Using natural rewards to increase motivation OR confessions of a blogaholic

One of the unexpected outcomes of starting a blog is that I’ve become completely addicted to it. I only have a limited number of ‘up’ hours of good energy each day so I need to be fairly self-disciplined about how I use them if I’m to run my life effectively. But I have to work hard to stop myself from spending every waking hour blogging. Writing posts is fun, as is thinking of topics, but the most addictive part of it is putting in the pictures. I’m truly embarrassed to admit how many hours of my weekend I spent doing this. The writing is taking a back seat to the illustration. In fact as I write this I am impatient, wanting it to be finished so I can go online and look for pictures, as fixated as an alcoholic waiting for that first drink of the day.

This is my nature. I know. I am a person of driving passions. Physical drugs have never had an addictive effect on me (apart from that legal white powder called sugar that has caused me such misery but which I crave nonetheless). But processes I find all-absorbing. So I do what I normally do with these compulsions. I structure my day so that the activity becomes a reward for the things I’m less keen on doing. I make deals with myself like ‘OK I’ll do my post when I’ve done an hour of X’. X could be the dishes, my tax return, putting a grocery order through online. And even within the rewarding activity I structure rewards. Only once I have posted the paras I’ve already prepared and written something new will I allow myself to start searching for illustrations. The way my day has gone today this works out to be 10.05pm i.e. right now, when I’m twitchy with tiredness. So here I go – byeee!