TL;DR: Start small and build from there
And so my advice to you guys would be as you're building a writing routine is to start small, everyone wants to write, they have this idea of oh, I'm going to write an hour every single day. And that means that I'll finish my novel in three months, and then I'll get it published and become a famous author. But it just doesn't work that way.
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Transcript:
Good morning Twitter, Alex Knepper here. Yesterday, I talked about habits and how you can manipulate your behavior by focusing on habits that are really easy for you to build up the streak that builds confidence so that you trust yourself more. And you can rely on yourself more when it comes to habits that are really important to us, like developing a writing routine.
Today, I wanted to talk about small daily tasks, and really the emphasis on focusing on building habits on a really small scale. And then working your way up.
I want to share a story about my husband who was really into doing these workouts that his friend has been doing for years and years and years, it's called rucking. And basically you go on like these really long, like five to 10 mile walks with a huge heavy weight on your back. Like they're these backpacks that they make that has this like concentrated weight. So you're carrying like an extra 50 pounds. And then you're doing this really intensive like hike slash walk.
So he was like, Oh, great, I want to get in shape I want to work out. So I'll do rucking, my friend rucks. So he did it…once. And then his body like completely gave up on him the next day, he went too hard, too fast. Everything was seizing up, everything was sore and achy he entirely overexerted himself.
And then guess what, he never did it again.
And so my advice to you guys would be as you're building a writing routine is to start small, everyone wants to write, they have this idea of oh, I'm going to write an hour every single day. And that means that I'll finish my novel in three months, and then I'll get it published and become a famous author. But it just doesn't work that way.
You have to focus on developing the habit of writing before you get too invested in the content of what you're writing. So you have to develop the habit of writing in order to support the actual project that you're working on. Building this framework that will enable you to develop a routine.
So my suggestion for you guys today is what is the smallest unit of behavior that you can do to work towards your writing goal today? Is it writing for five minutes? 10? Maybe is it doodling and brainstorming on one sheet of paper and filling it up? Is it doing five to 10 minutes of research.
You have dozens and dozens of units of 10 or five minutes a day, I just need you to pick one moment, and dedicate those five or 10 minutes to your writing practice. And then show up for yourself every day. And do those five to 10 minutes.
I think what you'll find as you're doing that, and you're being consistent with this really low barrier of entry behavior, it doesn't take a whole lot for you to get started. So it's easier to maintain and you won't burn out.
Actually, the opposite will happen. What you'll find is if you sit down and write for five minutes, every single day, you're going to start to get frustrated. And you're going to want to write more naturally, especially if you stop yourself at the five minute mark. And you're like, “wait, I had more,” because we're writers and we always have more.
But, you know, when it comes to developing a writing routine, I really think it's important to think about how what you're writing isn't as important in the beginning as developing the habit of writing. So show up for yourself every day, right for five minutes. Identify an activity that helps you reach your goal and just do it for five minutes to start out.
Do it for five minutes for five days straight. And if you feel like that was really easy, try doing 10 minutes for 10 days straight. And then keep on building eventually you're going to become addicted to this behavior. You're going to be upset, not upset with yourself in a hard way but you know like craving the activity kind of way because you're training your body to expect. This you're training your mind to expect this behavior thaT you're trying to instill.
And that's really what we want. We want to get to a point where you were starting to just do this on autopilot but it doesn't happen unless you start with some All small daily habits, small daily tasks.
So I want you to identify a task that will contribute towards you or your overall goal. Practice it for five minutes, pick a time, and try and do it at the same time. And then the same place if you can, because time and location can act as triggers for you, you know, if you're in the kitchen at 5pm, guess what, you're probably going to be ready to make dinner and you might get hungry all of a sudden. So without even realizing it, you're already used to building up these habits.
It's just about the intentionality of it. And creating these small little pockets of time that you can give to yourself where you can write and develop your project. And once you do that, develop a streak.
Try and do five minutes a day for five days. And then see the magic starts to happen. Comment below and let me know how this works out for you. If you're planning on doing five minutes a day for five days, just write five for five in the comments. I'd love to keep up with you and keep in touch and see your progress. This worked really, really well for me, and I really hope that you can benefit from it as well. Alright, that's all for now, folks. Bye
How to Avoid Burnout with Small, Daily Habits