Six Tips for Writing Consistently

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Last year, I started my writing practice and succeeded in shipping daily for more than 6o days in a row and a total of 117 posts throughout the year, so here is what I learned from the success and failure of my experience to implement this time around. 

1. Create fixed time and space triggers for your writing habit.

Example: “When I arrive at the office, I will write for 30-40 minutes” or “After I take my lunch break, I will start writing at my desk”

 If your space changes over the week, for example, you write in the office, but you’re home for the weekends, you need to customize your trigger so you can write with no interruptions. 

Example: “In weekends, I will sit in my home office at 7 am and write for 30-40 minutes” 

Setting your writing practice later than that means your kids would interrupt you when they wake up, and this almost ensures you spend your day chasing another time slot to finish writing or even going to bed without posting, like what I used to do.

3. Start a streak by tracking your writing habit on a habit tracker. 

It feels rewarding to see that chain growing and confirming your new writer identity. Don’t break the chain, and start another one as soon as you do.

4. Create public accountability for your writing habit by announcing that you will write daily for a month on your social media. This way, you will feel more inclined to respect your promise and not miss a day.

5. Create a ritual to begin writing. 

Here is what I do, I set my favorite visual timer Time Timer to 45 minutes and place it in front of me, then select the same duration for focus music on Brain. FM and listen to it using my noise cancellation headset. Whenever I do these three steps, I signal my brain to get ready to start writing.

6. Use full-screen mode when typing to stay focused.

 I either use MS Word or Scrivener, and I keep typing any thoughts that come to my mind as if I was journaling until meaningful, shareable words start appearing on the screen. 

Are you thinking of starting a daily habit? 

Do the same. 

  • Create time and space triggers for the habit to live.
  • Make it small by limiting its time. 
  • Eliminate distractions while pursuing it, until the timer goes off at least. 
  • Track it and share it with others. 

 

PS: I am still working on enhancing #4 using the course I am currently part of Ship30for30. 

Six Tips for Writing Consistently

You Will Find Your Way Back

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I am posting this right after I finished teaching a 2.5-hour workshop on journaling, my favorite part of my morning routine.

At the end of the workshop, a bride-to-be participant shared with me that she’s afraid to lose herself when she starts a new life with more responsibilities and commitments. She asked me: how would she keep her good habits, like journaling, then?

My answer to her was this: Yes, you will change as you enter a new life, and yes, you will have less time for yourself than you do now. However, I’m here to remind you that you have a head start. You are already on the path of self-awareness; taking this workshop is one example, and this means you will notice when you wander away from your best self as you adjust to your new life. It will take time to figure out the person you would like to be in the relationship, to define your boundaries and your non-negotiables, but nothing works if you abandon yourself. The relationship thrives when you are happy as an individual. Journaling is one way of taking care of yourself among many. If/when you stop it as life gets busy, I promise you this; you will find your way back.

You are not the same person you were years ago. You are aware enough, you worked so hard on yourself, and you grew so much that no matter what changes disrupt your life, you will endure and find your way back. That even if you fall, you will not stay down for long nor dwell on your failures; instead, you will rise up, way faster than the past you.

  • What if we get quarantined again for some reason? We will find our way back.
  • What if we grow our family and life gets too hectic? We will find our way back.
  • What if we travel and stop some habits we worked hard for? We will find our way back.
  • What if someone needs us to step up and constantly be there for them? We will find our way back.

Isn’t that the definition of resilience?

Give yourself this reassurance as fear creeps in when you embark upon the unknown: If you start and stop or if you get lost, you now know your way back. Trust that you have created an anchor you’ll return to again and again. You can restart as many times as you want.

Liberating.

You Will Find Your Way Back

How does Planning Help You Be Present?

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Last year, I recorded a video series with a dear friend discussing the Power of Now book. We enjoyed this collaboration and went deeply into the topic, and the outcome was 36 episodes averaging 15 minutes each.

By saying that the now is all there is, and that we are happiest when we live in the now, many felt I was contradicting myself as someone who promoted time management and planning in my podcast and other videos.  

How can we think ahead while also living in the now?

Planning and being present do not contradict each other; planning helps you live in the now. 

  • When you schedule your time in blocks, you don’t need to keep thinking of the future because you have already decided what you would work on next. 
  • When you plan, you ideally write your top 1-3 priorities of the day, so when other shiny things show up, you stay focused on those priorities or switch them up to deal with emerging demands. 
  • When you plan, you don’t suffer from that sudden sinking feeling of remembering an overdue task. 
  • Planning your time helps you stay present and confident that you are right where you need to be, doing the right things. There is no sense of wanting to escape the moment to a past or future one. This state empowers you to block distractions and promotes deep work mode, the most important kind of work that advances you in strides, versus the shallow fire-fighting mode that still takes place but much less so. 

