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Many people tell me they WANT to write every day, or they have an ambitious daily word count goal, but they just can’t manage to achieve it. Here’s how you can write every day without procrastination….
Have you struggled to establish a sustainable daily writing habit? Do you regularly beat yourself up for not being able to achieve the basic writing goals you set yourself?
Here are 15 tips that will help you learn how to write every day with greater ease and less pain.
1-Put your commitment to yourself in writing
You’re a writer so you already understand the value of, you know, putting your thoughts in writing. When we write things on paper we take them more seriously. Do yourself the favour of taking your own goal seriously enough to write it down.
For how long do you want to write each day? Or how many words do you want to produce? Then, pin that commitment on a bulletin board above your desk or tape it to your computer monitor.
2-Set a goal so small you can’t fail
The people who fail at writing are usually the ones who have set themselves BHAGs — Big Hairy Audacious Goals. When someone applies to my Get It Done group and tells me they want to write for three hours each day, I know they have a problem. Their goal is overwhelming them.
Instead, it’s far better to do the opposite – pick a goal that’s so small it’s almost embarrassing. Why? You’re far more likely to succeed and success begets more success. Sure, you might think it’s ridiculous to write for just one to five minutes per day but if you’ve already been procrastinating for weeks (months?) then you’ll be one-to-five minutes ahead.
This so-small-you-can’t-fail approach works for many tasks we all tend to procrastinate about including getting exercise, learning another language and practicing a musical instrument. It’s better to do something rather than nothing and, over time, you can gradually increase your writing commitment so that you’re able to finish your book, dissertation or major report.
3-Stack your writing with another habit
I learned about habit stacking in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Following his process, you identify a habit that you already have nailed down (e.g. drinking your first morning coffee) and you “stack” another habit along with it.
For example, you might tell yourself, “After having the first sip of my morning coffee, I’m going to write for 10 minutes.” The strength of your first habit, burnished by years of repetition, will help ensure the success of your second one.
4-Write in the morning (unless you’re a true night owl)
I strongly recommend that most people write in the morning rather than later in the day.
A couple of good reasons for this advice: we are all more likely to follow our goals if we’re not flustered by anything else — and early in the morning, nothing has gone wrong yet! No boss has demanded an unrealistic report. No partner or child has done something irritating yet. As well, if you get your writing ‘out of the way’ then you’re not going to have a nagging feeling of guilt hanging over your head.
Instead, you’ll feel productive and accomplished and this will help you be more successful with everything else you need to accomplish that day.
EXCEPTION: Are you a night owl? (Remember, only 10% of the population fits this description.) If you are, you can write at night, ideally after everyone else in your life has gone to bed.
5-Have a double reminder system
Building a habit requires overriding your natural instinct to let urgencies overwhelm your day or to do only those tasks that appear fun or instantly rewarding (I’m looking at you, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram!)
Make sure you have a second daily reminder to give you another shot at writing if you didn’t manage to do it for the time you’d originally planned. Perhaps you could send yourself a daily email? Maybe have an alarm on your phone?
6-Have a quiet (but not too quiet) place for writing sessions
I write with the ticking sound of my pomodoro in the background. But I still need quiet from the human voice. Most people are the same. It usually doesn’t work to write in the middle of the kitchen or living-room with a family buzzing around you. Find a quiet-ish place to write and try to write in the same place every day. This is part of the habit-building mantra.
Did you know that some noise helps most writers? Most writers work more effectively if the sound around them is roughly 70 decibels. Coincidentally, this is the level of sound in many coffee shops. (And in such places, the human voice is usually pleasantly indistinct.)
7-Don’t edit while writing
The people I know who hate writing usually have one thing in common: they edit WHILE they write. If you want to build a writing habit, make the job more enjoyable for yourself by separating the fun of writing from the work of editing.
