Ever wondered how many creative words you write in a year? Several years ago, I pondered this very question without any chance of ever answering it. But then I read a great book by Simon Whaley's The Positively Productive Writer who recommends noting down your daily productivity in a spreadsheet as a means of motivation. A book I'd recommend for any writer as it is jam packed with helpful hints on being a productive writer.
My spreadsheet is simple, nothing glamorous: a date, project title, comments and daily total columns - which calculates itself saving me time and effort into weekly, monthly and yearly totals. So, for the past few years this has been my daily habit - I write, then I note the day's word count.
As of 30th June 2015, I have written 100,723 creative words since in the beginning of 2015. That sounds like a whooping amount, an amount I never thought I'd be able to achieve but if you divide it between the number of days it means I write on average 556 words per day, a sizeable yet do-able amount when you work full-time elsewhere.
I try to write everyday, but like this week there was a ultra, busy Thursday where a big fat zero sits on the spreadsheet but that is frequently counteracted by the days when my fingers dance around the keyboard clocking up the word count.
It won't be to everyone's taste, for some it could even demotivate but for me doing a half yearly inventory of my productivity and progress provides a boost to push me onwards and upwards in my journey.
My aim for the next half year - to average more than the current 556 words per day!
Note: next inventory date 31st December 2015.
