10 Most Uncommon Rule Every Writer Must Abide
When I started routinely doing this, my productivity surprisingly went up by 300%
Every writer must have a routine, a ritual, and a shrine (starting to sound like a cult here, but bear with me).
I’ve been writing for close to 4 years, and I’ve seen a lot of tips for becoming a better writer, such as owning a place to write and only to write, writing at least 500 words every day, or having your checklist when you write.
Yes, those tips are great, but from my experience, when things outside of writing in our lives don’t go well, we dread sitting in our writing chair.
So, here are my ten uncommon rules for every writer that works.
1. No phone in the bathroom/toilet
Taking a bath and dump is a sacred activity. Not only because you are cleansing your body and mind, but most people also get their best ideas in their bathroom.
According to research by cognitive scientist Scott Barry Kaufman, 72% of people get new ideas in the bathroom. It is because we are restricting our sensory nerves from other inputs when we’re in the bathroom. Hence, the information inside our brain is starting to make new connections and bingo! Fresh ideas come up.
But unfortunately, only a few of them remember it, which brings us to the following tips.
2. Take notes immediately
Bring your notes, either physical or digital, everywhere! Whenever you get an idea, write it down immediately. Research on the forgetting curve has shown that people forget more than 50% of the ideas they get in just 1 hour after they get them.
Hence, when you get an idea while taking a bath or a dump, immediately write the ideas after you leave the bathroom.
Also, there might be times when you get an idea while you are driving. You can immediately open the note on your phone and write it; if it’s not possible, you can record a voice note and save it.
That way, you can ensure every idea you get doesn’t get wasted.
3. Make your idea VISIBLE
I used to use Trello and Notion to track all of my ideas. But sadly, all those ideas sit there without getting much attention. Even when I want to grab some ideas to write for, I’m still confused and can’t see them.
So now, I use the Ideas board. With Ideas board, I can easily put my ideas right in front of me and see the links between ideas. My mind becomes more clear and I can put out new articles easily.
4. Know your clock
Some people say that you have to work on certain hours everyday. Some say that you have to wake up early in the morning so you can write without disturbance, other says that you have to work at night because at night ideas will have piled up.
But, if you’ve been working in the creative industry, you ought to know that not everyone have the same creative hours.
According to Dr. Michael Breus, the sleep doctor, every person falls under one category of the 4 chronotypes: Bear, Wolves, Lion, and Dolphin. Each chronotype have their own clock everyday.
For example, Lions tend to have their best works early in the day, while wolves, who cannot even wake up in the morning, perform best at night.
By knowing your life-clock, you will know when you can work effortlessly and still get the best result, and not force yourself to work stressfully in your downtime.
5. Prioritize your health and fitness
Yes, I know this is not directly correlated to writing, but to be honest, some writers neglect this area of their lives. For the past 4 years, I’ve also been in so many different states, from focussing on my work more than my health and fitness to the other way around.
After that iteration, I find it best to focus on my health and fitness before work. So, now I always spend 30 minutes to an hour of my day working on my fitness. That way, I don’t need to think about it anymore during the day.
And also, I usually pre-cooked my meal on the weekend, so I can eat healthy everyday without thinking much about it.
6. have a strict working hours
This is the one that I’m still struggling with. Sometimes I could work from 9 or 10 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night.
While that may sound productive, I sacrifice a lot of my time with my wife, which is certainly not good. Everyone should and must have time outside their work. It’s not about a mere work-life balance, it’s about having a full life.
7. Cut back on the coffee
Yeah, I know, we all need our coffee. I’m not saying that you should cut it off for good.
But you should never use coffee as a boost in the afternoon for several reasons: One, it will be really addictive; Two, the crash that you will feel after the caffeine effect goes down is devastating; and three, caffeine after 2 pm will certainly ruin your sleep.
8. Have some friends
As writers, we usually are solitude animals who like to sit in front of our laptops with our own atmosphere, using headphones. And sometimes we do that every single day.
We think our thoughts are the most important that we need, and we can get more information from the internet and books alone. Unfortunately, that will only work so far.
We also need interaction with others, not only to keep us sane since it’s one of our basic needs as social animals. We need to have some friends as a mode of discussion and exchanging ideas.
Other people’s perspective is equally important to our perspective, by having a good compatible person to challenge our ideas, we can deepen our writing and have a broader understanding of what we want to write.
9. Read novels, preferably a fantasy one
If you love reading and writing about non-fiction, then you must be guilty of this as me. I love to read non-fiction because it provides ideas and knowledge and broadens our minds.
But as we know it, most non-fiction books is that it’s real, and sometimes it’s lacking the novelty and the beauty that we also need in our writings.
Good writing will spark your curiosity and broaden your mind. Great writing will get you into a new world with their novelty combined with the clarity and the deep knowledge in their writing.
And what better way you can get the most knowledge about beauty and novelty if not by reading a good novel.
10. Do one thing at a time
And there’s this, especially if you are using Grammarly, you know how tempting it is to edit while you are writing. By switching back and forth between writing and editing, you are switching your mind between creative and critical functions.
When you are writing, you are mostly activating the creative function of your brain, connecting the dots in your head, making relevancy between ideas and putting it in your desktop. Whilst when you’re editing, you are mostly activating the logical and critical part of your brain to see whether you can make something better or if the part of the content is needed in your writing.
While this could save you a ton of work in the future, it will ruin your creative train in your head and blocks the ideas that might come up. Switching back and forth will also tire your brain faster than it should because, just like the lightbulb, it requires more energy when switching the light on and off rather than letting it stay on for the same time.
Bullet points for a reminder:
- No phone in the bathroom/toilet
- Take notes immediately
- Make your ideas VISIBLE
- Know your clock
- Prioritize your health and fitness
- Have a strict working hours
- Cut back on the coffee
- Have some friends
- Read novels, preferably a fantasy one
- Do one thing at a time
