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Don’t Wait

It’s quite simple really, but I did two things. First, I no longer wait until I have a seat. I write on the train on the way home, and previously I would read or listen to podcasts while I waited for a seat. You can imagine that some days this comes earlier than others, so I did not really have control over when I made a start.

That attitude also gives me a new raft of excuses not to write, by the way. I can wait for a seat I like, rather than just any seat. If I’m over halfway through my journey, I can decide there’s really no point trying to write, as I won’t get enough done (always false of course – any progress is worth it). I can mix it up, too – “Oh, I’ve finally got the seat I wanted, but I’ll just get to the end of this chapter I’m reading. Well, look at that, now I’m too far into my journey! Drat!” That’s a 3 x procrastination multiplier right there!

No more! Now I only wait until there’s space on the filthy floor by the doors. I’m not proud – I can sit on the floor and write in the dirt!

Little Hits

And the other thing? That bloody game (and this is the last time I mention it, I promise) The Binding of Isaac (again, be aware, some people may be offended by this game)that caused me so much distraction before is now being put to good use. I admit, I’m probably better off deleting it off my hard drive altogether, but last week at least it worked as a little reward.

You want something that feels like a tiny perk – a little hit to finish off your day. That’s what that game can deliver, even if it’s only for five minutes, because every level genuinely feels like a fresh challenge. So I made the decision that I would be able to play it, but only if I’d reached a certain word count (a word count that brings me past my average over the course of a week by the way).

That motivates me to start sooner and get on the floor, and also puts a satisfying full-stop on my train journey. You might use something else. If you don’t mind reading in short bursts, you can do that for example. Chocolate might help some people.

It Still Takes Discipline

What the title says. It’s a cliché, but there aren’t any silver bullets for your writing werewolf. Just keep pumping ordinary bullets into it daily and eventually it’ll go down (or something. Some phrases aren’t meant to be taken to their natural conclusion, clearly). So far, so good.

But enough about me and my overpriced train journeys, what about your writing? Do you have any treats you give yourself at the end of a session? Or maybe you have a special way of making sure you just get on with it? You know where the comments section is!

I referenced this study by Phillippa Lally and colleagues from University College London last week. While it talks about how long it takes to form a habit, there is not a lot of detail about how you can make a habit stick. Here are some common sense tips that can help however.

Context

To reinforce a habit it’s best to perform the behaviour in the same context. As the association grows it’s possible that the context itself can trigger the behaviour. Like it or not, we’re all just salivating dogs! With something as complicated as writing (as opposed to something more basic, like sleep or, I don’t know, going to the toilet or something), this is unlikely to happen, but using context can certainly smooth the way.

Here are some ways to control the context of your writing sessions:

• Same time each day
• Same location
• Listen to music (maybe even the same piece), or perhaps ensure your environment is always silent.

Reduce Distractions

As attractive as writing might be to your psyche, there are always other actions vying for your attention.

• Remove other low resistance actions. These are behaviours that are easy to fall into, like browsing the internet. Turn it off!
• Make sure you have everything you need around you (glass of water, all your writing equipment). That way you don’t have to keep getting up to see to these needs. I’d draw the line at having a bottle to pee in though.

Reduce Resistance

Now that low resistance behaviours are out of the way, you could go some steps to ensure that writing is as low resistance an activity as possible.

• Make sure your writing space is always set up, ready for work. If you feel you have to get things ready before you start, you’re less likely to want to start.
• Finish in the middle of a paragraph, or even sentence. An old trick, this. Next time you start, it feels a lot less like starting and a lot more like carrying on, which is much easier.
• Make sure other people know when you will be writing. It’s much harder to go and do something if people are expecting other things from you. You could also add this as a way of removing distractions – that “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door should be a clear message.

Of Course I’m a Hypocrite

Naturally, I do all of the things above, except for when I don’t. My writing space is always the train during the week. Granted, this takes care of context (I actually do put music on most of the time, depending on my mood and the mood of what I’m writing. Often it’s still ambient music like Treefingers by Radiohead, just to cut out other distractions).

Distractions are still a problem. I should never have installed The Binding of Isaac on my laptop. I had just bought the game and wanted to see what it was like, honest!

Since my baby boy came along I still haven’t really sorted out my writing at the weekend. The dining room table is constantly cluttered now, which means I need a better writing space, which means cleaning my “office” up on the top floor. And, well, it does rather look like a bomb’s hit it. If the explosive in question was a paper cluster bomb. Everything else kind of falls apart until that’s done.

What about you folk in internet land? What’s your experience of writing on a regular basis? Has anyone got any tips to reinforce that habit?

In other news, I’ve just seen that this is the 150th post on Getmewriting.com! Yay us!

Studies on Habit Forming

Have you ever heard that idea that it takes 21 days to form a habit? I’ve heard that a few times (although I forgot the exact figure before I Googled it), but after a little digging it seems likely that this is a myth. Most articles I found simply stated it as a fact without reference to any sources, or simply said, “experts agree,” which is almost always code for, “I couldn’t be bothered to find out,” or “I’m making this crap up.”

I couldn’t even find a definitive source for the 21 days, although this article has a suggestion. Maybe it’s one of those things that got made up and stuck, like swallowing spiders in your sleep.

So how long does it take to form a habit? I couldn’t find a definitive answer there either, and it seems we don’t really know. Most of the articles I found referred back to the study by Phillippa Lally and colleagues from University College London in 2009 mentioned in the Psyblog article above. Here, the magic number is 66 days, or two months! A lot longer than the supposed answer above. Notice that 66 days is an average though – it depends on what the action is that you have to perform.

