Recently I’ve been going over my old self-improvement books and I have delved back into Atomic Habits by James Clear, one of the best books on habit formation.
This book is excellent if you don’t know about it, basically Clear talks about how to create and keep habits through ‘tiny changes’ leading to ‘remarkable results’ (That’s what it says on the front cover at least).
Be sure to check it out here.
The book had me thinking.
How can I use these methods to create a consistent and reliable writing habit?
So I can write every. Single. Day.
I have compiled 4 major points from the book, that I have used, and I know will be of benefit to you if you’re looking to establish a writing habit.
Writing Habit Technique 1. Environmental Cues
The first stage that Clear talks about is that you have to ‘make the habit obvious’. This means that, if we are continually exposed to environmental triggers that remind us to write each day, we’re more likely to write.
You can make a habit obvious by having memory triggers all over your living space.
Maybe it’s a sticky note on the mirror or making sure your writing environment is clean and ready to be used.
I make my writing obvious by pairing it with a habit I already have. Clear calls this ‘habit stacking’, where the formula goes;
“After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]”
So, after I go for my daily walk I know when I get back to my room, its time to write. I make it obvious as my Macbook is open and ready for me to go.
Therefore, the first technique is to make writing an obvious behavior.
Writing Habit Technique 2. Utilise Dopamine
The second stage in Atomic Habits is “Make it attractive”. This is where you want to make the act of doing the habit more enjoyable than not doing the habit.
For instance, you can pair writing with something desirable, such as telling yourself, once you write 300 words you get a piece of chocolate or you get a certain amount of time on your phone.
The goal is to pair writing with an enjoyable outcome, use the dopamine that you get from enjoyable things, and eventually associate that with the act of writing.
I do this by implementing a system I sort of workshopped called the Bottle Cap Economy, where basically I get to place a bottlecap in the reward jar, every time I write a certain amount of words, and at the end of the month I can use my caps to buy something that I want, as a treat for being productive.
The act of getting another bottle in the jar is incredibly enjoyable for me, so pick something you like to do and pair it with writing.
Thus, the second technique is to make writing as attractive as possible.
Writing Habit Technique 3. Reduce Friction
In his third stage Clear talks about how a habit needs to be easy to do consistently for a habit or a ritual to be built around it.
A writing habit can be made easy by keeping your writing apparatus out, ready to go (as discussed in Technique 1), use automated processes that lock in future behavior such as paying your friend or family member 100 dollars (or some painful sum of money) if you don’t write for the day, and finally, you can use certain techniques that reduce the pain of committing to a task.
For example, I use a technique very similar to one described in the book called The Rule of 3, whereby I commit myself to do a habit for 3 seconds, and set the bar for success so low that I’m bound to consistently achieve it. So, I commit to writing one word, just one word, that’s all I need to do for the day.
Now, I know that sounds a little pathetic but it’s just a way to get the ball rolling. Not once have I done my one word and left it at that, I’ve always kept writing.
Once you have that momentum it’s hard to stop.
Thus, the third technique is to make writing the easiest thing to do.
Writing Habit Technique 4. Satisfaction
Clear’s last Law of creating a habit is ‘Make it satisfying’. This means the habit you’re trying to build needs to provide you with motivation just through the act of completing it.
You can do this by creating a daily tracker spreadsheet on Notion or your calendar so you can visibly see each day checked off or you could give yourself an immediate reward when you complete the habit.
Anything that you feel is a reward for successfully writing will reinforce the urge for you to write.
I do this subconsciously, whereby there’s a tension in the back of my mind, that I have to write and it will become a good day, and I can do whatever I want, once I have written. This is very similar to the habit tracker described earlier.
So finally, the fourth technique is to make writing satisfying.
In Conclusion. . .
We’ve talked about 4 techniques you can use to build a writing habit, they are;
- Make writing an obvious behavior
- Make writing as attractive as possible
- Make writing the easiest thing to do
- Make writing satisfying
If you are interested in this sort of content, you can go here for a blog post I did about how to start hard things, The Rule of Three;
Thank you for reading, goodbye, and good luck 🙂
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