Day 340: Writing… a lot.

This is how I start all my technical writing.

Another day, another set of problems. So what better way to put off my writing for the day than to write about not wanting to write. I feel like I’m living in a meme all of a sudden. Today I’ve got about 4353453421 things to write, give or take 4. Is it odd that I would rather be writing this than any of the stuff that matters?

We’re nearing the end of 365 days. It’s been a wild ride and it only hit me today as we welcome day 340 that there isn’t a whole lot of time left until I hit my goal. It’s been a struggle to devote time to do all this writing, I mean if every post takes me just 30 minutes that’s 10,950 minutes or 182.5 hours, or 7.6 days worth of writing.

The truth is these posts typically take a minimum of 30 minutes. Posts like my spinal cord series or my solid modeling series take 4+ hours each. It’s worth it, but man does it eat up most of my day and motivation to do other work. It’s been good though I’ve learned to balance this goal with my life work. Notice I haven’t taken a day off from writing in quite a while… it’s been, wow a while I think (think) the last time I took a day off from posting anything other than telling you all I’m taking a day was like 200+ days ago.

I’ve adapted to my little goal of writing about my journey quiet well! I’ve shared knowledge from classes I’ve taken, I’ve taught about the spinal cord (still my favorite thing I’ve done with these posts), am in the process of teaching you to solid model. I’ve really enjoyed doing this and I am seriously thinking about doing it until I finish my PhD.

It’s funny that I can get into this habit and enjoy it, but when it comes to technical writing I dread it. Maybe funny isn’t the right word, expected maybe. I don’t think anyone particularly enjoys technical writing. It’s more of a chore while this is a hobby, so I think I prefer this for that reason. Plus, I can write about whatever I feel like for the day and send it out into the world without worrying about my grade or getting ahead.

I do this as a way to destress and process things, like now. I’m trying to process the fact that I have so much writing to do and no motivation whatsoever to get it done. Well this was a nice little break from my responsibilities, but I really should get to writing. Moral of today, framing matters. You can do the same task (writing) so many different ways that some are bound to be more enjoyable to you than others. I’m sure someone out there likes technical writing though… right?