The Importance Of Building A Habit

It’s been a little bit since I’ve had the chance – and inspiration – to write a blog post outside a review or prompt round up, so please bear with me. This is a little bit of a ramble, but I swear I have a point!

I’ve written a number of blog posts – tips, tricks, things that work for me – on content creation. I wrote an entire series on it, in fact, and one thing that I keep coming back to is that what works for one person may not necessarily work for someone else. Take each piece of advice with a grain of salt – keep what works for you and discard the rest.

For me, what’s worked has been putting together a schedule that I have managed to adhere to for over a year. It keeps me constant with creating, with writing, without overwhelming me. The ticking clock does not so much hang over my head as it does gently nudge me back to work.

I have kept to what works for me, blocking out what other people might say or do. It’s not always easy to keep from comparing yourself to someone else – this person is so putting out more content, that person is on edits round three while I’ve not finished a draft, etcetra etcetra – but I’ve tried.

So far, I’ve succeeded.

In doing this, I’ve managed to build a habit for myself. To break down my projects, my aims into bite-sized pieces that are manageable for me to do in a timely manner. To write creatively daily, even if it is just 10 words added to a short story. By many people’s standards, my habit is simple and my schedule lax. But it works for me, and that’s the important part.

It is not a one and done.

Building a habit takes time. It’s not enough to do something once – try it for a few days, a few weeks if you can. Things are never easy the first time around, after all. It is about practice, it is about intent, and it is about effort. You’re not going to get it right straight off the bat, you’re not going to have it work right away. You need to put in the time and the effort.

If creating – writing, art, videography, design – is something you want to do, you have to work at it.

It is not going to be easy.

Seems obvious enough, right? But sometimes that is where we trip up because we want a quick win. But building a habit will involve trial and error, you will stumble and make mistakes. What works for one person will not work for someone else. The habits I’ve built for myself, the schedule I keep to cannot be copy and pasted directly for someone else. It can be a jumping point, for sure, but you have to find your groove.

My schedule, my habits may not translate well for you. Maybe what works for you isn’t a daily thing. It can be something for every other day, or once a week – so long as it is something you keep to, something you can manage, you’ll see it come easier to you. It’ll take time and a lot of stumbling to figure it out, but if you keep at it, you’ll find it a part of your routine soon enough.

And at the end of the day, it’s not about production quantity for me, but about practice. It is about keeping at it and not giving up a type of creation, no matter what it may be, that you enjoy.

What is a habit you have that helps you in your creating or daily life?

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