Motivation from Streaks

Blaugust-2019-LOGO

Today we are over halfway through Blaugust. This post today will mark 17/31 which is just as far as I got last year. Any post after this completes my soft Blaugust goal of writing more than I did last year. I’m still aiming for 31/31 days and I’m still feeling great about writing.

Every morning I wake up and see a little notification from WordPress on my phone. Today it says “You’re on a 21-day streak on I’m Not Squishy”.  Do you know how exciting that is? I’ve never posted this many days in a row before and I don’t see a reason to stop. Lately, when I don’t feel like writing I think about this little notification. The thought of breaking the streak pushes me to write something for the next day or next few days.

I find that steaks are a great motivator for me when forming new habits There’s always a little voice in my head that says sure, you could skip this thing but then you’d break such a long streak. The streak itself is a fantastic motivator for things like flossing, working out, and now writing. When the streak breaks I feel a little guilty that I have to start over but then that starts a new streak and we’re off again.

I don’t like achievements and rewards based on streaks in games though. For example, there’s an achievement in Trove for consecutive log in days. The achievement unlocks mastery points and wings for logging in 45 days in a row. I guess if I consciously went after this goal I could do it but knowing that if I miss one day  I’d have to start again kills any drive for me. This is the same with games with rewards for consecutive days logged in where once you miss a day you have to log in up to where you were before getting more rewards.

Anyways, I’m still enjoying the hell out of writing every day. It is definitely getting easier to come up with things to write about as the days go by. This is one thing I’ve always struggled with here but I feel like I’m getting better at it. I hope everyone has a strong finish to Blaugust whatever your goals maybe!

 

2 thoughts on “Motivation from Streaks

  1. Naithin August 17, 2019 / 6:54 pm

    What I’ve taken away from this is… My wordpress app on my phone is letting me down! WTB: Notification of streak, too!

    More seriously, agree, while a streak runs it can be an amazing motivator. I do worry though about the mental impact of having broken a streak.

    Like you mention with games where to you the mere prospect of breaking a streak being a barrier to getting started. What could it mean to getting REstarted with something you’d been on an epic streak with if it were to be broken? Even if it was broken for a reason outside of your control?

    It seems like for you this might be OK re: Flossing and Gym attendance though. So hopefully all good. For me, despite opening sentence here, I’ll probably continue to (try) ignore streaks juuuust in case. xD

    Liked by 1 person

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