How to Create A Perfect Writing Habit for Your Environment
Don’t wait for the perfect moment and place
Writing, just like any activity, is a habit that is formed through many practices. You can’t be good at writing in only one try or one go. That is something you must achieve with patience and daily action.
A perfect writing habit is a repetition you should create based on every circumstance which could support you in empowering that kind of activity, including your environment.
Each person has a different environment, thus, it makes it harder for some people to create a perfect writing habit that suits their surroundings. I agree writing habits can be consistent because of your optimal setting, but not everyone has the opportunity to build their own perfect environment.
Maybe a mother who wants to focus on writing an article always gets annoyed by her baby or toddler. Or maybe a father who wants to focus on writing a book project after arriving at home constantly puts up with trivial tasks like continuing the deadline from the office.
Another thing that can hold you back from creating a perfect writing habit is your neighbor or activity going near your house.
Let’s say your neighbor constantly plays rock music at a really high volume or hosts a party every single day. With that kind of condition, it definitely will distract you from writing with laser-like focus. Other things could be an ongoing construction working around you.
So how can you build a perfect writing habit when your environment doesn’t suit you well?
Here are 3 tricks I use to make my environment accidentally support my writing habit. Without these tricks, I couldn’t even write a single article every time I want to.
Schedule Your Time As Flexible As You Can
There is a piece of advice out there about building a good habit which says, whenever you want to build a long-lasting habit, consider flexibility. Flexibility doesn’t mean you can do your habit every time you want, as lazy as you make it.
For instance, if you want to be a writer, you can’t just write today and tomorrow you stop. Or you write today, but only once a month. That’s not flexible. You’re procrastinating.
If you want to enforce the thing you want to show to people who your identity is, you must show up every day. This means you have to write regularly.
To get the flexibility, you must think flexible. Adjust every time, every second, to your current situational condition. For example, I usually write in the afternoon because in the morning I won’t have the time to do so.
Since I’m living with my parents, I’ll get pretty busy real quick in helping my parents do their housework when morning comes. I didn’t have the time and luxury to write in the morning, so I changed it to the afternoon.
You don’t have to mimic writing advice saying that people who get their best writing outcome is the one who writes earlier, like from 5.00 AM until 9.00 AM.
Writing at 13.00 PM is good enough for me because I’ve finished my duty of assisting my parents. I also get refreshed because I’ve been eating, cleaning, and resting for a while. I got recharged and ready to pour my brilliant ideas into the process.
Make a writing habit that is flexible enough to keep you being able to write all the time whenever you see some free time. Schedule your time like rubber, as flexible as you can. With that, hopefully, every environment you live in could support you to build a perfect writing habit.
Experiment on Unfamiliar Environments
Every writer forgets that in order to build a perfect writing habit, they have to experiment with a diverse set of environments around them. Most of us stick to one setting because we are afraid our writing process gets worse than before.
Seek any environment you are unfamiliar with. Even if it has to force you out of your comfort zone. Actually, the only way to get a perfect writing habit that matches your environment is by looking for the right setting.
So whether or not you want it, you must undergo several or maybe many attempts.
Who knows? Maybe you get the best writing outcome when you write in a natural or outdoor setting. Or maybe you best write something when you are in front of a window since you get to see the beauty of the world and it inspires you to write better than before.
I personally write better when I’m in a coffee shop or in a similar cafe. I’m able to hear live music which makes me happy. And when I’m happy, I can write with no burden and freely.
Explore the unknown so that you’ll get the best version of your writing habit that well along.
Write Everywhere and Anytime and Adapt
The last trick coming from is to write everywhere or anywhere you are and quickly adapt to it. Most writers don’t pick up the feeling to write as a result of their condition. They listen too much to specific writing advice telling them to write in a specific place and time.
Realize that every person or writer is having specific circumstances that are totally distinct from one another. You can’t suddenly implement Maya Angelou or Stephen King’s writing routine as your writing habit.
Think of the situation you’re in at the moment. Not everyone lives in a privilege. There are writers who write in very crowded places or noisy neighborhoods. And also there are others who write when they have disturbances all the time, like taking care of children, living with parents, and cleaning the entire house.
If you force yourself to apply a specific writing routine to your daily writing habit, there is a possibility you’d get disappointed because it doesn’t fit your writing environment reality.
Clearly, there is one time for me when I stop writing because I follow a fixed writing environment of a famous writer. For instance, a famous writer achieves her best writing when she writes in a five-star hotel.
Hell no I said. I said to myself that I’ll make my own environment the best support for my writing habit, of course with some tweaks.
I can’t afford a five-star hotel to write to. Can you? Will you? Shall we?
I just write everywhere and anytime and adapt to it so it would fit my writing routine and eventually help me in building my perfect writing habit.
