The Habit of Writing
I’ve been more on and off than Ross and Rachel
I moved to Chicago about 7 months ago and it’s been really fun and amazing. I’ve actually written quite a few pieces, just for whatever reason I didn’t get around to uploading them. If they’re still relevant I might start uploading them over the next few weeks alongside new pieces, we’ll see.
In fact actually, I can’t do this. I’ve written this blog so many times now I’ve become a parody of myself. The standard format:
It’s been a few months since I last wrote a blog post — here’s what I’ve been up to and here’s a hollow promise to “write more often”.
No, I’m not going to write that again, instead of writing that blog post let’s talk about habits.
Like most millennial young professionals, I’ve had Atomic Habits by James Clear on my bookshelf for a couple of years now, and I actually started reading it recently. Turns out it’s pretty good! Who knew.
So I’ve been reflecting a lot on the habits I currently have, some of the ones I used to have, and the sort of person I want to be.
I want to be someone who writes and uploads a post onto my blog every week. I want to be the sort of person who can pick a favorite book they read this year and actually have to make a choice between a few books. I want to be that well read, well spoken person who consumes and adds to literature in this world.
I have not been this person for a very long time.
I used to write and upload 500 words a day to this very blog! I used to be a fairly avid reader, but you know what? Life got in the way. And I HATE saying those words because we all have the same number of hours in the day, what we do with them is literally just a function of how we all prioritize our time. Life didn’t get in the way. I let life get in the way.
So how have I tried to fix this? Well, for the last 2 years I’ve had “read 12 books” and “upload 52 blogs” on my list of yearly goals. In theory, they’re both attainable goals, however in both 2021 and 2022 I’ve started the year slowly, not formed the habit and then been despondent because the hill to actually completing my target was too high and then I didn’t even end up trying.
But this is me contradicting a thing I talk about a lot on this blog. New years resolutions are bullshit. Don’t wait till January 1st to change your life, if you want to be a different person then change right now.
And this is where James Clear comes in: he talks about setting small “atomic” goals that fit into your current lifestyle, and then actually forming a habit, to then be able to build upon.
Another one of my favorite writer, Tim Urban of waitbutwhy.com went on the Lex Fridman Podcast and talked about the difference between someone who reads 0 books in their lifetime and someone who reads 1,000. The difference? Reading for 30 minutes every day. That’s the difference!
Who doesn’t have 30 minutes everyday before they fall asleep, or to pop in an audiobook while they’re brushing their teeth? It’s insanely do-able! The key is to just do it every.single.day.
So here I am on April 3rd changing my targets for the year, in fact they’re no longer going to be yearly targets. My new targets?
- Write and upload ONE blog post to this blog every week
- Read one book every month
Do you get it? They’re the same target! I just divided the yearly targets into monthly and weekly ones! I might not hit 52 blog posts for 2022, but if I can go into Christmas having written 37 posts in the last 37 weeks? then I think that will still be a success.
Want to know how else I’m going to achieve this? I just signed up to Panera Bread’s MyPanera+ Coffee Subscription. $8.99 a month for unlimited coffee. My new ritual? walk the 15 minutes down to Panera to sit down and read/write something interesting over a coffee.
Let’s see how this goes.
3rd April 2022
Did you see my last post?
Also, if you liked this post then you should totally go follow George vs Life on Medium! (I’m super close to 100 followers ❤)
