5 Ways To Make Writing A Habit

Jul 15, 2015
4 min read

Work Out Your Willpower

This may seem straightforward, but you know yourself the best and you know what you can achieve in a set period of time.

Perhaps that is writing for an hour every week, perhaps it’s writing every other day. Whatever it is, you must be realistic about it. Make sure you don’t aim too high or think too far ahead.

If you overstretch you’ll become less motivated and have a hard time accomplishing what you want done.

For example, you wouldn’t go to the gym and just pump out a hundred military presses if you’d never exercised before.

Will power is like a muscle: it takes time to form but once it’s developed you’ll find things become easier.

Set Yourself Small 15-Minute Goals

One of the most prolific writers in the 19th Century was Anthony Trollope. He wrote 47 novels and 16 non-fiction books, most while he was fully employed at the post office. In fact, he was often called the novel 'machine'.

Trollope would be at his desk every day by 5:30 am and would write for 3 hours a day. Trollope didn’t worry about the daunting task of writing a 500-page novel.

Instead he focused on small, digestible chunks. He focused on writing 250 words every 15 minutes. That's not so bad is it?

Most writers set a goal of writing 2,000-3,000 words a day but that can seem daunting. Instead just worry about the next f15 minutes. Everybody can write for fifteen minutes. And if that feels good try another fifteen, and another and so on.

Get an Accountability Buddy

You are the worst person to hold yourself accountable. You have no reason not to watch television or sleep a couple of extra hours. But if somebody is there to check up on you then you’ll more likely find the motivation to do it.

Not too long ago I wanted to do a webinar for a course I was teaching called 'Creating Your Raving Fan Base', only I was terrified I was going to screw up. I had to create a whole slideshow presentation and speak for over an hour.

Not something I looked forward to, and every day I thought about canceling the class. I couldn’t do it.

But I had an assistant and believe it or not, she held me accountable. She was always messaging me and we were figuring out how many new attendees we had or different strategies to try. This type of partner can help you stay focused and keep you on track.

Write an Outline

Have you ever heard someone say writing is like cutting yourself with a knife and bleeding over a page? Well, people often get suck writing because they simultaneously try to think of what they want to say while trying to form word order.

This can cause writing to be a frustrating, tedious process. Instead if you gather all your ideas together and then figure out a word order the work flow will be much easier.

Set a Schedule of When. . . at . . .

A study was done in Britain with 3 separate control groups. The first group committed to working out a couple times of week. The 2nd group committed to the same, however they were shown a series of educational videos about the benefits of exercise.

The 3rd group wrote down when they would work out and where. After a month, the people in the first 2 groups only continued their regiment 30% of the time while the last group kept up the exercise an astounding 90% of the time.

You are far more likely to follow through with something if you schedule a time and a place for it. Write it down on your schedule and decide when and where you’re going to write.

Will it be at your lunch break at noon every Monday?

Will it be at your home office at 5pm?

This will increase the likelihood of actually accomplishing your writing.

Put the Effort into Starting, Not the Finishing.

There is this saying, “Nothing is scarier than a blank page’ and it’s so true. Some writers are paralyzed by the blank page.

Most people give up early on because that is when their motivation is at their lowest. If you focus on putting all your motivation into the beginning then you’ll have a much greater chance of success.

Think of it this way: when your alarm goes off in the morning it is very tempting just to hit snooze and fall back asleep. After all, you’re already in bed, you feel comfy and cozy.

Your motivation is at its lowest. However if you sit up, you’re more likely to get out of bed and if you’re having your morning coffee and eating breakfast you are even less likely to go back to sleep.

If your alarm went off and you thought about all the tasks you needed to do that day then it would be very unlikely that you would ever want to get going, but if you just focused on getting started, just having that morning coffee maybe, your likelihood of success is much higher.

The hardest part about writing is sitting down in the chair, turning your computer on and starting typing so focus on just doing that. Once you begin, you’ll find the rest is much easier.

Joel Mark Harris is a writer, film producer and marketer. (@joelmarkharris) He is the founder of Story Laboratory which helps artists market their work. To get a free ebook on How to Make Money Blogging and a Content Marketing Tool Kit sign up HERE