I’m comfortable in both right- and left-brained pursuits. My love of science makes the practice of Infectious Diseases interesting, but my priorities are shifting into becoming a creative. In my creative and spiritual life, I am open to concepts that my logical self considers to be “woo-woo.”
At the same time, my science brain is willing to entertain non-rational concepts if they are practical and useful. So, if making a ritual of opening a fresh Word document helps to demarcate writing time from non-writing time, then my logical brain will go along with it.
Last week, I wrote about struggling to develop a daily writing habit. Promises to myself, or even to my accountability group were not achieving the goal of daily writing. So, the two halves of my brain began to conspire together.
Both sides can agree on the value of dailiness. One side likes the word “ritual,” while the other side prefers “discipline.” My left brain likes evidence. For the months of April and May, each time I wrote, I would enter it into an Excel spreadsheet.
A Timely Gift
From April 1 to May 30, I wrote 13,000 words for an average of 217 words a day. It’s not what I was aiming for, but it’s not nothing, and it gave me a starting place to figure out how to improve my process. Think “Quality Improvement.”
My right brain was lobbying for lighting a candle each time I sat down to write, but it couldn’t get my left brain to go along. Yesterday, I had a timely email from Marion Roach Smith, a writing teacher that I follow. As a gift for those who purchased her online course “The Memoir Project,” she added a bonus class called “The Writer’s Deadline Formula.”
There is nothing earth-shattering in this class. Nothing I had not heard before, but timing is everything. This is what I needed to hear again right now. *
Just Show Up
The class includes specific tools for how to set deadlines using a clock and a calendar, which pleases my left brain. It also discusses how to overcome resistance and procrastination by telling it to go away, which pleases my right brain. The bottom line is that I need to be ready for the muse to strike. I need to sit in my writing chair every day.
As with my daily yoga, most of the work is just showing up on the mat. Once the video starts going, I just follow along. It’s a similar feeling for linking the good habits of a morning routine. I wake up, I want a cup of coffee. But first, I need to wash my hands so I can put my contact lenses in.
I need to meditate and do yoga before I have breakfast. I need to write before I shower. This string of good habits develops slowly over time, each habit added on to the older ones as anchors. When I began meditating about five years ago, I was taught to associate the habit with something I would never skip, and that was the cup of coffee.
*Here are some other resources I’ve used in the past for developing good habits.
- James Clear’s website (the author of Atomic Habits):
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg