generally. I’m sleeping better, exercising more, cooking real meals, and improving my attitude towards people.

I’ve had many good ideas and minor epiphanies this month.

Now the next phase of this project begins. I go back to writing here about whatever random topic catches my fancy. And I start writing some articles for Medium. I’m starting with six articles to act as an introduction to the six main topics I covered, and if that goes well, I’ll work to finish the full 30 topics and their subtopics.

Here’s a full list of topics and the logs they inspired.

1. Focus: Building a Writing Practice ~ Reduce Impulsivity ~ Improve Attention ~ Manage Energy ~ Assess Commitments
2. Emotion: Sparking Creative Joy ~ Induce Positive Feelings ~ Reduce Intensity ~ Embrace Outcome Independence ~ Expect Setbacks
3. Speech: Writing for Self-Reflection ~ Assess Failures ~ Express Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt ~ Investigate Narcissistic Supply ~ Examine Self-Talk
4. Procedure: Avoiding Interference Patterns ~ Reduce Distractions ~ Find Ideas ~ Overcome Overthinking ~ Unlearn Self-Editing
5. Imagery: Improving Mental Imagery ~ Train the Brain ~ Collect References ~ Use Brainstorming ~ Lean into Style
6. Time: Studying Episodic Patterns ~ Understand Memory ~ Study Passages ~ Create a Language ~ Question Strategic Choices