Committed to 90 Days of Writing. Here is How it’s Going
What is a Habit?
You can find many definitions for the meaning of the word habit, but I’ll share my definition. A habit is the collection of behaviors and actions that we teach our mind and body to do consistently until it becomes a norm in our daily routine.
We all want productive habits, habits that raise us as we fall into the dark side. It is like a savior that holds us accountable every time we wander around while working on an important task. Having habits are important for many of us. Wise people do have habits and daily routines that they follow. They might not use productivity apps, checklists, or calendars, for that matter. But they definitely are using something to track their progress.
Why is Comfort Not the Answer?
The Comfort zone is what you can do with the least effort. This is not the real definition for it, but this is how I look at it. It is boring to be in that zone, and I want to do something that excites me. People tend to do the easiest work using the easiest path, spending the least money. The outcome? Not much. I wanted to do an experiment and get out of my comfort zone. I felt that I could do many things. What is the single most productive skill that, if done correctly, I can achieve my goals while enjoying every second of it? — I asked myself.
I wrote down all the possible things that I believe I can do and would have no problem adjusting/learning along the way. The list was huge, and that made it more complicated. I thought to myself, why am I listing all these? And it did not take time to answer the question. The missing piece here is “Which of these I’m willing to do for the rest of my life while not getting paid — or having any financial return — and still enjoy it?”. The list shrunk down at least %95. And there I saw it, writing.
Writing might be hard to some, but I find it enjoyable. I know that I’m not yet at the level to publish a book, but going there won’t be as hard as I think. Although it is not my native language — or mother tongue - I enjoy writing in English — I find myself good at it since I read English books more than Arabic — my mother tongue. Arabic is my native language, and I write in Arabic now and then, but I don’t do that here in Medium — since most of the audience are English readers, plus Medium doesn’t support Arabic just yet.
How it All Started?
I used to make a daily journal since my trip to Paris last year. It all started when I went into a small book store and saw a small leather notebook with a pen holder. It looked cool, and I bought it, not realizing that it is the one thing that I used to write all my thoughts, feelings, ideas, events, ..etc. This was the trigger to push me to write. I keep a journal for personal writing and decided to create content and help people develop their habits to achieve the ultimate productivity while enjoying what they do. The area that I’m writing about is not very niche yet. I write on productivity in business and education. The reason for these two fields is that I’m a soon to graduate MBA student and have a startup, so I want to share my experience in the business side. Also, education is the most important discipline and needs to be to the highest expectations. Writing about education is not easy, but I found myself engaged in education productivity.
How is it Going?
So far, so good.
I published 7 articles already, all self-published just yet. My goal is to move to that phase for 90 days. Why 90 days? Read my first article, “I’m writing for 90 minutes in the next 90 days.”
Habits take around 2 months to become a norm, and I just wanted to apply the 909010 rule from the book ”The 5 AM Club” by Robin Sharma. Taking 90 days would teach me a lot, and I’m willing to take that path.
Speaking of habits, according to the #1 New York Times bestseller and author of Atomic Habits, James Clear — in his article: ”How Long Does it Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science)”:
On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact
I always time my writing sessions and do it in two parts. The first is drafting, where I write and don’t focus on editing a lot. The second is editing, where I fix/edit the typos/mistakes and add/remove some lines here and there.
That’s all for this post; I hope you enjoyed it.
If you did, it would be great to share it with your friends and family. If you want me to write about a certain topic/method in productivity, I would be more than happy to.
Have a nice day,
— Ahmad
