3 Simple Steps to Build A Writing Routine For Maximum Productivity

There is one thing that optimising will have countless benefits in the long run for any writer. That is creating a writing routine.

A creative routine is a scheduled regular time in which is set aside for you to unleash your creativity, specifically for writers, is a set time every day with regulations to create a space of maximum productivity.

Developing your own writing routine is essential as it allows for order to be created from the chaos that is your day to day life, a sacred time of the day seperate from this chaos creates balance with your writing and your life.

The key to navigating the delicate equilibrium between structure and freedom is to design your own writing routine.

Benefits of Routine

Before we discuss how to design your writing system, you should understand the benefits you are to gain form implementing a routine.

Firstly, implementing and using a regular routine enhances productivity to an exponential degree. Simply the act of showing up everyday for a set time will set you miles ahead of many writers. Using your established practice also allows for you to track your progress in a spreadsheet or nice little Notion template.

Setting goals and achieving them becomes extremely easy with an implemented routine, as you can easily track your progress towards your goal, wether that be an 80,000 page novel, or simply writing everyday for a month.

Secondly, using a writing routine takes the friction out. ofsitting down to write. When you’ve already decided when and where and for how long you write, it takes the exhaustion out of organising yourself every day, to work around your life.

Routine allows for your life to not disturb your writing goals.

This lack of friction and concious effort increases your ability to focus and just watch as your creativity flows out in bucketloads.

Thirdly, sticking to your writing routine builds discipline. I’ve talked about discipline in another post but basically, discipline is the better alternative to motivation, as like a muscle it can be trained and once you train your discipline it’s hard to lose it.

Focus on Discipline NOT Motivation – How To Do What You Love

Promoting discipline is an extremely frutiful investment as your prductivity and consistency only increase.

Now we know about the benefits here’s the three most important steps to developing your own writing routine.

Step 1. Personal Goals and Preferences

Having your own writing routine is so effective because it is YOUR writing routine, it’s what works best for you. So the first thing you need to consider is you.

You should answer these two major questions;

What are your goals for your writing?

and

What hours of the day are you at your peak creativity?

These questions are important because they determine how long and when your routine is, and this is highly dependent on what you aim to do with your writing.

If you intend to write an 80,000-word novel in two months you’ll want to set up at least 3 or 4 hours a day to do your routine. Whereas, if you are only writing for a hobby, you may only write for 20 minutes a day.

However, I do encourage you to set your routine as happening daily, so you can really get the benefits of using the routine.

Step 2. Blueprint your Routine

Now you have a good idea of your goals and times of the day that work best for you to write, you now want to write down exactly how long and how frequently you will write and specifically at what time every day.

This provides a skeleton to your writing routine.

The goal here is progress, NOT perfection.

Your routine won’t be perfect the first time you do it, but that’s the beauty of it you can shift and change it all you like, because it is all yours.

I highly recommend that you build in regular brakes in your routine to allow your brain not to get exhausted, I know if I decide that I will write 6 hours with no break, I will be struggling by the second hour.

This extra added friciton is unecessary and completely avoidable. So be sure to take a break once in a while.

Step 3. Iteration and Adaption

As I’ve said above, your routine will NOT be perfect, and that’s okay, that’s why we will reflect on our routine every now and then.

Its important that you have regular reflection of the effectiveness of your routine, what works well and what doesn’t.

Be sure to be flexible with your changes, it will take some tweaking but eventually you will have a completely optimised routine that works perfectly for you.

If you’re really struggling and nothing seems to be working there are a few things you can consider.

Your needs for your system will change over time so be aware that what’s not working now may work later and vice versa it’s really just about persistence
If your regimen doesn’t click, experiment with different structures, such as a rest break heavy schedule or a multiple short writing sprints over the day
Trial and error unfortunately is the best way to find what works so just stick at it, it will get better

Congratulations!

Congratulations! by this point you should have a writing practice that is maximised for productivity and will allow for you to be your best self as a writer.

How exciting!

Let me know if you’ve tryed to create your own routine, and how it went, I would love to find out.

If you enjoy productivity for writers you will love this post about passion for writers and how some advice is more harmful then helpful;

Why ‘Follow Your Passion” is Dangerous Advice for Creatives

Thanks for reading! Happy Writing 🙂