How to Make Writing a Habit with a Habit Loop
Cue-Routine-Reward is the key.
Every morning, we wake up, brush our teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then we set off for school or work. Or, in some people’s cases, they sit at their dining table with their laptops open instead.
We don’t quite remember washing up in the mornings, nor do we need to consciously remember to get dressed or eat breakfast. Our bodies just naturally do that on our own. This is because they’ve become habits.
Writing Too Needs to Become a Habit
If you’re serious about writing online, be it fiction or non-fiction, or if you’re intending on publishing a book, you need to practice your writing. After all, practice makes perfect.
Making writing a habit will save you the trouble of forcing yourself to sit in front of your laptop and write. Because you will do this without any conscious input, you will find that the hardest part — starting — is already over before you know it.
If writing is not yet a habit for you, then you have to cultivate it. And one way you can achieve this is through cues and rewards, based on Duhigg’s Habit Loops.
What is a Habit Loop?
In short, a habit loop consists of 3 components: Cue, Routine, and Reward.
- Cue: Starts the routine activity. It can be time, immediately preceding action, venue, and others.
- Routine: The activity itself. In this case, writing.
- Reward: This reinforces the desire to accomplish the activity.
How Can this Habit Loop Thing Help Me?
As we can see, the cue and the reward are the most important parts of this loop, as they trigger the routine behaviour as well as reinforce it. You may need to consciously remind yourself to write when the cue occurs, but after a while, your body will get used to it.
That’s how knowing this loop helps you to cultivate a habit in the quickest and easiest way possible.
Cue
The first step to starting your habit loop is to figure out what kind of cue you are going to use to stimulate you to begin writing. This can be anything from the time of day, to location and even to the action that immediately precedes it.
For instance, you could choose to write in the morning, so that when 8 a.m. rolls around you’d naturally settle down in front of your desk with your laptop open and in front of you, ready to go.
Or, you could choose to write when you sit down at your dining table — making the location your cue.
You can also choose to write after you just had your lunch or dinner — that makes your mealtime your immediately preceding action that stimulates the routine activity.
The key to choosing a good cue is that it needs to occur daily. Which is why time-based cues is the best type, or something that you have to do every day, like eating.
Reward
Your reward should be something that encourages you to keep up this habit. Do something you like or eat your favourite food.
You can partake in this reward after a certain amount of time — such as enjoying a K-drama episode after every hour of writing, or you could eat a cookie once you’re done with a writing sprint.
The problem with rewards is that it is difficult to be strict about it. Sometimes, the temptation to reward yourself even five minutes into your supposed writing time is much too strong.
If that happens, you could ask a good friend or a family member to keep the rewards away from you till you reach your desired word count, or until your writing time’s up.
Conclusion
Making writing a habit ensures that you get your practice in with the least amount of resistance from your mind. The more you practice, the more your writing ability develops. With enough practice, you can surely become a better writer.
Find the right cue; spread out your rewards. It takes a lot of self-restraint and diligence, but it’s necessary if you want to succeed as a writer.
Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps. Good luck on your writing endeavours!
