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Atomic Habits for writers
Small changes for big success — whatever “success” means for you. Part 1 of a four-part series.
Like a lot of writers, I’m always looking for ways to better my relationship to my work. What I mean by this is that I know I feel good when I write; I know it is my business (both my métier and my vocation). I also know that it is, some days, like pulling teeth to get me to sit down and work on a long-haul project, or even producing a post here on Medium.
I’ve long since given up trying to parse out why that is (hello, binge-watching Ted Lasso; or playing video games, or even folding laundry can feel like a more rewarding task than writing, ugh), but I’m always interested in how I might pave my way to that good feeling, the writerly version of runner’s high, that I get when I’ve finished a post or a couple thousand words of my next novel.
Some work friends of mine started talking about James Clear’s Atomic Habits, in which Clear posits that tiny, tiny changes lead up to great lifelong habits, and I jumped.
Clear considers writing a key part of his life, so he had some great advice to give specifically based around writing, but I went a level deeper after I’d read his work, and thought up some ways to apply Clear’s recommendations directly to the writing life.
I want to share them with you here. Clear breaks down good habit making — and bad-habit breaking — into four laws. We’ll cover those in a little bit here, and over the next four weeks, I’ll run down what each of these laws and their inversions looks like when applied to the writerly life. Today, a little background, and Law 1.
First, ground yourself
Clear suggests that the mistake most people make at the ground level is to think about what they want. Makes sense, right? When we set goals, we usually say “I want to eat healthier,” or “I want to exercise more,” or “I want to spend more time with my family.”
This, says Clear, is “outcome-based” thinking: It prioritizes changing your results, which leads to outcome-based habits, which in turn don’t “stick” as much.
Instead, consider identity-based thinking: “Start by focusing on who we wish to become,”…