When we plan our goals, it’s the same; we set our destination then focus on the daily habits and actions that we can control today to reach it or something better, we hope. Attachment to outcome is when we stop living in the now; releasing attachment is a life lesson we need to be willing to learn. 

So go crazy planning, but don’t get stuck there.

Action is in the now. It is where the magic happens. 

How does Planning Help You Be Present?

By Now

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By now I should be able to be calm and patient with my kids.
By now I should have my home decor and design taste all figured out.
By now I should have a proper dining table for guests.
By now I should be driving that fancy car I always eye in the street.
By now I should be making that amount of money.
By now I should have my emergency fund up and running.
By now I should be able to cook extravagant meals.
By now I should have upgraded my beauty routines.
By now I should have the body of my dreams.
By now I should have started my own business.
By now I should have a much higher number of followers.
By now I should have traveled the world.
By now I should have had a third kid.
By now I should have had kids.
By now I should have registered my kids in extracurricular classes.

How did you feel reading the above?

Have you noticed that dreadful word; should?

Should is such a heavy word that we need to question constantly; coupling it with an arbitrary deadline, such as “this many years into adulthood”, makes us feel much worse.

We feel less than, not enough and late to the party. Who decides who is invited and when the party starts, no one knows. We are just late. That’s what society taught us. So, we set too many goals but achieve none, and knock too many doors but don’t stick enough to see if one opens. We are too late to wait and find out.

I am here to tell you that yes, time is finite, but that makes it all the more worthy to spend doing what matters most to you, not what others say you should do.

Yes, you can’t do it all and have it all. Once you stop fighting that and accept it, you will see that the gift of time is to sharpen your big-picture most important goals, so you would seek only them and forsake the shoulds that are hunting you.

Your big picture goals are probably very different than mine, but the question is, why are you checking mine?

Reflect on where you want to be at the end of your life to uncover your most important goals and work backward from there to now, to your very next step right here.

Your timing is perfect.

By Now

Are You Taking Fun Seriously?

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Yesterday I recharged my battery by having fun.

I went laser-tagging for the first time thanks to a generous invitation from a friend who arranged the whole event. I wouldn’t have thought about going if it was not for my friend, which makes me wonder about the fun element in my life. It went missing in the last two months of my personal hibernation.

True, I was enjoying the quiet this period of the year uniquely offers, so I did not get together with my friends while many of them were, unfortunately, busy recovering from COVID. Not to forget we all got worried about the peak we witnessed in cases here in Jordan in the last month. I discussed the fun aspect with my friend and we agreed that the pandemic indeed changed our gatherings habits, thus diminishing the fun we have. A lot of us are not even considering going out anymore.

Thankfully, this is coming to an end, and we are ready to embrace new habits as COVID is withdrawing and the days are getting longer and warmer.

I am planning to have more fun, starting this month, by:

1- Going to a dance class once a week. It’s been on my goals for nearly three years and I hope it’s going to be as cool as I imagine it.
2- Using my magical Saturdays (What I call Saturdays when kids are at school while I’m off) not just for podcast production and appointments, even if they were beauty appointments, but also for meeting up with friends for coffee or lunch.
3- Going out at night once every two weeks with hubby or some friends who can’t do mornings.

If we want fun to happen, we need to create space in our schedule for it, just like we schedule family and work events. It will not occur spontaneously, as lovely as that would be, not with our responsibilities, not until we initiate that group text chain about a meet-up date that suits most of the gang or make that “Hey, I miss you, let’s get together” call.

I am so serious about fun that I got Catherine Price’s new book on it The Power of Fun. I will share more as I go.

Are You Taking Fun Seriously?

What Would Make Today Great?

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This is a question in the morning section of the Five-Minute Journal -which I adore-that did not sit with me right when I first used it; because the answer, in my opinion, is always: me.

I used to think of the answer by looking over my day and what events I was expecting to happen, like receiving a shipment or a meeting going well. Then I shifted the way I read the question. I now ask myself every morning: How will I make today great?

It’s up to me to make today great.

I will make today great through my actions and attitude. Therefore, I answer this question with my intentions for the day such as being kind, leaving to/from work early, respecting my writing practice, and enjoying my time with my kids. Or I answer this question with my top three priorities for the day, or what the book Make Time calls “the highlight of the day”, which could be work-related like finishing a presentation or as simple as spending time with my husband.

So, yes, good things are about to happen today; YOU will make them happen.
New perspectives are going to emerge; YOU will start seeing differently.
Fantastic progress in your goals is actualizing; YOU finally realize progress is more important than perfection.

It is totally up to you.

