Five Easy Ways to Keep Writing During the Holidays
While others try to ditch their bad habits over the next couple weeks, don’t ditch your good writing habits. [Edited from the Archive.]
This post is more instructive than creative, but I couldn’t resist resharing it, as I’ve always found it difficult to keep writing this time of year, and I’m sure others feel the same. I hope you find it useful.
The holidays are officially upon us, and I know it might feel like there’s simply no time to do anything unrelated to the holidays right now. But keeping your writing habit is too important to neglect, no matter what time of year it is, especially if you want writing to stay a part of your day-to-day lifestyle. So, here are five simple ways to keep your writing habit strong during the holidays, and well into the new year.
1. Write when it’s dark and quiet outside.
Luckily, it’s dark outside for longer stretches of time during this part of the year, so use that to your advantage and write when it’s dark outside. You can either wake up a little earlier to get some writing done before the sun comes up or stay up a little later to write after the sun goes down. Either way, just write when the world is dark and quiet and there’s nothing going on to distract you from writing, or that will interrupt you while you’re writing. Writing when it’s dark and quiet will ensure your writing time is productive. If you don’t have a lot of time to spare, you’ll want to make sure what little time you do have to write is focused and undisturbed, which is much more likely to happen when the sun is down, and people are asleep or winding down for the day. What could take you over an hour to write in the middle of the day when there is a lot of noise and distractions might end up taking you less than an hour when you’re not being disturbed.
2. Don’t drink excessive amounts of alcohol or caffeine.
It’s no secret that both alcohol and caffeine interfere with your circadian rhythms and sleeping patterns and habits, so try not to overindulge in either during the holidays. I’m not saying you should refrain from consuming alcohol and caffeine altogether. I’m no sadist. What I am saying is: don’t overdo it. For example, plan to have only one or two cocktails at your next holiday party so you’ll be able to get up on time to write the next morning for an hour or so before you need to do anything else. And instead of drinking caffeine into the wee hours of the night, or drinking too much of it in one day, spread out your caffeine intake throughout the day and don’t drink too much of it six to eight hours before you plan to go to bed so you can keep your writing routine the following day regardless of what time you plan to write.
3. Take a ten-minute walk or do ten minutes of exercise before you start writing.
When you are feeling low on energy because you’ve been busy with holiday events and tasks, don’t skip your planned writing sessions. Instead, take a quick ten-minute walk around the block to get your blood flowing and reset your mind as your brain releases endorphins and puts you in a better, calmer, more focused mood. Or do a few jumping jacks and sit-ups to attain the same effects. You don’t have to work up a sweat or engage in intense activity. In fact, working up a sweat will probably be a bad idea and make you feel more tired, especially if you’re already running on fumes. Just get your blood flowing and reset your brain before you start writing. Trust me, this usually has a much better effect on my energy levels than consuming another cup of coffee does.
4. Be realistic, yet consistent.
You may not be able to write 1,000 words per night at midnight each night over the next couple of weeks while you’re busy doing extra things during the holidays. So what? Just make sure you write something every day, when you plan to write each day, no matter what. Even if you only write two or three hundred words each day because you’re low on time and energy, that’s better than writing nothing, and will help you keep your writing habit. It will be much harder to get back to writing on a regular basis in the new year if you let yourself go long stretches of time without writing anything at all right now. But it will be much easier to keep writing every day in the new year if you keep writing now, even if you’re only able to write for an hour at a time or a few hundred words each day.
5. Save your work in the cloud so you can access it anywhere, anytime.
If you save your work in the cloud, you’ll be able to access it wherever you are, whenever you can. You’ll be able to access it on any device at any time. Wherever you are, you will be able to write. You’ll be able to write on a lunch break or while you’re waiting in a line somewhere alone, or when you’re too comfortable on your couch to get up and go to the other room to sit at your desk. You’ll be able to access your work while you’re on a plane or while you have some down time when you’re visiting others during the holidays. And so on. You get the idea. Be ready to write whenever you might have time over the next few weeks by saving all your work in the cloud.
Is there anything else you would add to this list?
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