Every day for the past two weeks I have been compiling a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish that day. Without fail, every item on the list plus a few additional chores, I have been able to accomplish with the exception of one task. Writing! Developing a daily writing discipline has been on my mind for months. Actually probably much longer but the last several months the thoughts about writing have bubbled up like a recently popped bottle of champagne. These nagging thoughts were so prominent in my consciousness that for the past fourteen days I have included writing on my daily to do list. By the way, a daily to do list is so not my style but that is another topic for a different day. Putting writing on the daily to do list was intended to get me motivated. Also, I figured how hard would it be to write a paragraph every day and just see what I might have after a year or so. Thinking about doing something like writing a little bit each day does not seem so daunting as it has in the past. There was a time in my not so distant history that the mere mention of committing to a daily writing practice seemed quite unlikely. However, 539 days ago I discovered Duolingo. Initially, I began using duolingo as a way to bully myself into focusing a little bit each day on Italian grammar and on expanding my Italian vocabulary. Duolingo doles out what they refer to as lingots. Each time a language leaner completes a grammar activity, or finishes another level of learning or maintains a streak of days for studying, they can earn lingots. It’s crazy but those dumb little lingots are enough to spark my competitive spirit, so much so, that I have accumulated 539 days of Italian language practice without fail. Dang . . . what else could I accomplish with that kind of attention? Will someone please give me a writegot??

So, without the incentive of a lingot or writegot, I am using Allora Oggi as a substitute incentive and accountability tool for a daily writing practice. Evidently, putting writing on the to do list wasn’t incentive enough. And honestly, the motivation that pushed me over the edge to follow through with the writing endeavor today is because I shared with another living breathing human being that I placed writing on my to do list and then failed daily to cross it off. Plus I am really tired of watching the summer Olympics.