I agree. In fact, we eventually dropped the whole idea of having a punishment when we realized that letting your partner down is the real punishment. (Also, at one point, one of us had racked up 5000 words in punishments and this became something of a disincentive to work on the project at all. At that point, we wiped he punishment record clean.
Is writing easier for me now? YES. Largely because I destroyed a lot of false beliefs/aliefs I had held about what writing requires. Here are some false beliefs I no longer have: "Writing requires long periods of intense concentration." "You have to be in the right mood for writing." "Writing dialogue is hard."
Some of my entries were written on my phone while I commuted. This means some parts were written as I walked between the subway train and the bus that went to my apartment, entailing a near-constant state of interruption. Previously I had held onto the notion that writing required a special quiet place with no distractions and a solid chunk of time. This may be necessary for editing a piece of writing into something really good, but I no longer believe it's necessary to get a decent first draft.
I'm now much more likely to write out an idea that I have than I ever was before, and that by itself makes the project a success in my mind.
This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of July 9th. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.
Thanks to everyone who contributes!
Academian put up a wiki page with links to the prior May and June threads for reference. Good idea, thanks!