7 Things You Should Do to Write Every Day

These tips will help you achieve your writing goal

Do you struggle to write every single day? I’m going to share seven tips you can implement to your schedule to write every day. There is no magic trick. This will not cost you any money and may actually save you some money.

You have the same amount of time as anyone else. You have 24 hours, seven days a week. Richard Branson has the exact same 24 hours and seven days. Oprah Winfrey also the same 24 hours and seven days. Coincidentally, J.K. Rowling has 24 hours, seven days in her week. So what are you not doing so you can accomplish writing at least one article a day?

There are a lot of distractions in your life preventing you from spending about an hour or so to write. Maybe you don’t need an hour. But if these tips can find you one hour a day, can you write that article?

Listed below are seven tips to help you find one hour that you can use to write.

1. Don’t watch late-night TV

Are you a night owl? This could be a reason why you can’t find the time to write one article. If you stopped watching late-night TV or a movie on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, or Disney Plus, you’ll find at least an hour, maybe even two.

Watching a movie or TV show is taking away from your writing time. Is Netflix giving you money for watching a movie? If not, make watching a show a reward after you have already written your article for the day.

This sounds like a great reward. Sometimes you have to reward yourself for writing. You may or may not get paid for writing, but if you make watching a TV show or a movie a reward, you have rewarded yourself for writing your article.

Most movies are about an hour and a half long. That’s 90 minutes and more than enough time to write your article. If you need a little more time, you can find the time.

2. Exercise early

When you exercise, this gives your body more energy for the day. You may be tired after working out, but your body will be more relaxed and you’ll be able to focus more. Your metabolism will also increase helping you burn off calories.

Try to work out at home or go to a gym early in the day. This may mean waking up a little earlier than usual. Set your alarm clock an hour earlier. This will also mean going to bed earlier as well so you get a good night sleep.

If you decide to workout at the end of the day, that is also fine. Sometimes you may be exhausted after a long day at work and it’s easy for you to skip the workout entirely.

Working out gives you a little more energy so you can write your article. You may even decide to write a few articles about your new workout routine.

Staying healthy is a great way to decrease seeing your doctor. Your health will be in much better shape than someone who doesn’t work out at all. This is more time you can spend writing instead of getting your blood pressure and temperature checked at the doctor’s office.

3. Limit your time on social media

Do you check social media as soon as you wake up? You need to stop. If social media is not rewarding you for anything other than looking at the memes, the news, or some joke your friend shared, that can wait.

It could also be less time surfing social media. Do you really need to know what your friend is complaining about or eating today? Do you need to see what your friend thinks about Trump or Biden?

Either one will do nothing to help you write your next article. You may even decide to make a comment on the post and you end up going back and forth with your friend or a complete stranger on a topic you disagree with. This will only take up a lot of your time when you could write your next article.

Wouldn’t writing your next article be better than engaging in a useless comment on social media? Social media can be bad and cost you a lot of precious time.

Time is one thing you use and will never get back.

How much time do you think you spend on social media? You could possibly find an hour or two if you spent a lot less time on one of these social media platforms.

If you use social media for sharing your article, then that’s fine. Just make sure you limit your time on social media and focus on writing.

4. Eat that frog

Have you read Brian Tracy’s “Eat the Frog”? Brian explains you need to do your hardest task as early as you can in your day.

You may like to hold off doing the hardest things first and procrastinate. So if you follow Brian’s method, he encourages you to tackle the toughest projects as early as possible.

Writing may be one of your favorite projects but you have to make writing a priority for you. Writing is one thing you must do over other things that you do.

Maybe making writing a priority in your day allows you to find the time and incentive to do it. If you don’t have time to read Brian’s book, here is a five-minute video where he covers the basic principles of this method.

Let me know what you think about “Eat That Frog” below.

5. Set a deadline when to finish your article each day

If you need some more incentive to write your article, create your own deadline on when you want to have your article completed for the day. Personally, I use noon as my deadline and have accomplished my goal on most days. Maybe your deadline could be in the evening.

Whatever deadline you pick, that’s a personal goal you set for yourself. This may help you to get more focused to write your article.

No one is going to tell you to write but you. Sometimes you have to play little mental tricks with yourself to get things done.

6. Remember your why

If you are trying to write for pleasure or writing to make some money, you have to remember your why. Your why has to be so strong to try and achieve that purpose to write your daily article.

Maybe you write because it relaxes you. Or it could be that you want to share your thoughts with others. Maybe you want to see a little more income come into your account. Perhaps you enjoy the camaraderie of the writing community you’re in.

Whatever your why is, you need to remember your why each day so it helps to reinforce your goal to write your daily article.

7. Schedule any appointments early or late in the day

You probably have other appointments you need to attend to from time to time. This could be a doctors appointment, a dentist appointment, or you need to get your car serviced for routine maintenance.

Try to schedule these appointments at a certain time in the day. This still gives you the flexibility to write your articles.

Depending on your schedule, you have to think what is the best time to have your appointments. Maybe the morning is best to have your appointments or it could be the late afternoon. Maybe lunchtime is the best for you to schedule your appointments. Of course, you have to work with the company where you have to schedule your appointment and to work with their schedule.

Takeaway

Hopefully, you can identify some tips on where you can find the time to write your article each day. This might be one area you need to work on or it could be in several areas.

So you don’t overwhelm yourself tomorrow, pick one area and make the adjustment. Once you have mastered that one change, work on another change in a week or so.

To refresh your memory, here are the seven tips again:

1. Don’t watch late-night TV

2. Exercise early

3. Limit your time on social media

4. Eat that frog

5. Set a time when to finish your article each day

6. Remember your why

7. Schedule any appointments early or late in the day

Personally, you may not like changes in your life. We all get comfortable with our daily routine. If you really want to write one article a day, you have to make changes in your life.

What step or steps do you need to change in your daily routine so you can write every day?

Tom Handy is a top Writing, Finance, Investment, and Bitcoin writer on Medium, and the father of two kids. He retired from the Army and sits on several non-profit boards. You can find him on Twitter @tomhandy1.