Article Image
Article Image
read

I’m not stranger to broken streaks. With today it happened 3 times. One on Duolingo and now twice here.

I was sure I had published an article yesterday, but this morning I found out I had not for some reason. I crosspost all my articles from my blog so I just published it on my blog and forgot to crosspost it here.1

When I lost my first streak ever (on Duolingo 3 years ago) I quit for 6 months, mostly because it was not my fault. Streaks on Duolingo are rather buggy and if you don’t keep a streak freeze constantly equipped you might lose it. On top of that each time you fly internationally for more than 8 hours you are guaranteed to lose it as well.

The second time it was an inevitability, but what counted for me is that I still had something written even if I could not post it so I didn’t really feel bad. Same thing today. I don’t feel bad, sure I should have noticed that I only posted on my blog and not here, but it is not a big deal. I have written and that is what counts for me.

The streak is a number. If it motivates you to keep writing the more power to you, but if THE ONLY THING that keeps you going is the fear of losing it that’s a problem.

You should write because you love writing or you want to improve your craft2, not to just keep increasing a counter. The counter is a byproduct of you being a writer and wanting to write, not what forces you to write. Your whole motivation cannot be only expressed by a number.

With that I’m not trying to say that the streak is meaningless. It is not, but it should not become your only goal. It is just the byproduct of reaching the goal.

  1. That’s something I should automate so the possibility of it happening again will be less. 

  2. That is not a list of all acceptable reasons, those are mine. Yours may differ. 

Blog Logo

Valentino Urbano


Published

Image

Valentino Urbano

iOS Developer, Swift, Writer, Husband

Back to Overview