How to Get in the Habit of Writing Every Day: Treat Time like Putty and Squeeze It.

If you want to get anywhere with your writing, it’s important to treat it as a job, even if you’re not necessarily earning any income from it yet. This is true whether you’re crafting the next Pulitzer-winning novel, a groundbreaking scientific paper on particle physics, or even your own private diary. It’s essential to learn how to get in the habit of writing every day.

The chances are that you have many other responsibilities in your day, so how do you go about getting the time to write? Well, there’s no chance of creating more hours in the day, so it might be a case of making some sacrifices to focus on what’s important to you. Let’s look at how.

Make the time.

Getting up an hour earlier in the morning, or spending an hour in the evening on your writing rather than TV or social media, can really up your work rate. To be truly productive and learn how to get in the habit of writing every day, you need to treat it as part of your routine and something that can’t be missed. If you commit yourself to writing five hundred words a day, then you’ll soon find that they stack up.

Get fit to burst.

If a single block of time isn’t feasible or doesn’t work for you, try writing in short bursts. Take ten minutes during your coffee break, just after you get home from work, or while waiting in the doctor’s office. This approach really suits some people and is good for keeping the ideas percolating throughout the day.

Sprint for victory.

If you really want to up your word count, then try engaging in writing sprints. Set a ten-minute timer, and then try to hit a certain target, or simply write as much as you can. Take a five-minute break, then get straight back into it. You can do this by yourself or even find others to “compete” against via hashtags such as #WordSprint, #SprintDaily, or #1k1hr.

A byproduct of that is you’ll connect with other writers, and it’s always helpful to have a sense of community and encouragement. You may end up with some results that need quite a bit of editing, but it’s a lot easier to work with something rather than nothing, and the good folks here at Elite are always on standby with a helping hand!

All in all, getting into a good rhythm and routine is key to excellent and regular writing. Time may be a finite resource, but the trick is knowing how to bend and shape it to meet our own needs. We hope you see rich fruit from these takeaways on how to get in the habit of writing every day.

Like this post? Check out this one on starting a blog, and this one on starting a ghostwriting career.