How to Build Successful Writing Habits

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I’ll be totally honest, October has been a really hard month for me writing-wise. I’m not sure why, but my mind is thinking about other things – and writing is this thing I have to constantly remind myself to do. I’m in a rut, and if I had kept up with my writing habits, the rut wouldn’t be so bad. So today, I want to talk about the tools you can use to help remind you to write and build successful writing habits.

1. Write it Down

Time and time again, I’ve talked about my Day Designer (my favorite planner, ever). As extra motivation, I write down my reminder to write, but now, at the bottom of my page, I’m writing down my word count. In the past, I’ve used extra planners to track word counts (along with other things), but now I’m trying to consolidate everything into one planner.

If I don’t write and then look back at my empty word count the next day? Oh, y’all that’s getting to me to at least write that day. So, write it down on some planner and keep up with that planner every day.

But if paper planners aren’t your thing, there’s also a digital program I love.

2. Writember

Writember is an online program by my friend, Faye of Writerology.net. It’s a program designed to get you into the habit of writing every day (see a pattern to this post). You also get access to all of her templates in the group – including a Word Count tracker. The further in the year you go, the higher your average goes and the little graphs look really nice. If you haven’t tried Writember yet, I’d highly recommend it.

Struggling with a decent writing habit? Here are three tools to help you. Click To Tweet

3. Digital Streaks

One of my new favorite things I’ve discovered in the past few months is an app called Streaks. It’s for your iPhone, and every day it gives you a reminder or you’ll break your streak. Breaking a streak and having to restart is a pain, y’all!

I also add the reminder to write every day in Todoist, my to-do list app. I don’t have a specific time reminder set up in Todoist, so I may have to add that now.

The key to making successful writing habits is knowing how to remind yourself in a way that makes you want to write.

The most important thing you can do for building your writing habit? Go write, which is exactly what I’ll be doing now.