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P50: Day 1

Realized last night that it doesn’t make sense to post this before my day is done...so this is yesterdays day one of project 50!

Woke Up: 6 am

Morning Routine: only moderately interrupted by a call from L+D. Otherwise no scrolling! 

Work: stayed on top of tasks throughout the day and only missed my phone for a few moments

Exercise: tried my first Peloton workout! (It took me two months to get my bike delivered - so excited when it finally arrived last week!)

Productivity: finished my notes from the day and sketched out what I need to catch up on from the holiday period at work 

Reading: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Overall, felt like a good first day. I can already tell from day two (spoilers) that this ‘productivity’ hour is going to be hard to define each day, but hoping that at a minimum it gives me forward momentum on my book and also helps me stay on top of work projects easier. 

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2023

Been spending the last few weeks thinking about the *kind* of life I’d like to live and how to bridge the gaps between my current reality and that possible future me. Something about medical training made me think of time/the future in bit sized chunks that had end dates. My experience now is temporary because I’m a medical student. This experience is temporary because I’m a resident. This other experience is temporary because I’m on a specific rotation. 

But then you start an attending job and those bite sized chunks disappear and all that is left is the reality that the future is now...and the way I’m living my life is not going to change because of some countdown or external force, it’s going to change only if I make those changes happen. 

Anyway, time to make those changes. Time to curate a day to day routine that allows me to stay healthy, have a career I enjoy, and pursue my passions outside of work. I’ve decided to start with my own version of the “Project 50″ that is all over the instagram and tiktok feeds of the world. It goes a little something like this:

For the next 50 days you commit to seven different key habits that should improve your health and keep you on track to accomplish your goals moving forward. Those seven habits are:

Wake up before 8 am every day

Stick to a one hour morning routine without social media

Workout for one hour each day

Read 10 pages a day

Spend one hour a day working on a new skill

Follow a healthy diet

Track progress daily

So I have some slight modifications for these to fit my own personal goals and lifestyle (like, there’s only so many hours in my day outside of work...) and so my day will hopefully look a little something like this:

Wake up by 6 on work days and 7 on non-work days

Morning routine of wake up, bathroom/meds, ten min yoga flow, shower, get dressed, make bed, eat breakfast, pack lunch, go to work

Close exercise ring every day (realistically I do about 45 min of exercise daily after work)

Read daily before bed

Spend one hour each day on either writing or working on CME/admin work 

No alcohol and maintain current healthy diet

Track progress daily on tumblr 

I also am going to try and keep more updated on notes during the day at work and bring less work home with me by not going on social media when I’m at the hospital. 

Some of these things I already do, but not as strict. Some of these things are going to be big changes for me. I’m excited to see how things go over the next 50 days and most importantly, what I can accomplish. Here goes nothing!!! 

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Won NaNo!!!!!! Second year in a row!

Got 50,000 words into my second draft of this first book. Definitely made some good progress. Know there’s still a long way to go but feeling good about taking this into 2023!

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OMG fret not world, because it’s already happening

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fbcn96MKyc1Bky6c0Ffex4APtar9iNht8ytfZHPpSss/preview?pru=AAABhMD7Y84*zoo5IUe62bsrORJJ-YQEVQ#

The feminine urge to collect all of the analysis, screen caps, gif sets, attributed quotes, established scenes, recurring themes, and underlying tones currently attributed to Goncharov and actually create a screen play for the film. 

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The feminine urge to collect all of the analysis, screen caps, gif sets, attributed quotes, established scenes, recurring themes, and underlying tones currently attributed to Goncharov and actually create a screen play for the film. 

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Okay okay I don’t normally reply to these things but it hit me right in the chest:

Don’t Blame Me by Taylor Swift

No more zodiac signs. If you were the main character and you finally brutally murdered somebody to show the audience that you are no longer the upstanding young man you were at the beginning and that you had "snapped," what song would be playing in that scene?

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AHHHHH IM GOING TO SEE TAYLOR SWIFT LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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VOTED!!!

