If you want to build a proper eating habit, you need to calculate the intake and outturn of calories on daily basis. Then you can see if and where you need to improve.
The same is with writing.
The first step to making a writing habit that sticks is measuring your progress. This will help you stay motivated and on track. One way to do it is by setting a goal for yourself. For example, write 500 words a day.
Another way to measure your progress is by keeping track of the time you spend writing. Aim to write for 30 minutes every day. Once you reach your goal, you will get a dopamine release from the satisfaction to tick off a task from your todo.
Also, you can start monitoring the number of articles and words you write on time-bases. Daily or weekly. If you manage to keep a good writing streak, your motivation will skyrocket, and establishing the habit will be just a matter of time.
No matter what method you choose to measure your progress, the important thing is to stick with it. Just keep trying and eventually, you will succeed.
Why measuring is important to improve? 🔗
When it comes to developing any sort of habit, whether it’s quitting smoking, working out more, or eating healthier, the key is consistency. When we are consistent, our brain starts to work within the new realm. If something is repeated many times consistently, that new thing becomes the default for our brain.
There is no more beneficial technique to keep consistent than measuring your progress.
It’s much easier to stay motivated when you can see how far you’ve come. When it comes to writing, measuring your progress can be vital to maintaining your writing habit.
This is a good way to gauge how much effort you’re putting into your writing habit. If you find that you’re only spending a few minutes a day writing, you’ll know that you need to put in more effort.
If you find that you’re only writing a few days a week, step in, make a competition with yourself and try to win it. Don’t give up measuring your progress. By keeping track you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come and how much you still have to go. You will have a reference between two time points that you can compare. “Uh did I write this 6 months ago?" —is the best growth metric. And that can be a great motivator to keep writing.
Which writing metrics matter? 🔗
Times you write
Goes without saying, the best metric to know if you are progressing or not is to know how many times you write. The time-frequency is not important if the consistency is met. You want to start writing more often? Lower your expectations. Start writing smaller bits, and at this phase ignore the quality or the number of words.
Word count
Once you feel more confident that you are on a good track, start measuring your word count on a timely basis. This can help you determine whether you are writing enough, and help you set goals for how much you want to write each day or week.
Word count is not important just because you want to write a lot of words. It can be also the opposite. At some point in your writing practice, you will want to write less. This is the part where you optimize and improve.
Attempts
Attempts count too. An attempt is 10% of the habit. You went there. You tried to write but for some reason, you discarded the work and closed the editor. All good. Just make sure to have an overview of these attempts so that you get clues about what makes you give up. Is it writer’s block? Or you don’t feel like writing? We all get there eventually. Finding ways to cope with this, will establish a practice of resolving this problem when it appears the next time.
Word count over time
Talking in short periods, you can start measuring how long it takes you to write a specific number of words. Not 400 words a week. More like, how much time you really needed to write them. 30minutes? Get a feeling of this then optimize. If you are happy with the outcome in the given time, all good. Otherwise, aim to improve.
Feedback Collection
Often we neglect this but feedback is important when we measure what we write. Ask a close group of friends or family what they think about your article. See if this feedback improves over time.
Best, publish your articles to the publicity and let the audience speak.
Conclusion 🔗
If you can’t measure it, you won’t treasure it. Remember, just like with anything, measuring your writing activity is important to understand how you are doing.
You can use calculators, timers, clocks, or apps. Regardless of what you use, have some numbers at the end.
Writings offers these metrics as part of the Analytics feature. Something’s missing? Always happy to help with adding more!