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Writing Habits Practice #3: Build Anchor Rituals to Develop Your Routine · 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 DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about the importance of writing habits this week, and on the last couple of daily episodes, we've mentioned having a goal as well as setting up a dedicated writing space for your writing.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to dive into practice number three, which is building anchor rituals to develop your routine.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I talk about anchor rituals, those are just what they sound like.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Those are anchors to help signal to your heart, your mind, and your body that it's time to write.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Anchor rituals can be very simple acts that help you to stay grounded and locked into production mode.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And your rituals might be very different than other friends that you have who are also writers, and that is totally okay.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to copy anybody else or feel like your rituals or your practices are inferior because they're not necessarily inferior or superior, they're just unique to you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So just choose a couple of meaningful anchors that work for you.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It might be rituals such as making coffee, playing specific music, or other things that are a signal to your brain that it's time to get to work and write.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Stephen King, the master of horror, and I'm sure you've read some of his books, as I have, many of his books, he is obviously somebody who has gotten this down pat for decades, and he said this about rituals.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that I do if I sit down to write.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have a glass of water or a cup of tea.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: There's a certain time I sit down from 8 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning.
• 1:49
  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.
• 1:56
  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.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not any different than a bedtime routine.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Do you go to bed a different way every night?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those are great thoughts from obviously one of the greatest writers of all time.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, currently, I have two main anchor rituals myself.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have a music playlist and I have usually two drinks, which is typically a diet soda with ice or tea with ice or something like that, something with ice, and also a big container of water to help keep me hydrated.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: With the music playlist, I tend to alternate between a movie scores playlist and also another playlist on Spotify called Lo Fi Beats that my son introduced me to.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I purposefully use these because none of these playlists have music.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're just kind of like background music for me.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't have words because I find words distracting while I'm trying to write.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just said because they don't have music, they don't have words.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it has music because it's music playlists.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I want to emphasize do what works for you.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Experiment, but don't overcomplicate it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: When you have one or two meaningful anchor rituals, it'll help signal to your heart and your mind that it's time to write.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the whole process for you is going to be a lot more fun and a lot easier.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question What are some anchor rituals that you already use or would like to use?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is an excerpt from our brand new ebook, How to Build a Writing Habit.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can get this for free along with six other ebooks on writing as part of our free Daily Writer Starter Kit.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just go to dailywriterlife.comslash free.