Another conclusion of the study was that missing the occasional day did not seem to make a huge amount of difference to the overall results. Those who stuck with it more early on however, stood a better chance of making the habit stick. Obviously, as reassuring as this is, there must be a line where missing another day will have a negative impact on your mission.

Habit Resistance

One thing I’ve never understood about the 21 days theory is that it doesn’t take account of how easy the action is to perform or the desire of an individual to perform it. It seems obvious, but some habits catch hold more readily than others. It’s incredibly easy for me to form a habit of playing The Binding Of Isaac (warning about that link – offence may be caused) on the train home, but a lot more difficult to form (or even continue) one that involves me writing.

Sticking with this example, I guess that’s because playing a game is more immediately rewarding. Don’t get me wrong, I do get a sense of achievement (even after writing only 300 words on the train), knowing that I’ve been disciplined enough to do it and that I’m a little closer to reaching my goals for that week. But that doesn’t stand much of a chance against a game designed to make every minute rewarding.

In fact, with enough data, you could probably come up with a formula for habit forming that takes into account the size and frequency of reward and the difficulty in completing the behaviour. We might call the “Habit Resisitance”. That in turn might even give us a rough picture of how long it might take to form such a habit.

Make it Stick

But for now, it’s good to know that if you aim for 66 days of writing every day, you stand a good chance of getting that behaviooiur to stick and become almost automatic. I certainly know from my own experience that lapses in my routine make it harder to get back into the “habit”, but if regular, writing becomes easier and easier. It’s not truly felt automatic yet, and perhaps this is the reason – too many breaks and not a long enough run. Something I will remedy.

Automatic Writing

I must confess, I don’t always (read rarely), stick to my writing routine, but when I do I feel energised, and ready to write! Once I have had a good run of writing days, the next time I sit down to write is so much easier. At the best moments, it is near to automatic. Apparently, a similar effect may be possible through object-based habits.

Jack Cheng recently wrote an article about activity/object association. In it he describes a phenomenon that he calls “habit fields”. These fields are created by constantly reinforced association between an object, and an activity. You can shape the nature of the field, and in return, it can affect your actions.

Memorable Benefits

Neuron image courtesy of Patrick Hoesly

Now, when people start invoking energy fields and the like, a concept starts sounding a little “woo”. But don’t worry, it’s just a metaphor! What he’s actually talking about is the way memories are constructed. Specifically, there are two features of memory creation that are particularly important here: repetition and association.

It’s obvious to anyone who’s learnt a script that repetition is a vital tool to lock down a memory. Behaviour can also be learned through repetition. Video games are especially good at teaching actions, for example. Combo attacks in games require a complicated series of button presses that bewilder at first. But, through repetition, a player soon learns to react to different situations with a variety of combination moves, without thinking about it at all. This is an example of “muscle memory”. Now extend this to less specific behaviours – to a state of mind; relaxed behaviour, productive behaviour, writing behaviour; all can be learned.

Association is even more fundamental. Memories are essentially a series of associations. These can also be learned, of course. You have probably had the experience of a particular smell reminding you of a person or place, even if you have not seen that person or been to that place in years.

Making the connection

Cheng’s idea is that “habit fields” (states of mind or behaviour) can be built around objects through repetition. Stay consistent with the objects you use for certain tasks and the association takes care of itself. Just like the gamer whose fingers perform instinctive button ballets when he sits in front of his console, you can slip into focussed productivity when you settle down in your designated work place to use your designated work tools.

In practice, this process is going on all the time, for better or worse, so you are using it anyway. Being aware of it will help you avoid the obvious pitfalls, and develop good habits. Don’t check Twitter on your writing laptop, or it will gradually become your Twitter laptop!

Think about it for a bit, and you’ll probably see areas in your own life where this already applies. For example, I used to try writing at weekends at my big desktop computer. I was often distracted, and found myself much more comfortable at the dining room table, using the laptop I also use for work.

Given a quick think, this is not surprising. I bought that desktop primarily for gaming, and that’s what I had been using it for previously. The laptop on the other hand is what I use all day for work, and because it’s convenient, I use it to write on the train. The habit field of my laptop then, us one of productive work, including writing. Well, mostly.

Jack of all Trades…

It’s a problem, as Cheng points out, that becomes more pervasive the more capable our tools become. These days every electronic device is a Swiss army knife of possibilities, and the problem becomes one of narrowing those down or restricting those options in order to focus.

Having a dedicated area to write, and restricting your writing to to just that purpose, could take you a long way. Read Cheng’s full article for some other ideas on how to do that, and pop back to getmewriting.com next week, when I’ll have a list of tools to help you focus on your writing. In the mean time, I’d like to know if you have noticed habit fields around the the objects you use.

First off, “On Writing” is an excellent book, and you should read it. I don’t know why I didn’t read it much much earlier.

The chapter in question concerned grammar (it’s only a short bit, and still interesting, so don’t let that put you off). Recently I had been a bit worried about whether to use adjectives or not, and especially in dialogue attribution (he said, angrily, for example). I’ve never liked using it. It always felt wrong and looked childish. But there was a nagging feeling that maybe I should be using it sometimes. After all, the words were invented for a reason.

But Stephen King says otherwise, and as soon as I read it I knew I was being stupid all along. Of course I was right! It didn’t even warrant the slightest bit of worry. Still, it’s nice to have your thoughts confirmed by a master.

I knew it already because Stephen King knew it. I read loads of King when I was younger,  so it’s no surprise that I should pick up good habits from his writing, and others. And that’s the second point of this post. It sounds obvious, but we should all be reading. Read read read read read. You probably don’t read enough – I know I don’t.

Do you sometimes have a crisis of confidence over silly little things? Maybe you disagree about adjectives. Any good examples of where they work really well?