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Writing Habit #3: Build Anchor Rituals · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: For the last few days, we've been talking about the importance of writing habits.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So far, we've mentioned having a goal as well as setting up a dedicated writing space where you can write.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're diving into habit number three, which is build anchor rituals to develop your writing routine.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, anchor rituals are exactly what they sound like.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: These are anchors to help signal to your heart, your mind, and your body that it's time to write.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Anchor rituals can be simple acts that help you stay grounded and locked into production mode.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your rituals might be really different than other friends' rituals who are also writers, and that is totally okay.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to copy anybody else.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm all for learning from other people, but we don't need to copy them verbatim because you're unique.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're an individual.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You have your own things that are going to be great rituals for you that may not work for somebody else, and vice versa.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to just choose a couple of meaningful anchors that work for you.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: It might be rituals like making coffee, playing specific music, or other things that signal to your brain that it's time to sit down and get busy.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite authors, Stephen King, said this.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have a glass of water or a cup of tea.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a certain time I sit down from 8 to 830, somewhere within that half hour every morning.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have my vitamin pill and my music sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, You're going to be dreaming soon.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not any different than a bedtime routine.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you go to bed a different way every night?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I love that advice from Stephen King.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because when you think about his books, you know that he's like the master of horror and has been for a long time.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's so funny because you think of what kind of guy would be writing all this crazy horror stuff and and you know, you think of somebody who would have all these grotesque and crazy ideas, but he has just kind of a normal writing routine, just kind of like you know a plumber who goes to work.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: He just sits down at his desk and he does his ordinary work.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But guys and ladies, this is this is just what it's all about.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: We are blue-collar workers.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have rituals that we stick to, we have writing habits and routines.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We just show up and do the work.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And having an anchor ritual can really, really help you with that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, currently I have two or three main anchor rituals that I use.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I do these things as I write, these kind of signal to my brain that, hey, it's time to get into work mode.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: One thing is that most of the time I light a candle.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know that seems really elementary, but for me that's just an important thing.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I light a candle.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I also usually have some kind of a drink, sometimes it's tea, sometimes it's coffee.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a big coffee person, but sometimes it is coffee.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes it's an energy drink.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna confess that.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get off of those, but I do have I just I do still have those occasionally, or maybe a diet soda, or I always have a bottle of water nearby.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then almost always I use some kind of music playlist on Spotify.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't listen to any music with with lyrics or with vocals.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I will listen to either movie scores or this really popular playlist on Spotify that's called Lo Fi Beats.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's L O F I Lo Fi Beats.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: But then also recently, over the past few weeks, I've really been listening a lot to um I can't think of the artists' names, but it's basically 80s synth music.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you remember the show Stranger Things on Netflix, it's like that real 80s synth kind of music.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I love that stuff because I'm a child of the 80s.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of artists on Spotify who just do music in that genre that's just instrumental.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like all the synth kind of stuff.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's wonderful because it kind of just puts me in a writing mode.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's not too crazy fast-paced, it's not like super mellow depressing, it's just in that really sweet spot for me.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when I hear that 80s music, I just kind of get into work mode for whatever reason.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I want to emphasize do what works for you.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to experiment, but don't overcomplicate it.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Don't overthink this.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you overthink these rituals, that like kills the magic of it.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do something that's simple and that you enjoy and just experiment with it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when you have developed one or two meaningful anchor rituals, it really helps signal to your heart and your mind that, hey, it's time to sit down and write.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the whole writing process gets easier when you do that.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't already have an anchor ritual, decide on one or two and use those consistently over the next week when you write, and then you can reevaluate and see how they work.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is an excerpt from our free ebook, How to Build a Writing Habit.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's mostly an excerpt.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, about half of it is, to be honest with you.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of it I just kind of uh did off the cuff, but most of this is from that free ebook.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can get this for free along with six other ebooks on writing as part of our free daily rider starter kit.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can get that by going to daily riderlife.comslash free.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's dailyriderlife.comslash free.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: As always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.