3 Mistakes That Killed My Daily Writing Habit and How to Avoid Them
In July 2021, I discovered the fantastic Ship 30 for 30 community and signed up for the next cohort.
I started a daily writing habit and completed a 20-day streak. Only packing and moving to a new house stopped me. I struggled and finally limped across the finish line 16 days late.
And then I stopped.
I last published an atomic essay 43 days ago.
Last night I asked myself what went wrong. I quickly listed some mistakes I made. Next, I asked myself what it would take to avoid them going forward.
And here’s what I learned:
I thought finishing the sprint meant I’d finished the race.
Ship 30 for 30 is one hell of an intense sprint. It’s ok to take a break, but keep it short. When you exercise, you need to schedule recovery days. But the longer the break, the harder it is to restart. Writing is no different. Take a break, but get back on the racetrack and start publishing ASAP.
I thought republishing was the same as publishing.
I wanted to get my work out to other platforms like Medium and LinkedIn. So I started republishing my atomic essays instead of writing new ones. Any feedback gives me a nice dopamine hit, so republishing kept me satisfied for a while. Now I’m out of essays, and I’m getting no feedback! I have to publish every day, even when my dopamine tank is full.
I let Resistance take over once no one was keeping score.
I’ll admit it. The accountability built into Ship 30 for 30 helped me publish even on those days I wanted to crash on the couch. Once it was gone, Resistance was waiting inside me, ready to pounce.
It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance. - Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
For me, Resistance showed up as busyness, analysis paralysis, imposter syndrome, and grand plans for “getting my notes organized.” And it can show up as an infinite list of other things - anything to keep me from sitting down to write.
So I have to sit down, act like a professional, and do the work. Otherwise, it will be at least another 43 days before you hear from me again.
