My birthday month is over! It’s such a drag and, quite frankly, I have been denying it for about the last week. (This is my piss poor excuse for missing last Tuesday’s post date. For those of you anxiously waiting by your inbox or social feeds, I apologize.)

We’re kicking off this June with a post evaluating my inadequacies my habit-building efforts to write every day for 30 days. Spoiler alert: The results are underwhelming.

The statistics

Days in May: 31
Days I wrote: 2
Total words: 1,513

What happened?

My only explanation is that my focus and creative juices were focused elsewhere and my not-yet habit of writing every day suffered as a result. One of my extra-cirricular activities is to creative beauitful snuggly things for people. (If you’d care to know more about this, check out my Facebook page, That’s Sew Shannon.) And so, while I only wrote for a measily two days out of 31, I also completed and delivered four t-shirt blankets to their respective owners.

How will I do better next time?

1. Knowing my limitations. My sewing side hustle is on somewhat of a hiatus for the summer time. Other than the reason mentioned above, I also would rather be spending my time outside (likely lazing by a body of water) than at a sewing machine. So, I will take on less projects now through Labor Day.

2. Refining my schedule. I’m going to work harder to get my butt into bed at a good hour. I have also worked on a multi-stage wake up system. This starts with, now that I’m used to waking up with light, embracing waking up when the sunshine hits my window! It’s a mental barrier I definitely need to work through, because my first and only thought at that time is “I don’t have to get up for another hour.” But, I think that hour will surprise me with wonderful things if I let it! In the case that I do not, I have also:

• Set a push notification for breethe, a meditation app, that will, in an angelic voice tell me “Good morning…” and remind me that, I should at least wake up and get a quick meditation in.
• An alarm with one of my favorite, upbeat songs right now: “Ain’t No Man” by the Avett Brothers, so that even if I’m not awake at this stage, chances are good I will dance right out of bed to get my day started on a good note.

How do you make writing a habit?

Let me know your tips and tricks in the comments!

Illustration by canva.