Hello, World

According to Blogger, I haven’t written a post to this blog in 886 days. Well, that’s all about to change. I have undertaken a 30-day writing challenge at the prompting of Michael Santarcangelo (@catalyst). I have committed to spending 2 hours (more or less) writing for the next 30 business days. We have a team of four people participating in this challenge, two of which I haven’t met yet. I look forward to getting to know them through their writing over the next 6 weeks. This challenge is meant to provide value by encouraging quantity over quality; the theory is that an increased quantity will also result in increased quality. Since my typical quantity is measured best in 140 character increments, this is likely to help.

It will be difficult transitioning into longer form writing. It is relatively easy for me to quickly write an email message or blog post. Those tend to run in the 250-500 word area for me. Michael’s hope for us is about ten times greater. I expect that my writing style will prevent me from reaching those lofty word counts on any individual item, but I look forward to being surprised. If I am getting between 600-1200 words per day, I think I will feel like I’ve been successful. After all, I do not (yet) consider myself an author. I’m just a computer nerd that can string a few words together when required.

Frequently asked questions:

Why would someone who is having so much difficulty with time management commit to spending two hours a day doing something he doesn’t normally do? Well, that’s an excellent question. I do spend a fair amount of my time each day writing, but much of it is in the form of email messages or social network comments. Part of this commitment is to help me focus my writing energies toward things that will provide a lasting benefit and impact. I’m looking forward to writing some insightful blog posts (not necessarily to this blog) and strategy documents that will help me navigate the future. Also on the list are some biographical items – a speaker bio for me, a biography for Gemini (can you have a biography of a non-living thing?), and perhaps even some personal memories of my mother (before it becomes too hard to remember anything about her). There will be some calls for speakers, papers, and presenters along the way which I plan to knock out, and some internal documents that just need to be written and have suffered from a lack of available time.

How long did it take you to write this post? Well, I am editing and adding links on the fly, and limited myself to completing this post within 25 minutes (a single pomodoro).

Why are you submitting this post the day before the challenge actually begins? Two reasons. First is that I’ll be playing golf (weather permitting) in the Kids R First charity tournament tomorrow, and so my work day will already be shortened. The second is that I am spending some time at the office tonight because I had a major blow-up with my 5-year-old son, Brian, and I needed some time away. It seemed like this was a good thing to accomplish in addition to cleaning off my desk. Tomorrow I’ll be finishing a report that should have been completed a month ago, and that will pretty much wrap up my workday.

Why are you posting this here? Nobody reads this blog. Seriously, nobody. I didn’t even remember the address.

Anything else I should know about the challenge? I’m hoping I make it through and don’t disappoint the other participants. I am definitely going to be taxing myself to make it happen, and it is possible I won’t make it through. I’ll do my best.

The timer is wrapping up, so I will close with a message of thanks to Michael for encouraging me to take this journey. I’ll make sure I report back at the end of this challenge in case anyone does actually read this blog.

Total word count: 684 words. Not bad.