5 Unbelievable Hacks That Helped Me Write Every Day for 20 Days Straight!
Discover the Secrets to Consistent Writing and Unlock Your Creative Potential Today!
The key is in your mindset.
When I first explored writing content I was quickly humbled by how difficult it was to be satisfied by my work. I immediately searched for techniques to improve.
They all said the same thing, and I already knew the answer in my gut anyway. Practice makes perfect.
Write every day to improve your writing.
Just as anything else, consistent practice will improve your game. The hard part was actually practicing. I’d go through days contemplating interesting thoughts and opinions but as soon as I sat down to write, the words just weren’t there.
I envied the people posting the advice to write every day. I just couldn’t wrap my head around how they do it.
My goal of improving my writing automatically digressed into a new micro-goal of just being able to write.
This will be my 20th consecutive day hitting publish and my life has already changed for the better. This is the path that led me to success.
1. I visualized myself achieving my goal.
Many of the greatest athletes and accomplished performers have something profound in common. They all employ visualization to guide their journey.
The idea is that by visualizing yourself at the end of whatever journey you’re on, you establish a focus in your subconscious that drives your conscious actions toward accomplishing the goal.
The more real you imagine the scene to be, the greater your subconscious will drive you. With constant focus, you will automatically take incremental steps toward your goal.
It’s like a more practical approach to the Law of Attraction.
Instead of hosting a book signing with a line of readers wrapped around the building, I’d just imagine the satisfaction of setting down my cup of coffee, interlacing my fingers to stretch my hands, then sitting down and typing freely without hesitation.
I would play through this scene every day at different times and be sure to hit publish at the end of each thought session.
I was so consumed with the idea that I spent all my time exploring techniques to establish a daily writing habit. Which lead me straight to the next step.
2. I took a crash course.
I stumbled upon the Ship30for30 program while exploring other new writers who had successfully established a daily writing habit.
You join a cohort of others with the same goals and the same struggles and work through the process until you’ve all shipped 30 atomic essays at the end of the course.
This is the core class you can enroll in that will probably increase your gains tenfold, which I’m still considering myself, but they also offer a free email-based crash course where they explore one idea a day and give your small amounts of homework to consider. I was able to hold myself accountable for my work and my own progress.
This class was the greatest contributor to my success thus far.
By explaining the psychology behind what stops people from being able to write daily, they attack the problem at the root cause rather than cheap tricks.
An added bonus was that the daily lessons made for a great writing prompt. I tailored whatever I was writing to implement whatever that day’s lesson was.
3. I let go of my ego.
A major contributor to failure, as shared by Ship30for30, was that we are so concerned with the possibility of failure that we never begin in the first place.
We get so wrapped up in what others will think of our work that it never even makes it to the page. Let go of the fear of judgment.
“Punch fear in the face.” -John Acuff
No one will ever be as critical of your work as you are, and to be fair, no one is really going to read your humble beginnings anyway. They’re too caught up in their own success to be worried about millions of others in the same pursuit.
By allowing myself to publish works that I knew weren’t up to my full potential, I was able to hit publish more often, and therefore practice more.
Producing such a high quantity of material gives you data over time to analyze and better figure out what works for you and what doesn’t.
4. I made time to write.
If you’re looking for time to write, you’ll never find it, you’d be better off looking for the holy grail instead.
You don’t find time to write. You make it.
The trick is to identify the time that you’re most productive each day, and where it overlaps with when you can break away from the world for a bit.
Once you’ve determined your sacred hour, you have to treat it as such. It is sacred.
Schedule it on your daily planner, and plan appointments around it. At times you will have to fight for your hour, and fight you will.
Disconnect from the world and turn your phone off. It’s time for practice and if you’re thinking about anything else, you’re wasting it.
Mine is between 10:00 am and 11:11 am. I’m usually sharper on an empty stomach so the morning time works best for me. That time falls after I’m back from dropping kids off at school or BJJ some days, and before I have to get ready for my regular job.
I’ve already had to make moves to ensure that I’m free at this time. I’ve rescheduled appointments and prior commitments. This is the time I’ve taken for myself to hone my craft.
A bonus to this step is that taking time for yourself builds your self-esteem. By making a commitment to yourself and not allowing anyone or anything else to come before it, your self-confidence will shoot through the roof.
5. I read more than ever.
This has been the real game-changer.
Even when I’m not reading, I'm digesting articles all day, every day.
Almost to a fault. It’s consumed me at this point, thanks to my friend Andy Taylor.
If you find yourself uninspired by the stuff you’re reading, you may be following too many people.
Early on I made the mistake of rushing along my audience by following a ton of people in hopes that some follow back. More than likely, your writing won't appeal to those who didn’t discover you organically, so they’re not really your audience anyway.
It took a toll on my own progress as well. By over-saturating my own feed, I would give up long before I found inspiration or learned anything.
Be selective with who you follow.
Find those who are on the same path as you, only further along. By consuming their material all the time, you’ll subliminally pick up on their formatting style and economy of words.
As you become more fluent in their language, it will come out in your own work too. There’s really no trick to it. Just read constantly and your writing will improve on its own.
In conclusion
Hitting publish every day is the most efficient way to improve your writing.
Practice makes perfect and increasing the amount of material you put out gives you more feedback to analyze.
It can be difficult to tackle unless you have a solid plan.
- Stay focused on your goal.
- Take some classes.
- Get your mind right.
- Make time to write.
- Read all the time.
By following these steps I’ve managed to publish something new every day for 20 days now. At this point, it’s harder to not write than it is to write.
If you want to see real results of writing every day, check out my latest progress report below.
