A lot of us don’t write as much as we could or should because we haven’t invested in building the habit of regular writing.
In this post, I share a three-step process for achieving goals, which can and should absolutely be used to change habits.
There are three ways you can change habits. They work for creating a writing habit, a habit to get on stage more, or a habit for anything you want. (Please don’t use them to develop a crack habit.)
Baby steps: This is the “nose to the grindstone” approach, and it’s how most of us are taught to change a habit. With great discipline, we show up every day and do the same thing for 30 days—sometimes even 60 days—in order to imprint the new behavior on our brains and make it stick. This absolutely works to create a habit, but it’s not easy to keep up the effort.
Change in Environment: This is a great way to trick your brain into breaking out of unhealthy ruts. When you travel, stay with a friend for a few days, or otherwise get out of your normal environment and routine, switching things up and developing a new habit is much easier.
Epiphany: This is the easiest way of all, a kind of turbo-blast for developing new habits. If you read the right book or article, watch the right inspirational video, or have a deep eureka moment while meditating or showering, you’ll stop at nothing to build the habits you want.
Combine all three and you’ll have a virtually unstoppable habit-changing method, making you the most productive person in your cubicle, ward, or cell!
Good luck and have fun.
Yes! I love the Tim ferris advice of write gor one minute. I don't know if you have seen Carl Newports book " deep work" which advocates planned long periods behind the grindstone
Solid advice. For "baby steps," I find that when I'm struggling with a habit, committing to doing the wanted activity for a tiny amount at first helps a lot. Start with a trivially easy concrete task related to the habit, then build from there. E.g.: write for 1 minute every morning for a week, then 5 minutes, then 10, etc.