Forming a writing habit

I’ve always enjoyed writing. I’ve also always enjoyed blogging, and have tried regularly to form a blogging habit. Over the past few months, I’ve managed to break several bad habits (eg: checking my emails on my mobile phone) as well as craft some wonderful new habits, such as a daily 5.5km walk with our beautiful puppy, Maddie. The one habit I’ve yet to (truly) form, is a blogging habit.

In re-reading the above paragraph, I take note of the first sentence above; in particular, they key-word, “writing”. Not all writing is blogging. Therefore, I’ve decided to reframe this goal from a “blogging habit” into a “writing habit”. That sounds like a much more realistic, and specific, goal.

Write all the things

When the year is in full swing at Woo, I usually write something at least three times a week, for work. Whether a blog post, an email newsletter or an internal product announcement, I manage to write fairly regularly, in a way that keeps me thinking of descriptive methods of framing the message, rather than just writing up a grocery list.

Playing to my strengths

In coming up with this blog post, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I write, and how I best get my message across. This very blog post is much of a stream-of-consciousness, where I write and then make only a few small tweaks before publishing. The words are direct from my mind.

How and where to write

Currently, this post is being constructed in iA Writer for Mac. Sometimes, I write in WordPress for iOS, or iA Writer for iOS. Mostly, iA Writer for Mac is my writing app of choice. I then post the content into WordPress and hit the “Publish” button, after adding a few links to relevant posts.

Perhaps there’s a more efficient manner of transporting blog posts from iA Writer into WordPress? Time to start thinking about that.

How to make the habit stick

In the past, I’ve used Lift to ensure the good habits stick around and the bad habits disappear. This habit will be no different. Lift has proven to be an incredibly useful app, for habit forming, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results as this habit forming progresses.

Having an end goal

I have a few goals I’m currently aspiring to in various spheres of my life. This writing habit has a short-term goal of regular blogging, instead of simply getting an idea for a good post title, drafting the title and then not writing the actual blog post until the motivation has wained. Another possible end goal is to write a book, or to be involved in the writing of a book. I’ve done a few technical book reviews and enjoyed that process, yet would love to actually write a book, from page 0, and see it published to the world.

That’s a pretty exciting end goal, even if I do say so myself. I look forward to aspiring to this goal, and to having you all join me as I strive towards success on this journey.

Have you ever tried to form a writing habit? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.