Zerowriter
Zerowriter, this could be about me. As you can see there is quite some time between setting up this blog, writing the first two blog-posts, and this post. I want to get into the habit of writing more, sharing my thoughts, my opinions. Not for the likes, the shares, or any of that, just for the habit of writing. Because writing is both a skill and a habit, and both can be trained by doing it regularly. So this is the start of my new habit, writing regularly, the goal is daily.
I have done this before. Some 15 years ago I started writing at 750words.com. At that time the site was rather simple, and the goal was also simple. Write 750 words every day. You could earn badges for reaching certain streaks, certain (total) lengths, and certain timings. And this helped me a lot to get into the habit. In two years time I earned almost all the badges that were available, and then I deleted my account. Why? Because I recognized that I was only writing for the streak. My aim was quantity, not quality, because it was all private. So sometimes all I did was just writing a stream of words, thought writing I called it, just a braindump. While this helps to structure your thoughts, it does not structure the writing.
After deleting my account on 750words I never really got into the habit again. One of the things I run into is that writing on your laptop has so many distractions. There is all the apps, all the websites, all the notifications. In order to get into the zone, I have to mute all the notifications, make my editor full screen and write. And to be honest that is pretty hard, and I never really got to it, at least not for my personal writing.
That's where my newest gadget comes in. The Zerowriter, which is a Crowdsupply project, building an e-ink screen with an ESP32 microcomputer and mechanical keyboard. It is running some filemanagement to read and write files to an SSD and a basic editor. I guess the Zero stands for zero distractions, and until now that works great and helped me a lot. The e-ink screen is awesome, so you can write in the sun and on the train. Battery-life seems to be endless, because of the low processing power needed and the e-ink screen. The more you write, the more you “drain” your battery. But you can easily get a week of writing out of a full charge.
So, this is my new goal. Get the Zerowriter out daily and be no zerowriter anymore.