This wasn’t a New Years resolution as I don’t really do those, but I did happen to decide I would try to write a post every day for 30 days on New Year’s Eve. I did this for a few reasons. First, I wanted to build on the discipline of my morning routines. Second, writing in the morning is said to help build cognitive, creative, and even immune function. And third, for the experience of developing the art itself. I have learned a few things these past few weeks which I’ll share with you here.
1. I had to get creative to get creative.
Life can get pretty busy so carving out a quiet space as well as dedicating the time can be tricky. I tried to write with my morning coffee after meditation and training. If I don’t get it done then I try to get to it throughout the day.
2. Preparation can save the day.
Whenever I had an idea on something to post on I’d quickly get it into Evernote which got unwieldy so I turned to Trello. I found myself working on many different ideas laying the groundwork for the next posts. This was great as I was able to write and come back to some ideas making it great for reviewing with fresh eyes. It also helped me kick-start on days I didn’t write a fresh one in the morning which was about half the time.
3. Cognitive function (anecdotally) raised!
This exercise really did wake my mind. I’m finding myself looking for topics to write about throughout the day which has given me a different kind of focus. I’m more engaged in my conversations with colleagues, my wife, and friends. I seem to be absorbing the books, podcasts or audiobooks I consume a bit more sometimes scrambling to write down notes or insights.
4. Distractions are evil. Part 1
Writing on a laptop with browser tabs open with email notifications or any social media with the same is brutal. I shut them all down. I sometimes type away in front of the television, but I didn’t feel my mind was 100% on the writing so shut that down as well. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish with you turn off the distractions.
5. Distractions are evil. Part 2
Although I asked for and enjoyed the feedback I didn’t check the stats after about a week. I didn’t want ego or thinking about it to distract from the art or joy of the exercise. I still haven’t checked. The goal is about the writing for me at this point.
6. It doesn’t have to be War and Peace.
This was intended to be a cognitive exercise so I wanted to keep it as light as I could, but although I tried to avoid going long-form sometimes I just kept writing. This can be great, but difficult to edit and review before posting. I will try long-form at some point, but for now, I’m trying to keep it light to stay on top of the daily posts.
7. Turns out I love paper.
I started writing more posts after trying the Morning Pages exercise where I would free write three pages of anything on my mind first thing in the morning. The things I wrote in this journal ultimately turned into posts I did last year. I still use paper to write notes which I find useful. I do need to work on my penmanship, however.
My writing inspiration comes from modern-day writers like Atul Gawande, Ryan Holiday, Seth Godin, Josh Waitzkin, and Tim Ferriss to name a few. Taoist and Stoic philosophy continues to have an enormous impact on my life both in thinking and action. So far this has been a wonderful experience that I’ll be continuing for the foreseeable future.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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