grahambinns.com

There are far too many of these these days. I don't know whether it's the fact that I'm working that's done it - as I think I've said before working from home and tracking your own time tends to make you that little bit more honest, which means I don't really want to waste my time writing blog posts when there's work to be done (although to be fair when I'm working I'm so busy as to not be thinking too much about blogging at all, which is a very pleasant change).

Working on Launchpad, and for Canonical in general, is an entirely new experience. Working with a team of people who are spread across the globe, from home, managing your own time and doing really cool stuff at the same time... It doesn't come much better. Add onto that the fact that the team with which your working is crammed full of seriously smart people who really care about their work and as far as I'm concerned you can just about stick it at the top of every job list you can find.

It's hard to switch off, sometimes. I'm spending eight or nine hours a day in front of my PC and then, coming downstairs at night, often find myself picking up my laptop and picking up where I left of with whatever Bazaar branch I happen to have been working on. The only reason I didn't do it tonight was that I was feeling particularly frazzled (and yet the temptation is still there).

Not that this is a bad thing. I used to think that it was. Back when I was working at the Mob the last thing I'd want to be doing is picking up work when I get home. But with Launchpad I want to keep working because I want to squeeze every drop of good code out of my day that I can.

Which only leaves writing, of course. Originally, when I was offered the position with Canonical, I thought that I would write in the mornings, either by getting up early and writing before work or by writing from, say, nine to ten in the morning and working until seven. Instead, I've found that I'm doing the most writing between six and eight in the evening, and though that isn't my ideal - I'd be much happier if I could actually get out of bed in the morning and do the writing when I'm at my freshest but that's a whole different problem - I've been making good progress.

When I started working on novel-the-second I told myself that needed to start small. "Don't try too hard," I told myself, mindful of the lessons of NaNoWriMo back in '05, where I nearly burned myself out after a couple of days and ended up writing a 50,000 word lump with which I'm still not happy. "Don't try to run before you can walk."

So I settled down with the book in which I'm writing the book and told myself that if I wrote five pages a day to start with I'd be well on the way soon enough. I usually fit 100-150 words on a page, so to start with, considering I haven't written a huge amount recently, I figured that ~500 words a day was pretty good going. To keep myself honest and to try and make sure I didn't slack I decided to use the Jerry Seinfeld productivity method, which basically involves a ridiculously large wall chart (nicked from Sarah's stock of it's-the-start-of-a-new-year-let's-give-things-away wall charts, which she's accumulated from the various teacher-related organisations of which she's a member), a felt-tip pen and a cross on the chart for every day that I actually write something. So far it's working. I've missed a few days (I started by writing FAIL in for those days bug gave up when I realised that just leaving them empty carried more weight of guilt), and I'm not happy about it, but the crosses are mounting up, which can only be a good thing.

And now, after a week of 500-odd word days, I'm starting to itch for more. Instead of giving myself five pages to write, I want to write ten. I want to keep writing until my wrist cramps up and my ideas run out and then I want to rest for a while and come back to it as soon as I can. I haven't felt this good about writing in a long time, and it's a beautiful feeling.

And you know what? If I were working for the Mob I don't reckon I'd be getting this much done.