Good or Bad — habits are necessary
Did you know that it takes approximately 21 days for you to develop and maintain a habit? I tried this theory out once and I would tend to agree. Most people don’t even realize where they are spending their time and energy or even acknowledge.
Some of the things you do that are habit are done so automatically you don’t even have to think about it. I don’t need to list the common habits of most people; but I will list some of the habits that are considered positive, and maybe you might want to incorporate some of those habits in your daily/weekly/monthly schedule.
As a writer is important to have some healthy routine habits just to keep you on schedule. For instance, I always write at the same time period of the day; which for me is always in the early morning. Angels wake me up daily starting at 3 a.m. and keep pestering me until it is 4:44 a.m. and then I get up. I am usually awake by that time, and the first habit I do is start the coffee and tea machine.
I did some muscle testing and confirmed that my body does in fact crave and need lemons and water. It is also a proven fact that brewed tea with lemon and honey is really good for you and your body. I normally drink a dark brewed coffee. I have now included a glass of warm water with lemon and a cup of hot white tea with lemon. To make life easier I buy lemons in bulks at Sam’s Club and always have a dish of fresh cut lemons readily available.
Like billions of people around the world I like Coca Cola, coke. One of my favorite Christmas songs is the Coca Cola “Teach the World To Sing”. I know that coke is not good for me. It is fake sugar that causes my body to react violently as my blood sugar is under attack by corn processed sugar alternative called corn fructose. Coke is my bad habit. It tastes good. It’s full of caffeine and spikes my brain activity for about 20 minutes. When I am wanting or craving a coke, or the sugar, I will drink a glass of lemon water first. If I am still craving it after I really quench my thirst then I might consider it. It has never happened that way. After I drink the ice cold lemon water I have forgotten all about the coke.
Earlier this year I gave some examples of some S.M.A.R.T. goals. Defining time metrics to your objectives and goals will help keep you on track and on target of your complete date. So maybe you don’t like drinking tea and you cannot imagine drinking it daily let alone as a replacement. Fair enough. Perhaps you could start with drinking just one sip of tea a day. You could sip it with your coffee. Make life easy for you to incorporate new habits. I had all my tea in a cupboard, hidden away. Now all my teas are proudly displayed under led lights making it look more like a gourmet kitchen. My coffee maker also has a hot water dispenser, which makes it very simple for tea, hot cocoa or just brewing one cup of coffee for a Starbucks “Pour Over”.
Once you start some easy daily goals and make a habit of completing them, you can move on to some weekly goals. If writing a book, novel or work of art seems a little daunting still, break things down so they are more manageable. For fiction writers, start by jotting down the overall “plot” of what happens, a basic one sentence statement that you can build. Create, develop and imagine your hero. Who is his/her mortal enemy? Write those things down. Believe it or not, writing a fiction story does not usually happen chronologically from start to finish.
As a previous college professor I still believe in hard copy paper back up versions of my work. I also have the ability to mark things up and see revisions visually. All of my work is three hole punched and put into a binder that is dated and color coded. Always keep blank pages in your binder so you can quickly write down ideas, new characters, scenes or conflicts down when they come to you, sometimes in a dream. It is a lot easier to scribble down a thought at 2 a.m. on a piece of paper in a notebook than booting up your manuscript on your computer.
Some writers use digital recorders, others will use smartphone voice recorders. If you are starting your action plan, start by just writing down your daily activities and analyze where you spend your time and where you can allocate new time for writing activities, or whatever it is you want to develop a habit. If you want to start exercising then maybe it is as simple as going to bed earlier so you can wake up earlier?
Write down all your habits. Eliminate the bad and build on the good.
#habits #writers #coffeetea
