My writing spot happens to be right next to a window, though most mornings I have the blinds closed since it’s so dark out. I curated a corner in one of our extra bedrooms, that’s been converted to my day job’s office, partial yarn storage and fabric storage, few extra pieces of furniture for temporary storage, and scrapbook supplies among other items. The desk is simple and functional, and was built by my dad. So I culled my basement of inherited furniture and discovered my older brother’s desk he had when we were growing up. I know everyone may not have this luxury, but I wanted to try something different. I wanted something 100% devoted to my writing to help develop the ritual. Something that was other than just sitting on the couch, or sitting at my day job desk. So I staged my mornings to get up before work and write. I don’t always feel like getting out of bed in the mornings, but I know I’ll always be grateful that I did because I end up having such a good day.

30 minutes writing – this was also added wen I moved from the 6:30 to the 5am wakeup callĮvery time I execute a good morning like this I feel so much better.

10 minutes goal review – this was added when I moved from the 6:30 to the 5am wakeup call.10 minutes reading (this is nonfiction, self improvement, productivity, etc no fiction).15 minutes journaling (not counted as part of my writing challenge this simply clears my head),.My morning routine now consists of 1 hour and 20 minutes broken down as: I bring up my morning routine because it is what made the 30 day writing challenge possible. I had developed a commitment and discipline figuring I could do this for 30 days. Both times, I brought along my iPad and wrote in the car on the drive down (it was a 2-hour drive), and then wrote in the car on the drive back home the next day. There were even a few days during this 30-day window that presented a potential obstacle: we did an overnight backpacking trip. So I committed wholeheartedly to getting up early and doing my thing. I had read that writing in the early morning hours before the disruptions of the day began could be powerful, and creative.

While the 30-minutes of writing was the actual 30-day challenge, I incorporated it into my morning routine, which ended up becoming a bonus habit. Eventually 6:30 turned into 5am, but I’m jumping ahead. Instead of getting up between 7:30-8am each morning to start my day job, I decided to get up around 6:30am and do my stuff….before the day job. So when I thought about implementing my morning routine and adding to it, it was quite a commitment from this not-an-early-riser gal. I’d do it for a while, fall off the wagon, get back on, fall off again for months, you get the picture. While I’ve had pockets of my life when I’ve gotten up a little earlier to do some morning rituals, I can’t say I ever had it as a consistent life habit. With my day job taking precedent on most days, I began toying with the idea of doing my stuff first, before I ever started my day job workday.īut this would also mean getting up early, something I’ve done and have been forced to do for work, but not something I choose to do otherwise. How I started my 30 day writing challenge And 30 days later I’ve successfully attained that goal, and am thinking about how I can incorporate more of it into my life. The point was to establish a daily habit of writing, no matter what was going on. If I had stuff going on for a particular day I wasn’t allowed to batch up posts ahead of time or catch them up after the fact. My goal was to write for 30 minutes every single day. In the middle of October I challenged myself to a 30 day writing challenge. But you could pick any creative or craft challenge.

30 day writing challenge 2020