{"id":1214,"date":"2016-05-24T09:38:35","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T14:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2016-11-02T02:33:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T02:33:57","slug":"daniels-10-minute-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/24\/daniels-10-minute-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel’s 10 Minute Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I meet a new writer, musician, artist, or any other creative type, the foremost question that intrigues me is: “how do you keep yourself on track?”<\/p>\n

While most of the time the answer to that\u00a0question can be boiled down to\u00a0sit your ass down and just do it<\/em>, I think that there is much to be gained by inspecting the creative processes of our colleagues.<\/p>\n

Allow me a little backstory.<\/p>\n

At my evening job, I often work with\u00a0Daniel, a pianist, raconteur, and all-around great guy, who has a seemingly endless enthusiasm for his instrument. \u00a0This perplexed me, because my own enthusiasm (for writing, cooking, reading, you name it)\u00a0ebbs and wanes with remarkably frustrating consistency. \u00a0At first, I chalked it all up to his skill, with the reasoning that “if I were that good at the piano, I’d practice\u00a0every day, too!” \u00a0But then I realized that this proposition would logically render Daniel as a piano-practicing drone, without any agency, and I know that couldn’t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

So, I went back to being perplexed until I finally had the good sense just to ask him. \u00a0His answer made complete sense, and went something along the lines of this:<\/p>\n

“Well, I make myself practice for 10 minutes every day. \u00a0Sometimes, just\u00a0that 10 minutes of\u00a0doing the *task* will actually inspire me\u00a0to keep *tasking.* And even if I stop after the minimum, I’ve still practiced 10 minutes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that this is a really healthy approach to staying consistent in order to improve a skill. \u00a0What I like most is that, as long as you’re doing something that you actually love, this method helps you rediscover little bits of enthusiasm each day until routine becomes habit. \u00a0After all, the most difficult part for me is usually getting over the initial hump of fearful loathing and remembering that I actually like this thing called writing.<\/p>\n

\"amazing_mountain_milky_way_by_yakub_nihat-wallpaper-1920x1080\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/span><\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. Zachary Barnes 2016\u00a9<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I meet a new writer, musician, artist, or any other creative type, the foremost question that intrigues me is: “how do you keep yourself on track?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2,17,21,28,29,33,46,50,52,53],"tags":[54,59,60,80,88,104,147,150,204],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":607,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/03\/07\/processing-processes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":0},"title":"Processing Processes","date":"March 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"According to me, there are at least 100,000 known writing strategies. \u00a0Maybe even more (and that's why we shouldn't destroy the rain forest). \u00a0Working at a college writing center has really opened up my eyes to all sorts of writing processes that professors recommend, and even though most of them\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Inner Critic\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/04\/18\/workout-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":1},"title":"Workout Time","date":"April 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to borrow a tired chich\u00e9 from my music education experience, which is that the \"practice makes perfect\" mantra is misleading. Practice makes permanent is more often true. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Which raises the question: how does one practice writing?","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2016\/05\/09\/vocabularied-egos\/","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":2},"title":"Vocabularied Egos","date":"May 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you find yourself truculently bedighting your scrivenery with inimical prose, serried and thick as chaparral; I, for one, recommend elision instead. Otherwise, your writing may appear solecistic, and you, as a writer, solipsismal.","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Advice\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1366,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}