Write While True

• 46. Write as Yourself to Yourself

  This is the 7th episode of season four. I started this season in January of 2024. My intent was to document the process of writing a book. But even though this season is over a year long, there have only been 7 episodes, and that's because I took a 9 month break. I want to talk more about what happened during that break, and how I was derailed from my plans, and how I recovered. The Four Disciplines of Execution [affiliate link] On Writing Well [affiliate link] by William Zinsser Swimming in Tech Debt (my book) Help This Book (book sharing platform) Useful Books Community Transcript

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• 45. Gather Your Work

  But even with all of that new writing, a lot of the ideas and content are drawn from my blog. That's what I want to talk about today -- How I started this project by reviewing and gathering my work. My first step, at the end of 2023, when I decided that I wanted to write a book, was to immerse myself in my own writing, so I just read my blog. I just read all of the posts. Season 4 started with The Four Disciplines: 1, 2, 3, and 4 The Four Disciplines of Execution [affiliate link] Write While True Episode 13: New Ideas where I talked about ... ... A Technique for Producing Ideas [affiliate link] Morning Pages Write While True Episode 1: Training to Unblock Yourself Write While True Episode 19: Prompt Your Morning Pages Smart Notes Write While True Episode 2: Small Bits of Writing Journals Write While True Episode 21: Dedicated Journals Write While True Episode 22: Harvesting Journals Assembling first drafts Write While True Episode 3: First Drafts Transcript

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• 44. Write in Public

  My intention after episode 43 was to follow along the process of writing the book and share what I learned along the way. But, a few things happened that derailed me (in a good way). The Four Disciplines of Execution [affiliate link] Write While True Episode 23: Take a Break Taking a Successful Break Swimming in Tech Debt Follow-up on my Tech Debt Article in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter transcript

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• 43. Accountability Groups

  There's a hole in this process, and we need to fill that right now. This only works if you're doing the lead activities consistently, and if they really do build up to the end goal. It's true that working on the book is intrinsically fun and interesting. And if that's all that happened, I'd probably be okay with it, but I really do want a book in the end. Write While True Episode 40: Let’s Write a Pamphlet Write While True Episode 41: The Lead Measure Write While True Episode 42: Keeping Score 4DX: Applying the Fourth Discipline Useful Books Community Transcript

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• 42. Keeping Score

  As I mentioned in the past two episodes, I'm trying to write a short book, and I want to share the process as I'm going through it. For example, to help me structure my time, I'm using the book The Four Disciplines of Execution. In the last episode, I shared how I'm applying the second discipline. I defined an activity that I could do every day and a lead measure, a metric of that activity, that I could have as a goal for every week. The idea is that if I constantly achieve this lead measure, I believe that the larger goal will be achieved. My weekly goal is to spend at least one hour a day on five different days working on the book. It's a goal that resets every week. That way, a bad week doesn't derail me. Every Monday, I have a chance to try to win that week. But I have to remember to do it. Keeping this lead measure top of mind is what the third discipline is about. And that's what I want to talk about next. Write While True Episode 40: Let’s Write a Pamphlet Write While True Episode 41: The Lead Measure How I am applying The Four Disciplines of Execution Transcript

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