My Year of Not Breaking the Chain

I’ve been tracking my writing days for well over five years now and this past year has been by far my most productive 12 months of writing ever. There are many reasons that this can be attributed to- working from home, a variety of new writing projects, disciple growth. But I’d say the biggest reason is that I made a personal challenge to write every day, no matter what.

And I almost got there.

I’ve always been inspired by the idea of ‘don’t break the chain’, when I first read about in an article about Jerry Seinfeld. He attributes his success to the simple idea of writing. Every. Single. Day. No matter what. He writes, then marks off on a calendar with a red X. Your goal is to string along as many Xs in a row as you can. The idea being that once you see the long line of Xs, you’ll be motivated to keep it going and hence, don’t break the chain of Xs.

It makes sense and seems so obvious and simple. And it is obvious, just not that simple. Human nature has a funny way of throwing countless obstacles from doing the obvious, even if you want the obvious. It takes discipline, planning, most importantly, an understanding yourself and what can deter you from your goal.

As I’ve said, I’ve been tracking my writing habits for years now, first with a paper calendar, then more recently with an app. (The aptly titled app DBTC!) Each year I get a little better, having longer and longer streaks. But I could never sustain really long stretches more than three weeks at a time.

I wanted 2020 to be different (but to be clear, not this different), so I made both conscious decisions along with natural opportunities to help meet this goal. I first just made the choice to write every day, no matter what. But instead of hoping I would, I made small changes and action items in my daily routine.

The first part to help establish this discipline was to list writing as one of my daily big three tasks every day, usually specifying what type of writing I would focus on. (*Side Note: list three main tasks to complete that day is a great help in focusing on any pressing need or project. Making that decision each morning before the day begins, seeing it written down, and referring back to it is one of the best habits I’ve ever adopted.*)

The next part to making writing a daily habit was opening up to different forms of writing past just screenwriting— personal essays, blog essays, letters, journal entries, poems, and many other types. This, as I’ve written about before, was a great way to balance myself and stay energized with writing. It helped keep it fresh and engaging, rather than a chore.

And as a tangent on writing in different forms, also mix up the tools you write with. If you use a computer a lot, try a multiple apps for different types of writing. If you’re always looking at a screen, use a pen and paper. Experiment with various types of paper, different size notebooks, a variety of styles of pens, mixing it up for different projects. You will find that each will fit specific moments, environments, moods, and needs.

But the biggest obstacle with any habit is time. So I trained myself to be more aware of my ‘open’ time. We all have it. Those 15 – 20 minutes that normally would be wasted scrolling a feed or watching a mindless video. I would squeeze in writing where ever I could. I would find 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there. It didn’t have to be a long slog of two hours straight. It almost never was, as I work and have a family, and may only get ten to fifteen minutes of writing a day, but I was still writing, still keeping my composing muscle flexing (and the added benefit of being more mindful and present). So carving out the time is as important as anything, and it’s there if you are aware enough to look.

Added up, this is the most I’ve ever written in a single year. I’ve been churning through notebooks, lining up pages upon pages of unfinished scribblings, continually progressing writings, and wholly completed works. It has been very satisfying. While I’ve also taken on other new projects and have been busier than ever, I still make writing the daily priority and feel better for it. I feel bad on the days that I didn’t.

So yeah, I didn’t actually make it the whole year writing. I did miss a day. Two actually. I made it 170 days before the first broken chain. It was beyond frustrating at the moment I realized the next morning. I was helpless to fix it. I broke the chain. It was done. But then I realized it was done, so I went right back to writing and I went another 150 days until my next broken chain. Those blemishes are there, but they’re the only ones. I got right back to writing the very next day, mark off each day with an X.

I’m currently in the next chain right now, and this one will break at some point. They all do. Life happens. But then I push for the next one to be longer. I now have a number to beat. It’s motivating.

I’ve been able to chip away at different writing projects, be it producing these essays on a weekly cadence, breaking through on a tough scene in a story, or getting my thoughts down of many of the difficult events we’ve been through this past year. It’s all writing, it’s all teaching me something different about the craft, it’s all making me a better writer, that like most things you only become good at by doing.

There is nothing that I’ve laid out here that is an instant recipe for success in creating this habit. It’s a decision, finding little ways to remind yourself daily to stay on track, and getting to a point where the reminder isn’t needed because its a habit (but you keep the reminder, just incase it’s a long day).

I hope that you decide to don’t break the chain to see how far you can go and where you’re writing takes you.