You get to choose how you will show up today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. Please, don’t let yesterday’s mistakes ever hold you back from starting over. Not giving yourself permission to start over is, in fact, self-punishment. You are not making amends by remaining stuck. Choose to forgive yourself and move on. Forgiving yourself means believing you are worthy despite your mistakes. You are worthy of new beginnings. No matter what your darkness is trying to tell you, believe in your light because that is who you truly are.

P.S: Happy March, subscribe to my newsletter here to get the Sunday Spark.

What Would Make Today Great?

Notice the Mosquitoes

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I’m currently reading a book called How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters by Michael Bungay Stanier. It’s an excellent book/workbook about goal-setting for what he calls Worthy Goals.

I want to share a brilliant exercise in this book called Listing Mosquitoes.

“Your Worthy Goal comes with a cloud of its own Mosquitoes. These Mosquitoes are all the things you’re currently doing and not doing—secular sins of commission and of omission—that are contrary to this Worthy Goal you’ve set for yourself. You’ll find they’re numerous. Some are tiny, others more significant. No single Mosquito is fatal in and of itself, but together they irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract you from your Worthy Goal.”

“Notice Your Mosquitoes: Write down the things you’re currently doing and not doing that are not leading towards your Worthy Goal. Actions and non-actions, big and small. Make them tangible and real.”

“This is you confessing, owning up to the ways you’re actively undermining your Worthy Goal, colluding against your own ambitions, scuttling your dreams.”

It especially resonated when he gave the example of his goal to “Launch a new podcast that is in the top 3 percent of all podcasts within 12 months”.

Michael shares what he is currently doing that is hindering his goal:

“Things I’m doing that are contrary to this goal include: investing in a consultant then ignoring her recommendations; setting a standard then immediately downgrading the ambition of the podcast to make it smaller; starting another, unrelated podcast that I can do in my usual small-scale way; being timid about the guests I’m inviting to the unrelated podcast; buying expensive podcast equipment then not learning how to set it up properly. Refusing to figure out the marketing.”

What he should be doing but is not:

“Things I’m not doing are even more numerous. They include: not creating a vision for the podcast; not setting a budget (time or money); not listening to other “role model” podcasts; not hiring a professional podcasting agency; not attending a podcasting conference; not learning about podcast marketing; not calling myself a podcast host; not exploring distribution partnerships.”

It made me think of my podcast as I approach its 2nd anniversary with host-on-mic only episodes. Do I want to maintain it or take it to the next level? What is this next level?

Thank you, Michael, for this rich book and enlightening concept. I am working my way through it.

Notice the Mosquitoes

Tips to Make the Most of Your Weekends

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A rejuvenating weekend is key to a productive work/school week ahead.

Here are some tips to prepare for your weekends.

  1. Check the weather; sunny weekends call for different plans than rainy ones. 
  2. Keep your partner or family members updated on your upcoming weekend plans at least two days ahead of the weekend and check in on their plans. I talk with my husband about the weekend on Wednesdays and let him know what I have in mind or already planned. If I have a morning of appointments or a night out with girlfriends planned out, he will make plans too. The same goes the other way around. 
  3. If you’re in the mood to go out somewhere nice as a couple, explicitly ask your partner and not leave it to chance. 
  4. Check IMDb ratings before watching a movie to have a pleasant movie night experience. 
  5. Check the expected homework load for the kids, which could impact family outings. In our household, we try to do most of the homework on weekends to have more leisurely evenings on school nights.
  6. As much as possible, run your errands and appointments and shop for groceries on weekends, preferably in the morning. This way, you’ll get done faster and relieve yourself from wasting precious evenings during the workweek. 
  7. Make sure visiting your parents, if geographically possible, is accounted for in your weekend plans. 

Weekends constitute 29% of your week. A well-spent weekend can renew your family bonds and help you make significant progress in your personal or home projects. 

Plan wisely.

Tips to Make the Most of Your Weekends

Self-Trust

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As I reflected on the last year, a theme that I had not anticipated emerged.

It’s self-trust.

  • I now trust that when I set powerful intentions, they come true, even if the how is not clear yet. By setting the intention to monetize my work at the beginning of the year, opportunities I never heard of presented themselves, and I got hired for the first time to teach my work.
  • By launching my first workshop at the end of the year, I now trust that I can generate income if I leave my job and start my own business.
  • I now trust that when I believe my work is worth so much, the universe agrees and I receive from sources I do not expect. For example, someone paid me back some money I gave a year ago on the same day of the workshop launch.
  • Now that it’s finally a habit, I now trust that meditation helps sharpen my intuition.
  • I also now trust my intuition more than ever; my gut feeling told me someone was bad news, and it was right.
  • I now trust that affirmations work, specifically repeatedly writing them in the morning.
  • I now trust that when I respect my menstrual cycle and rest more, I achieve more.
  • I now trust that when I start typing, meaningful words will appear, eventually.

Self-Trust