Do daily writing quotas work?

I think establishing and maintaining daily writing quotas can work, but there is one important caveat to consider first, before you try to establish one. [Find today’s writing prompt at the bottom of

Keeping daily writing quotas is a must. Daily writing quotas can prevent you from getting writer's block because when you write every day, it's easier to get back into the flow of writing each time you sit down to write. It will be much easier to simply pick up where you left off the day before when you write. 

When you experience long gaps, like multiple days or weeks, between writing sessions, it's much harder to get back into the flow of what you're writing or get used to considering yourself as a writer at all. You’re also much less likely to enjoy the writing process, which will prevent you from writing in the future, or at least make you feel less motivated to write.

You’ll expect the words to come as soon as you sit down to write, but they won't come as easily when you experience significant gaps between writing sessions because your brain isn't used to writing often, or you'll have to waste time trying to remember what you were trying to write each time you sit down to write. 

It takes a particular mindset, a conditioned and disciplined mindset, to sit down and have a productive writing session, each writing session, without getting distracted or constantly second-guessing itself.

Having a daily writing quota will also help those of you who are perfectionists. Because when you write every day, although you'll do the best you can, you won't feel as much pressure to get every single word and comma and phrase perfect. Some days you'll write things you're extremely proud of, and some days you'll simply feel good about writing anything at all, even if it's gibberish. But in the long run, you will feel like you accomplished something if you write at all, and you will be working day by day to fine-tune your writing process, and your writing craft.

So, here's the caveat to keep in mind when you're establishing your writing quotas: you must make sure they're easily doable, no matter what, and that they align with your schedule.

If you only have an hour to write every day, for example, then establishing a quota of 2,000 words for your daily quota is likely not doable and will eventually demotivate you to write. Even if you're able to reach that word count every now and then within your planned writing hour, trying to write 2,000 words in an hour every single day for the foreseeable future isn't very feasible or doable. . Or could end up forcing you to allot double the amount of time you had originally planned for revising and editing, so it probably won’t end up saving time anyway.

Doable writing quotas are a must, otherwise they will end up doing more harm than good in the long run. 

Personally, I allocate about an hour for every 500 words I write, on average. For research-heavy work, I tack on an extra 20 minutes for every additional 150 words or source that I need to consult and cite. And for more creative or experimental writing, I subtract fifteen to twenty minutes. So, a 1,000-word research-heavy article could take me between two and three and a half hours to write (not including edits or revisions), while a free writing or creative writing exercise that's 500-1,000 words long would probably take significantly less time, at around an hour. And a lot of times I adapt my writing quotas to what I need to write each day. But I do write between 750 and 1,000 words every day, no matter what. 

The daily writing quota that's doable for you, your schedule, and lifestyle might look different than mine or any other writer's quota. But as long as it's doable for you, it will be easy to maintain, and if it's easy to maintain you will keep writing every day no matter what. And most importantly, you won't get writer's block or want to stop writing altogether with a maintainable and doable writing quota. 

What do you think about writing quotas? Leave a comment or start a chat thread to join this dialogue. And share this post with others so they can join the dialogue too.

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