“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens.”
-Ray Bradbury
When it comes to writing, developing the ability to produce on a daily basis has great benefits whether it’s for your job, as a creative outlet or for personal growth. Maximize your chance for success with these science-backed strategies.
1. Start small and steady
Habits forge stronger neural connections over time with repetition, so consistency is critical in their formation. And you’re more likely to stay on track if your target behavior is easier, so don’t aim for a two-hour writing block or 10,000 words straight out of the gate. Instead, start small — as little as 5-10 minutes a day can begin to consolidate the new habit so long as it’s regular. Over time, you can slowly extend your sessions as needed to increase production.
2. Don’t overtax your willpower muscle
Research indicates that willpower is like a muscle that can be strenghthened with regular use — but it’s also possible to overtax it. So the best time to establish a daily writing habit is probably not the same week you try to quit smoking or start a new exercise regimen. And you may want to try to schedule writing sessions in the morning before you find your willpower depleted over the course of the day.
3. Reward your effort, not the end result
Leverage the principles of operant conditioning, used by behavioral psychologists, to strengthen your habit. Positive reinforcers that occur after a behavior will increase its frequency, so build in a potent reward system to encourage your new writing habit. Maybe it’s a trip to Starbucks or listening to your favorite podcast. Whatever your pleasure, enjoy that reward even if you feel your output isn’t quite up to snuff. As long as you stay consistent, your quality is likely to improve over time.
4. Chain your brain and stack your habits
Learning a more complex set of actions by reinforcing a sequence of behaviors is called chaining. Establish a new writing habit by chaining it to an existing part of your morning routine, like exercising, getting dressed, walking the dog or brushing your teeth. When coffee time becomes writing time, you’ve created a built-in cue for your new daily habit.
5. Use the buddy system
The accountability of expressing your intentions and reporting results to a group, and the advice and support you receive from them, can help you achieve your goal. So consider joining an in-person or online writing group. But if you’re not a “joiner” then simply telling friends (or even writing down) your objectives can help. You just may stick to your habits to avoid the cognitive dissonance or psychological discomfort that studies show we experience whenever we observe inconsistencies between our attitudes and our own behavior.
6. Set the stage for success
Experiments have shown over and over again just how important environment is in determining behavior. While we might like to think that sitting down to write every day mostly comes down to mind over matter, having a place to write that’s comfortable, convenient and free from distraction can tip the scale in your favor. A clutter-free desk with a nice view, ample lighting, a chair with good back support, and a quiet environment can all help. If you’re trying to get yourself to spend an hour a day writing huddled in a dark, cluttered basement, you may be working harder than you have to to get the job done.
7. Don’t stress out (but stress a little)
The Yerkes-Dodson Law maintains that optimal performance occurs when arousal or stress isn’t either too low or too high. Maybe that’s why deadlines can be “helpful” for productivity up to the point where full-on panic sets in. So to get the best out of your daily writing, you want to make sure you aren’t either so exhausted or so stressed out that it interferes with your ability to produce. Things like getting adequate sleep and adopting healthy stress management strategies are important for success in writing and many other activities.
8. Get in shape
This isn’t what you’re probably thinking, so relax — you don’t have to write while jogging on a treadmill. Shaping refers to rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior. So if you’re avoiding or procrastinating to produce 3000 words of quality copy per day, try shaping your writing behavior. Start by just sitting at your desk and powering on the computer. The next day start up the computer and launch the word processor, then just write one sentence, and then two, then a paragraph, etc. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started — and once you do that, things have a way of getting easier.
Finding the specific settings and systems that work best for you may take a little experimenting of your own. But with science on your side, you can navigate past any obstacles like a rat through a maze to the cheese.
