4 Easy Ways to Cultivate a Writing Habit

Writing for your business and yourself can be life-changing.

Even if you are a good writer, to get results from your content, you should be able to write every day. That's where things get tricky for most people, and they give up. The main reason is that it is tough to build a habit of a task that is very difficult to do in the first place. However, that can be changed if you know how to build a writing habit in the first place.  

In this article, I break down how I have built a habit of writing in 4 easy steps

Step 1 - Change Your Mindset

Don't think in terms of the outcome but your identity and process.

Setting a goal doesn't change a loser to a winner overnight. However, they both want the same thing, and the only thing that differentiates them is a system of continuous improvement and a strong belief in the person you are.

If you want to be a writer, reconsider how you look at yourself. Acknowledge that you are a creator now, and your instrument for making an impact on the world will be words. You are on the path to becoming a skilled wordsmith that tells stories and projects his thinking to thousands of people who will enjoy learning and sharing. 

You are the bridge between customers and businesses that guides visitors to take action and build a relationship with a brand. 

Step 2 - Implement Obvious and Intentional Cues

Every habit starts with a cue. The cue triggers your action, which can be a wide range of forms, such as - the phone buzzing in your pocket, cues looking it up and going through your socials, the smell of chocolate when you walk past a shop, or finishing a meal triggering you to smoke. Most cues in our life are unintentional, so to create a good habit, you need to implement intentional cues, and the best way to do that is by journaling or keeping a mental note of something like this : 

When situation X arises, I will perform response Y 

You must associate a time and location of your habit. Being specific about what you want and how you achieve it helps you say no to things that derail progress, distract your attention and pull you off course.

Step 3 - Incentivize Yourself with Attractive Rewards for Writing

The cue initiates action because the action, whether good or bad, is rewarding. The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become a habit-forming response. And the best way to form a habit is to make it dopamine-driven. 

There is not much dopamine involved in the act of writing, but pressing the post button is. The feeling of finishing a challenging task and making progress is also gratifying, and you can associate that feeling stronger by intentionally recognizing it and remembering that you're making your identity much stronger. 

Another way you can do that is to associate a reward after finishing the task. The reward will be a task that you would want to do.

For example, after I finish writing, I have my lunch. Lunch is something that I "want" to do. 

After I finish lunch, I write for my clients for another 2 hours, then read a book for 30 mins that I wanted to. 

Step 4 -Make Writing as Frictionless as Possible

The habit of writing formation is the process by which writing becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. The key is repetition, not perfection. To make a task repeatable, you have to make it easy to do, as frictionless as possible, and make it fit into the flow of your life. 

For example, I quit Facebook by simply deleting the app. Whenever I want to browse what my friends are up to, I want to avoid taking the trouble of going to the app stores and downloading it, so I just don’t anymore.

You can do the opposite for your writing habit. The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to reducing the friction associated with our good practices and increasing the friction associated with our bad ones.