In other words, stop editing while you write. I broke the habit myself about 15 years ago and I not only doubled my writing speed, but I made writing so much more enjoyable for myself. As a result, writing regularly became easy for me.
8-Allow yourself to write badly
Writing is NOT a time for quality control. Instead it’s a time to take risks, be creative and have fun. Instead of thinking about quality, focus on quantity. How many words can you write in 15 minutes? The only time to think about quality is when you’re editing (later, much later…)
9-Don’t research while writing
In a Zoom call with my writing group, I once earned a big laugh when I demonstrated the writing process of many academics: They lodge themselves in front of their computers, surround themselves with books and peer-reviewed journals and then frantically switch between consulting texts and writing.
The process — which makes people look a bit like the multi-armed Hindu god Vishvarupa — is stressful, time-consuming and woefully inefficient. When you research, only research.
10-Allow time for EVERY step in the writing process
Most of us tend to think of writing as a single step. We sit in front of an empty piece of paper (or a blank screen) and we put words onto it. But, in fact, the process is much more detailed than that, requiring a long list of other steps: thinking, planning, researching, outlining/mindmapping, editing.
Be sure to allow for enough time for EVERY step in the process.
11-Track your progress
Have you ever worn a pedometer? I wear one every day and I get way more steps because of it. Why? We respond to what we track. When I get to noon and see I’ve accumulated only 4,000 steps, I know I need to start walking a lot more, right away. (I aim for 20,000 steps per day.) Similarly, if you track how much time you’re spending writing and how many words you accumulate every day, you’re far more likely to accomplish more writing.
Here’s a tracking form you can download at no charge from my website.
12-Don’t count ‘free writing’
Writers often ask me about “free writing.” When they do, I always ask them to describe what they mean by that term. If they are referring to Julia Cameron’s “morning pages”, I say great, but that’s not going to produce publishable work for you.
Cameron’s system involves writing three pages every morning, by longhand, reflecting whatever is on your mind. (For example, you might write something like, “I’m incredibly bored right now and I don’t know what to write, which makes me think of a time in grade 7 when a teacher made me do a writing project I really didn’t want to do… etc.”)
I can see some mental health benefits from this type of writing but it’s not enough to let you achieve your writing goals. Instead, identify your topic and write only about that. If you have difficulty doing this, mindmapping can often help you achieve greater focus.
13-Set up an accountability system for yourself
If you are responsible to no one, you may never finish your writing. People in my Get It Done program are responsible to me (they need to report daily) but if you have someone who will really and truly hold you accountable (they won’t accept your excuses if you sluff off), then enlist their help.
14-Plan for what to do if you fail
I’m not being a Debbie Downer here. Many of us try to do things and we fail at them. But instead of writing yourself off as a failure, have an “if/then” statement ready and waiting.
Here’s an example: “If I fail to write for five minutes on Wednesday, then I’ll reduce my goal and write for only two minutes on Thursday.” If/then statements are a powerful way to build sustainable habits.
15-Commit to the process for at least six months
Basically, you want writing to become a habit, which is friendlier and more sustainable than any action requiring willpower. But the downside of habits is they take a while to jell. Neuroscientists tell us that establishing a habit takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days. (Yes, I know that’s a wide range but every person — and every habit — is unique.)
Don’t give up on your habit too quickly! You may have days of success followed by a day of failure, but persist for at least six months before you decide the system hasn’t worked.
Many people think they need either greater discipline or more willpower to become a better writer. Instead, I say, focus on establishing a writing habit. If you can do that, my hunch is you’ll succeed with your project.
Why? Willpower takes major effort. But habits are sustainable.
This is a substantially updated version of a post that first appeared on my blog on Nov. 17/20.
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How do you maintain your daily writing habit? We can all learn from each other so, please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section below. Anyone who comments on today’s post (or any others) by May 31/23 will be put in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Please, scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. Note that you don’t have to join Disqus to post. See here to learn how to post as a guest. It’s easy!
