I always end the year by writing about my accomplishments, failure, regrets, and resolutions. I love this time of year because the calendar naturally moves me to reflect and take action. This post is all about 2021 regrets.
I had a pretty good writing habit up until COVID, and maybe even a little longer than that. For over a decade, my mornings at home were easy. I’d wake up, take care of the cats, make coffee, and plunk my ass at the computer to write 500 words.
This year, that habit went into the toilet.
Maybe it’s the fact that I was out there selling a book, or perhaps it’s because I have a marketing crew that works on my behalf, but my writing is down 10000%. My new morning routine is to wake up, take care of the cats, pay extra attention to Spicy because she’s so damn happy in the morning, make coffee, and then scroll the feeds on my phone until I leave for the gym.
It’s easy to blame the addictive nature of social media — and I do — but Twitter hasn’t benched my good writing habit. Instead, it’s me, making terrible choices with my time, as if I have nothing else to do with my life but make money for these awful advertising platforms masquerading as technology companies.
What am I going to do about it? I don’t fucking know. Probably opine on it and get back to looking at runner memes. Then I’ll look at baby memes. Yes, my creativity is on the backbench because you’re sharing TikTok videos on Instagram. But thanks for curating these things for me. Appreciate you. (And I’m really talking to Jason Pankow on this one.)
So, to summarize: I’m like everybody else, not going after my dreams, being unproductive with my time, doomscrolling, making insufferable dudes rich, and wondering why my next book isn’t written.
But at least I’m not on TikTok — a Trojan Horse for the Chinese government that spies on its users, disseminates false information, and causes general problems for society.
Yeah, that means I’m not entirely lost. That new book is on the horizon. I can feel it.