Less Words, More Often (How to Stay Motivated to Write Every Day)

You can’t become a concert pianist practicing only once a week. Just like you can’t become a proficient writer writing only once a week.

Those of you who have taken my online Productivity Hacks course know that I’m a big fan of setting up a writing routine. If there’s one piece of writing advice that I can give you it’s this: WRITE EVERY DAY. (Or at the very least 5 days a week.) I don’t care if you only have 5 minutes between important meetings, sit down and get some words on the page. You may only get 10 words. You may get a 100. You may get a 1000. The number doesn’t matter. Checking the box that says “Wrote today” is what matters.

Getting into the habit of writing every day is, I believe, one of the most important steps to being a successful writer. Writing 100 words every day, in the long run, is more beneficial than writing 5,000 words once a week. Finishing a novel or project is as much about mindset as it is about actual words on a page. And getting into the “writing mindset” every time you sit down is easy if you sit down each and every day.

Think about all the things you do daily: brush your teeth, eat breakfast, maybe drive to work or school. You barely have to think about these things, do you? You just do them. They’re not a chore. You don’t hem and haw over them for hours before actually setting out to do them. You just do them. Because it’s what you’ve done for years. It’s part of your routine. Writing can work exactly the same way. If you make it part of your routine, it won’t feel like a chore. You won’t procrastinate it so much. You won’t stress over getting it done. You’ll just do it.

I write every single day. Even on Christmas. Yes, occasionally things come up and I simply can’t get my butt in the chair that day, but you know what? The next day, I feel it. It’s so much harder for me to get into my manuscript. It takes twice as long as it normally would to psych myself up to write and to actually start. And that frustration is enough to get me in the chair the next day, and the day after that. You sit down at that computer or notebook. Write something. Because you’re a writer. It’s what you do.

Want to learn more? Check out my Productivity Hacks for Writers online course!

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June 15th, 2018