Why I start every day with my writing practice

I’m no creature of habit, but one of my few routine activities is a daily writing practice. I started this practice a little over two years ago during my yoga teacher training, to help distill the mountains of information that was coming my way: I was working full-time and spending 25+hours/week in training on top of that.

What I do

My writing practice is something that I use to settle in, clear my mind, and prepare for the day ahead. It’s not necessarily a journal, and there’s not set format, other than committing pen to paper every day. Here’s what it entails for me:

• I have a specific notebook dedicated to my writing practice.
• Each day, I write until I fill two pages of my book. For me, this works out to roughly ten minutes.
• I drop any concerns about spelling, grammar or style. The main focus is on keeping the pen moving across the page.
• Anything goes: I don’t have to tell a story or recount events. I just write any words, phrases or sentences that come to mind. If my train of thought is interrupted, my writing follows the new path.

The benefits

My daily writing practice benefits me in many ways:

• Some days, it serves as a form of meditation.
• Some days, it helps me to purge distractions – it feels like I’m moving them out of my mind by writing about them.
• It can unlock my creative potential – there’s something to be said for going through the process of actually creating each letter – rather than having my word processor do so for me. I’ve been amazed at the ideas and solutions that come to me unbidden when writing.

As a communicator and copywriter by profession, my writing practice serves another very obvious purpose: practice writing. The more you write, the easier it becomes – particularly helpful if writing is an intimidating prospect for you. It’s very liberating to know that this is writing without expectation: no one will be reading, critiquing or evaluating it. There is no measurement of my success. Success is simply filling the page.

Sound promising? Give it a try!

I know that many of us create loads of content in the form of documents, e-mails, business correspondence, blog posts and tweets, but there is no substitute for going ‘old school’ and letting the ink flow. It’s easy to get started: try it tomorrow with your morning coffee or while your computer is starting up. And if you remember to, let me know how it goes!