- Be with God and read His word (I've gone back to capitalising pronouns when they refer to God, not for any really good reason except that I like the respect it gives to Him)
- Read something
- Write something
This is on top of doing work that I'm paid for as well as trying to be a good husband and father. It's a lot to pack in. I wonder if I can actually do it. I keep reading everywhere that, if you want to become a writer, you need to read a lot (great! I already enjoy this) and you need to write a lot (boo… I don't seem to have time for this). The idea is that the discipline of writing every day, putting something out there even if it's not good, and getting feedback and criticism will gradually pay off (reminiscent of Cal Newport says in So Good They Can't Ignore You). I enjoy getting my thoughts down, I'm learning things every day that I'd like to share, so it doesn't seem too hard. The only problem is time.
My wife and I have a new baby daughter – 3 months old today – and I've started a new job. Life does not have a lot of slack in it. Can I really spend 1 hour each day devoted to something like honing my writing skills? To an audience of nobody no less.
I also have this thought that there is enough rubbish out there on the Internet already. There are enough bloggers – I don't even particularly enjoy reading blogs, I prefer books; I don't really read many news articles or other short-form content either. Given all this, how can I feel good about putting my own random musings out there online? I think the thing for me is that I want deep and intelligent conversation – and, by writing my own ideas down, I am hoping that either someone will come across them and enter into conversation with me, or at least that, having thought through things well enough to write them down, I'll be ready to share what I think when I happen to find myself in a conversation about a similar topic.
So I guess then the goal would be this:
- Out of bed at 5:30–6 am
- At my desk by 6:30 am
- 30 minutes with God (I've been using the Pray as You Go) podcast recently and found it to be a really excellent way to start my time with God
- 1 hour of writing on whatever topic comes to mind. I'll publish whatever I can get done in that hour – the topic is not likely to be finished, so these posts may get updated over time.
- If I can't think of anything to write, the Wisdom Letter by Philosophors on Substack includes some great writing topics.
This is day 1.
