Two weeks ago, I joined a daily writing challenge. The plan was that each day for one week, a word would be shared with all the challenge participants to serve as a prompt for a piece of writing for that day.
Easy enough?
I decided to give it a try. I wasn’t sure about the quality of writing that I’d be able to produce around words that I might not relate with. However, I welcome opportunities to write and one thing I’ve learned by now, that consistent practice is more important than trying to write an opus each time.
The first day, the prompt was “Quiet”.
That was very easy for me, because that is what I tend to crave throughout my day. I crafted something quickly on my phone when I had some minutes of downtime at the end of the day.
The second day, the prompt was “Intention”.
Another easy one for me, because there is always something I intend to do. I’m a woman of many plans. An again, I typed it out at night just before going to bed.
What I Learnt about Developing a Writing Habit
By the end of the week, I had realised a few things:
1.) Making Small Goals is More Beneficial: I’m not advising you to be a slacker, but writing does not need to be this big activity, where we block out hours each day to devote to it.
If that was so, I don’t think we would have a fraction of the published books. Unless you’re an heir to a large fortune, most people just don’t have much time and have to make do with the slivers of time available to them.
For this challenge, I always said I would write for just 5 minutes. Of course, most times, I went beyond this. But the point was that I made the goal attainable for me.
2.) Write at the best time for you: I tend to work best in the mornings, when my head is clearest and the house most quiet. So I save my most complex tasks or those that require intense concentration for then.
However, I have young children and during the school term, they need to get to school by 7.30am. That means that my mornings are now for getting us ready to leave the house on time.
So I have to find other times to write when my mind isn’t in a flurry. During the challenge, this was at night after my children had gone to bed.
True, I am at my most tired then, but at least I have have that consistency of daily writing. I figure that I can always go back and edit what I’ve written later. It’s better to have something to edit (no matter how imperfect) than nothing at all.
For longer forms of writing (e.g. a story as opposed to blog or Instagram posts), I have one day of the work that I have assigned my “writing day.”
Unfortunately, I tend to do other things on that day (responding to emails, one unattended to work task or the other), so I’m still trying to discipline myself to protect my writing day. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
3.) Write where you are and with what you have. I prefer to write on my laptop seated at my desk in an absolutely quiet house.
But sometimes I just don’t have this luxury. I’m always on the go-go-go and I spend a lot of time commuting between home and work.
So instead of doing nothing in the car, I work. I tend to write a lot of my social media posts on my phone and craft my e-newsletters on my laptop during my commute.
It’s a satisfying feeling to get to the office knowing that I already completed some of my personal work of my own.
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In summary, keep it light, keep expectations to a minimum and do it when you can. As I’ve done this, I’ve been able to produce more content and get used to writing more frequently.
But it’s a work in progress…
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