Can writing just 15-30 minutes a day really amount to anything? Even over the long haul?

Absolutely! And that’s why I’m running these two writing challenges in April.

It started when I read a book called The Slight Edge. It’s not a writing book per se. But the subtitle tells you the book’s premise: “turning simple disciplines into massive success.”

Universal Principle

The slight edge applies to everything in your life: your health, your career, your relationships, your leisure time…everything. And whether you like it or not.

As author Jeff Olson says,

“You can always count on the Slight Edge. And unless you make it work for you, the Slight Edge will work against you… Position your daily actions so time is working for instead of against you. Because time will either promote you or expose you.”

So what is the slight edge exactly? Olson explains that it’s the daily actions—small daily actions—that build up over time. Daily actions like flossing your teeth that results in no gum disease (promoting you) or no flossing resulting in your teeth falling out (exposing you). The same thing applies to any daily habit: walking to work, smiling at your spouse, saving instead of spending it all…

Or writing.

Small and Easy

The actions we take daily aren’t huge actions or hard actions. They’re actually quite small and pretty easy to do. (Unfortunately, they’re also easy not to do, at least until they become a habit.) It’s the “repeating them over long periods of time” that reap the results you want. As Olson points out,

“That’s the choice you face every day, every hour:

A simple, positive action, repeated over time.

A simple error in judgment, repeated over time.

This is not about making tough choices. It’s about making easy choices consistently.”

Book Overview

I can barely touch on the power of these principles here. The book is an easy read, has great reviews, and the principles are easy to understand and implement. There is a chapter for each of the seven  Slight Edge principles which are:

1. Show up.
2. Be consistent.
3. Have a good attitude.
4. Be committed for a long period of time.
5. Have faith and a burning desire.
6. Be willing to pay the price.
7. Practice slight edge integrity.

He also has chapters on how to recognize where the Slight Edge is working in your life, either for or against you. He shows you how you can harness these facets in the pursuit of your dreams:

1. momentum
2. completion
3. habit
4. reflection
5. celebration

Remember, the slight edge is always working—either for you or against you.

The writing challenges this month are about helping you to make the slight edge work for you in your writing. It’s a powerful concept!

Can you remember a time when making a slight change in any behavior over a long period of time helped you reap excellent results? If so, please share!

All of our actions have results, or consequences. That’s not news to anyone. And yet, do we act like we believe that?

Not all that often.

Good Intentions

Too many writers (myself included sometimes) believe that if we work our hardest and try our best and keep a good attitude, we’ll end up successfully published. Why? Because we have good intentions. But it’s “direction–not intention–that determines our destination,” says Andy Stanley in his book The Principle of the Path.

Here’s a simple illustration. You may intend to be a great archer. However, if you work hard, shoot arrow after arrow, and lift weights to have stronger biceps–but don’t pay attention to direction–shooting arrows is a waste of your time. Oh, you might luck out and hit your target once in a blue moon, but that’s about it.

Sadly, many writers approach their careers like this.

Lacking Direction

In every part of your life (health, relationships, writing career) you’re moving in some direction toward a specific destination. We don’t end up at that destination out of luck or sheer hard work or good intentions or because “it all worked out somehow.”

Destination is the end result of the choices you made yesterday, added to the ones you make today, added to the ones you will make tomorrow. Actually, it’s the end result of years of daily choices, compounded with interest.

There are paths we choose that lead us to destinations we never intended, and there are paths we’re on right now that are leading us away from–not toward–our dreams and goals. If we’re headed in the wrong direction, no matter how good our intentions or how hard we work, we won’t reach our goal.

Please NOTE: you may honestly think you’re moving in the right direction, when you’re not. Don’t assume that because you’re working hard, you’re headed in the right direction.

Personally Speaking

It’s the decisions you make on a daily basis that determine your path and your destination. For example, for many reasons I want to be super healthy the older I get. I want it more than most other things because it affects all areas of my life.

I know a lot about nutrition and exercise and weight loss and what my body needs to run its best. A healthy body is my intention and has been for years.

BUT the daily decisions I made last year to eat candy instead of the hated vegetables, to watch a movie instead of go walking, and skip the weights work-outs have NOT led me to optimum health. My path led in 2012 to higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure, much less stamina, and more headaches.

It only took small changes–but changes incorporated at least six days per week–to turn that around. BP is now normal, cholesterol checked this week is finally down to normal, headaches are gone, and stamina is increasing.

Writerly Direction Needed Too

With that principle in mind, I am now making myself accountable for some small DAILY changes in my reading, writing, and Internet schedule. I didn’t like my destination at the end of 2012, so a change of direction was in order.

I see writers doing the same things I was doing. They’ve got their goals written down, they’ve set deadlines for themselves, they intend to finish that novel and submit it, and ultimately they want to be published. They knock themselves out to create websites, network on Facebook and GoodReads and Twitter, write newsletters and blogs–but they never have time to actually do much writing. They spend so little time actually writing that they don’t improve. [I’m not pointing the finger at any of you. I only know this is true because it was my own problem.]

