Holy cow, it's been ten months

17 Dec 2020

Indeed, it’s been a whole ten months since I last wrote.. what happened!?

Well, life, I guess. Covid certainly has thrown everything, everywhere a pretty big curve ball and steno practice has been no exception.

I also think that the way that I was trying to learn steno was making things harder than they really needed to be; in hindsight, I think I was bringing an unrealistic expectation to each practice session: that somehow that session would unlock the secret to making a huge jump forward with steno. I think that was a pretty good recipe for burnout.

Recently, though, I’ve been trying a different approach – it’s called Beeminder.

With Beeminder, you set a goal – sometimes referred to as a commitment contract – that you are bound to, otherwise.. they charge your credit card. Serious business, right?

For me, this has felt amazing. First of all, it definitely means that I get pretty serious about my goals. But it also – and perhaps this is the more relevant part for steno – helps me to focus on taking things one day at a time.

Here’s a look at my Beeminder goal for steno:

Without going into too much detail about how everything works here, basically, I’ve pledged to practice steno for five minutes a day. If I fall too far behind I’ll cross over the red line and then have to pay Beeminder. That’s called derailing.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out the Beeminder site. They have tons of information on how the whole system works, and lots of thoughtful articles on their philosophy, too.