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NaNo Day 7

Feeling a little blah today in general so wasn’t the most productive. After my weekend warrior sprinting yesterday, though, I’m wondering if I can get at least around 1,000 a day during the week and then catch up on the weekends it wouldn’t be too terrible. 

Eventually I do need to catch up on clinic notes though. 

Daily word count: 812

Total word count: 11268

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NaNo Days 4-6

Two disappointing days and one fucking monster of a 5K day filled with fifteen sprints, three different location changes, countless replays of my NaNo spotify playlist, and one box of Annie’s Mac and Cheese. But the best thing was today got me was feeling like I am in the groove again. Missed that a lot. 

Day four word count: 1081

Day five word count: 793

Day six word count: 5232

Total word count: 10456

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NaNo Day 3

Call day for me with an evening admit so I was not very productive with my writing unfortunately. I wish I could count all my documentation as words for NaNo! Bc I’m killing at that!

On the other hand I did officially get through what was probably one of the bigger rewriting sections of this book. My beginning of the first draft was…messy…to put it kindly and I knew it needed a major re-haul to be presentable. I’m pleased with this second try for sure! And I’m hoping going into the weekend I can have more parts that require less heavy lifting and higher word counts.

Todays total: 822

Total total: 3350

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NaNo Day 2

Had an admin day from work so was pretty hopeful that I could do some catch up and maybe get to the 3000 word mark but alas - nope! I think the combination of having not written as much this year AND this being my second draft things are just going to go slower compared to last year. Still pleased that I’m showing up every day. Still think I’ll have opportunities to have writing heavy days this month so that I’ll make that 50K goal in the end! The good news is this new version definitely is better than the first. Wayyyy better. So the plodding along will be worth it I’m sure.

Todays word count: 1512

Total word count: 2528

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NaNo Day 1

Welp it’s here! Had a long day in clinic and a pre-planned evening FaceTime with residency friends so didn’t have a lot of writing time and ended up with around 1,000 words done for the day. Hoping that as I get further into this draft I’ll write faster/more each day.

But damn damn damn second drafts are harder than firsts!

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One day until NaNo

One day until NaNo

One day until NaNo

Ahhhhhgggg

I *think* I have a plan. The plan being that I will do my second draft of my first novel. Of course, don’t have a plan of what that second draft will look like still. So that will be fun. Currently my living room has note cards, sticky notes, a cork board, my first draft, and random papers all over the floor which feels foreboding.

Anyway - medblr NaNo sound off??? Who is as crazy as me?!

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Something something…I get emotional thinking of these two moments 😭😭😭

(Yes, I just finished Greywaren today and I will never be the same tbh)

(May be sharing more thoughts but for now just this)

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My toxic trait?

Oh it’s starting Midnights at Maroon instead of Lavender Haze.

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NaNoWriMo

Since it’s the first week of October I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what I’m going to do for NaNo next month. 

Last year was my first NaNo that I really committed to. I had just finished my first draft of my first book and had a new idea that I thought would be perfect length for November and a relatively big departure from what I had just spend the previous (checks notes) SIX YEARS working on. I was right - the final product came to be about 50,000 words, I had an AMAZING month, fell in love with my local group, won NaNo with my long distance med school/writing friend and finished 2021 with two first drafts under my belt.

Here is how I pictured 2022: finishing the second draft of my first novel just in time for Preptober where I could work on fleshing out a *brand new* fantasy idea that popped in my head one night in December and could write another first draft during NaNo.

Here is what actually happened: I stopped writing. 

Lots of reasons, lots of life stuff, none of it that groundbreaking or interesting. Mostly I got out of the habit while studying for boards and then never got back into it. Now it’s October again and I have about 2,000 words written in my second draft of my previously 150,000 word book sooooo definitely NOT going to finish that before November. (Did you know that writing second drafts are really fucking hard and def way harder than first drafts??? Ugh)

Anyway - contemplating being a NaNo rebel and using it to kick start my second draft writing. But also have been low key thinking about this fantasy idea for a year now and like the idea of doing a complete project because it feels more...like...and encapsulated challenge. *Le sigh* - the contemplation continues. 

Any other NaNo hopefuls out there not sure yet of what to do??