Despite my great intentions, my daily choices last year did not take me in the direction I truly wanted to go.

“I know it’s tempting to believe that our good intentions, aspirations and dreams somehow have the ability to do an end run around the decisions we make on a daily basis,” says Andy. “But at the end of the day, the principle of the path determines the outcome. Simply put, you and I will win or lose in life by the paths we choose.”

Take a look at your DAILY writing habits, those writerly activities you do day after day, week after week, year after year. What direction are you really headed?

Every day, it’s a choice. What path will you choose today? [And if you have trouble deciding which daily habits would move you in the right direction, scroll back up to the top-right, give me your email address, and I’ll send you my free e-book on Managing Your Writing Space and Your Writing Time.]

Writing habits can make or break your writing career.

With NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow, I’ve been getting organized and ready. But I know from past experience that all the organizing in the world won’t do any good without the writing habits to back it up.

Did you ever wish you could magically transfer some good habits from one area of your life and apply them to your writing? You probably can!

“But I don’t have self-discipline in anything!” you might say. You may feel that way, but it’s probably not true. Don’t believe me? Think about something you’re especially good at. (Can be anything: running races, keeping a clean house, raising children who like vegetables, keeping your weight stable through the holidays…anything.) Next, write down five or six habits you practice regularly that make you successful in this area.

Analyze Your Best Habits

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, I was a good student” or “I learned to play the piano,” but you’re not sure what habits made you successful. If that’s the case, pretend that someone approached you and said, “I’d love to be as self-disciplined as you are with your (fitness, music, housekeeping, whatever). Tell me how you do it!”

Then make a list of what you’d tell them to do. Which of those habits can you transfer over to your writing life and make them work for you?

The habits that help you lose weight or be fit or run a business might include:

• having a support system
• keeping a written record (of food eaten, miles run, income/expenses)
• setting small, sustainable goals
• rewarding yourself for meeting small goals
• journaling through successes and failures
• monitoring self-talk to counter-act negative thoughts and beliefs

Borrow Those Habits for Your Writing Habits

The next time you can’t seem to make yourself write or blog or do market research (or whatever is on your “to do” list for the writing day), think about areas where you are successful. Borrow those habits–they’re habits you already have under your belt in one area–and simply apply them to your writing.

Does having a support group help you lose weight? Then maybe a support/critique group would help you be accountable for your writing. Does keeping written records help you balance your budget? Then maybe keeping records of pages or words written and marketing progress would help your writing. Did setting small daily goals with a reward at the end help you get your closets and garage clean? Then would setting small daily goals with rewards help you get your book written?

Whichever habits work for you and your personality would probably transfer well into good writing habits. For me, I don’t need the accountability of a group. I’m a good self-starter and a hard worker. But I’m also that proverbial donkey with a carrot. I get going much quicker and work with more enthusiasm when I have a reward at the end of the task!

Writing Habits: Build on Your Past Successes

Good habits free up our time and attention so we can focus on more important things than overcoming procrastination. Chances are very good that you have had success in at least one or two other areas of your life. Take time to analyze those habits that work for your particular personality–and try applying them to your writing life.

I intend to make a list today and post it on my computer. I intend to use every trick I know to write through National Novel Writing Month!

I love routines! It streamlines the daily business of life and lets me get more done. I have some habits (like how I brush teeth or do dishes) that haven’t changed in years–maybe decades. They work efficiently.

Writers have habits too, and I think that’s a good thing. It streamlines daily chores like email, website updating, reading professional journals and blogs, and other writing-related chores.

BUT…routines can become ruts without anyone noticing.

Habits: A Slippery Slope

You may suspect your routines have become ruts if you are more bored than inspired when you sit down to write. When all your writing has the same tired voice, when you continually repeat subjects and themes–it may be a sign that your writing routines have become ruts.

So how do you break out of ruts? Try making changes in some of these areas:

• Writing area: choose another place to write, change the furniture around in your office, move your desk to the window, clean up the clutter, make a traveling writer’s bag for the airplane or car
• Time: even if you’re a morning person, try writing during the lunch hour or in ten-minute segments every hour on the hour; try a Saturday morning
• Length of session: experiment with writing daily for short periods, writing daily for longer periods, writing just on the weekend
• Tools of your trade: experiment with writing longhand, writing on a laptop, using online journals, Internet vs. library research
• Sound: if you’re used to writing in total silence, try background music you love or a white noise machine (mine makes raindrops and ocean wave sounds)
• People: if you always write alone, try writing with a group or joining a critique group (in person or online)
• Body position: try writing at your desk, standing up, lying in bed or a lounge chair, curled up in the porch swing

Mix It Up

If you’ve lost some enthusiasm for your writing, it may be nothing more than you’ve allowed your routines to become boring ruts. Try mixing it up a bit. Choose another time, place, and position to write. Change your environment with new sounds or new people. See what that does to your creativity.

What about you? What writing habits will you always keep–and where do you like to make changes? Let’s share ideas!