It’s a new year and time to take a fresh look at our dreams and goals. I will direct this post towards writers since that fits my goals, but the most of the tips are relevant to whatever you want to do.

I’ve tried New Year’s resolutions. I’m tried word count goals. I’ve tried the mass hysteria of group writing sprints. None of those worked very well for me.

I read something recently about well-known writers. They all have all sorts of weird, quirky habits that help them write. But they all also do one thing in common: they write regularly (everyday in most cases). Sure you can sit down, be inspired and write for hours on end; but how often are you so inspired or have time for that? A person who writes regularly will make progress so much faster than someone who doesn’t. That regular habit eventually makes the difference in skill, too.

I was a good writer once. I had a plan and a schedule and good writing habits. I worked on my novel every day or nearly every day. I had daily goals and weekly goals. And sure it took me 4 1/2 months to complete a draft of my novel, but that was a lot faster than the “write when you’re inspired” people I knew. Then, life struck. I changed day jobs, had a significantly longer commute with a higher stress level and more evening responsibilities. I was so tired in the evenings I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. But I want to be a good little writer again. I want to publish lots of books. But that’s a very big dream.

One of the mistakes I’ve made in the past is trying to work on the big picture. But that doesn’t work. You can’t control whether a publishing house likes your work. A lot is subjective, out of your hands. You have to set goals which you can control. Small goals that are easily achievable make your big goal less daunting while working towards it. The best way to do that is break your goal into pieces. But don’t stop there. What would help you continue working on the pieces? Developing good habits.

As a writer, a good habit-goal is to plan to write something (anything) for a few minutes everyday. Early on, it’s more important to build the habit than stride quickly towards your goal. By first building good habits, you will be more likely to continue those habits on days you don’t really feel like doing anything. Try not to miss any days (or maybe just one day off each week) because especially in the early stages, doing something every day is important to building the habit. Building a habit of writing every day will also reduce the chances of your muse or inner critic panicking when you sit down in front of a blank page. There is less pressure when something is commonplace.

Once you are comfortable with the habit, increase the minimum time you spend on it. You can always write more than your minimum time, but those small minimum writing goals early on help trick you into sitting down for just a few minutes and writing for longer without added pressure of large personal goals.

It may not seem like a lot, but it will add up. One day you’ll look back and either ask where the year went or how you made it so far without realizing it. Little achievements build confidence and prepare us for larger ones.

Join me this year and develop the good habits that will become the ground-work for achieving your goals.

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