In How long does it take to write a book? I shared how much I wrote every day in 2021-2022 (spoiler alert: a little per day, quite a bit in total). I managed to put together those numbers only thanks to the habit of keeping an Excel sheet, which made me think of the tools I use for writing and how they work (or don’t) for different people.
📊 The spreadsheet
As of right now, I’m using a spreadsheet to track my word count. In it, I enter:
the starting time of the writing session;
the starting word count of the document;
the ending time of the writing session;
the final word count of the document.
I also have some space to jot down some notes on how I felt during the writing session.
The spreadsheet calculates how many words I wrote and for how long. I get some other “fun” stats, like words per hour, average word count per session, average word count per day, and so on1. I’m satisfied with the insights that I get out of it (I’ll admit, I am quite proud of my word-count-pixel-calendars2), even though I don’t look at them as often as I thought I would, and sometimes I forget to track when I’m writing.
But I didn’t start with a spreadsheet right away, and I don’t recommend it as a beginner writer’s tool. Or, in some cases, even to a more experienced writer. The thing is, there are so many different things to track, and realizing what is the most useful thing to keep an eye on for you is invaluable.
📈 The wisdom of choosing what to track
I was talking to another fellow writer about the feeling of “being stuck”: we were both experiencing it, but not because we had encountered an especially complex part of our drafts. It was simply because we hadn’t been writing for a couple of weeks—as it happens, life got in the way.
We were mulling over how “not writing” for a while feels like a kind of “writer’s block”. Even if it’s a planned interruption, you feel “blocked” because you’re not continuing on your writing journey. It’s so different from those weeks in which you do find time to sit down and think—even if you spend hours wrestling with plots and characters and not writing much, you feel like a writer because you’re doing writer’s things.
In the middle of the conversation, my friend had a realization about her weekly goal.
Until now, she tried to write around 2.000 words per week. She wasn’t being too strict about it: she took it as a helpful benchmark. But, she realized, tracking word count wasn’t useful for what she wanted. To get out of this rut, she had to focus on the number of times she sat down to do writer’s things, not how many words she squeezed out of her sessions.
So, she changed her goal from 2.000 words to sitting down three times a week for an hour on her writing project.
I found that to be extremely smart. Also, it reminded me that the options are endless: it’s up to you to decide what to track.
When I was still fighting to get a writing habit going, I couldn’t be bothered to even think of word count. At that time I had a very simple phone app, that would allow me to cross a box for each day I wrote something. How much? Didn’t matter. For how long? Didn’t matter. As long as I spent a few seconds to read what I had written before, and wrote at least one more word, I’d cross the box.
📉 The downsides of trackers
Tracking isn’t for everyone.
I’m a huge fan of trackers. I have a spreadsheet, a phone app, and at least three pieces of paper with self-drawn trackers at my desk3.
That said, I completely understand if people aren’t into them. Also, I don’t find them to be inherently motivating.
In the productivity sphere, they are seen as the way to go to keep motivation high for doing what you want to do. Atomic Habits sums it up pretty well:
In summary, habit tracking (1) creates a visual cue that can remind you to act, (2) is inherently motivating because you see the progress you are making and don’t want to lose it, and (3) feels satisfying whenever you record another successful instance of your habit. Furthermore, habit tracking provides visual proof that you are casting votes for the type of person you wish to become, which is a delightful form of immediate and intrinsic gratification.
Atomic Habits by James Clear, pages 198-1994
I agree with all the points given: a tracker can do that if you view it as a way to motivate yourself to keep on doing what you want to do. The problem is that this perspective opens you up to get extremely demotivated, too.
Because what happens the moment you slip? It’ll happen. It’s unavoidable.
Suddenly, it becomes a (1) visual cue of what you didn’t do, (2) it shows you the progress you haven’t made and that you’ve now lost, (3) and it’s a reminder of your “failure” (in air quotes, as I don’t truly believe it to be a failure). Furthermore, it’s visual proof that you’re not casting votes for the type of person you wish to become.
I’m putting it into very harsh tones… but I think that’s why many people, who may have had interest in keeping a tracker, stop after a while. That’s why I stopped, many times.
☝️ Observing instead of judging
The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it. […] This pitfall is evident in many areas of life. We focus on working long hours instead of getting meaningful work done. We care more about getting ten thousand steps than we do about being healthy. We teach for standardized tests instead of emphasizing learning, curiosity, and critical thinking. In short, we optimize for what we measure. When we choose the wrong measurement, we get the wrong behavior. […] Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system.
Atomic Habits by James Clear, page 203
What worked for me was to shift away from the “motivational” perspective. Now I see it differently: a tracker’s goal isn’t to motivate. Its goal is to track.
I don’t keep an Excel sheet to motivate myself: I keep it to simply track what I do. It’s all data: it’s not supposed to make me feel good, or bad. It’s not even supposed to remind me that I should be writing. It’s just a space for me to record what I’m doing, and, if I want to look at it, to tell me what I did.
It’s not about judging. It’s about information.
Funnily enough, I find this observing mindset much more motivating. It stems from the reflection that maybe in the future this data could be useful for me to understand myself better. That one day I’ll be able to take joy in seeing the ups and downs of my journey. That, maybe, it’ll allow me to create something interesting out of it—like a word-count-pixel-calendar.
I find it fascinating to notice how much my perspective can change my perception of a tool: it can make it more or less helpful to use.
Are you a tracker user or not? Have you also experienced a shift in perspective like mine on a tool you’ve used? Would maybe such a shift be useful for you right now? Let me know by simply replying to this email or leaving a comment!
Take care,
Rye Youbs
See also
About my spreadsheet — yes, I did start it as a way to procrastinate actual writing. Yes, I do tinker with it every once in a while as a way to procrastinate actual writing.
About word-count-pixel-calendar — something that I did for the entry titled “How long does it take to write a book?”
On having a spreadsheet, a phone app, and three analog self-made trackers on pieces of paper that hang on the wall at my desk — am I the only one? Please tell me I’m not…
Atomic Habits by James Clear — all the quotes are from the paperback edition printed by Penguin Random House (2018)
Ooh a writing journal sounds cool! I don’t currently have one, but I think the closet thing I have on reflecting on my feelings during writing is actually my Dear Writing Diary series. One thing I do pick up on in the moment is if I don’t emotionally connect with a scene I’m writing. I actually just deleted the 2nd chapter in a book I’m writing because it wasn’t hitting the right emotional notes for me, and I had a better idea for how to really start the story.
Wow, your tracking process is so detailed! I love how you take note of how you feel during writing sessions as well. Personally, I don’t specifically track my writing, but I do set writing goals. On busy days, I strive for a page or 1/2 of a page. However, when I near the end of a chapter, my goal shifts to finishing a chapter by a certain day. I think writing chapter by chapter pushes me more and gets me in the headspace of the story more fully than page counts, but doing whole chapters isn’t often feasible for me during the week when I’m also working at my day job. Best of luck with your writing as always!