Tiny Habits

I like to do the math of writing for writers.

I will often conduct a 10-minute writing sprint, giving people a prompt and asking them to write with abandon to the prompt—to write quickly, without too much thought—and then ask people how many words they wrote in just 10 minutes.

People tend to write at least 200 words, and sometimes people write 300 or 400 words. Then I multiply 200 by 30 (as in the days of the month), which is 6,000. Then I multiply 6,000 by 12 (as in the months of the year), which is 72,000.

72,000 words happens to be the number of words that is the conventional length of a novel.

This means that … you can write a draft of a novel in a year by only writing for 10-15 minutes a day.

Not bad, huh? Creating something big is just a matter of taking a lot of small steps.

That 15 minutes a day is called a “micro habit.” Some people might not consider such a small amount of writing an impressive accomplishment, but B.J. Fogg, the founder of the Behavioral Design Lab at Stanford University and the author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, says that we need to tally up our tiny victories because they can be motivating.

“The best way to change long-term behavior is with tiny steps,” says Fogg.

Larger accomplishments tend to be more motivational, but larger accomplishments are also rarer, so to be successful—and happy—we need to toast the tinier achievements that happen more regularly.

The New York Times’ Wellness newsletter recently covered this. Sometimes people will put a marble in a jar for each achievement, and then gain motivation by watching the jar fill up. It’s a tangible way to see your daily incremental progress.

Fogg keeps his advice simple—and actionable. He says:

“To change behavior, make it easy to do and hard to avoid.”

“Make the behavior so tiny that you don’t need much motivation.”

That’s what my 10-15 minute writing challenge does: it’s not hard to write for 15 minutes, but it is hard for some to write for an hour or two, and it is hard for everyone to write a mammoth novel—which can shut a person down creatively because of its daunting immensity.

You don’t want to make your writing life too hard to do and too easy to avoid.

It’s best to make your habit your motivation. And vice versa.

Accountability Write-ins!

These principles of accountability are behind a series of “accountability write-ins” I’m hosting—weekly gatherings to help people set goals, join a community of support, and … write—just write! (That’s the name of the class: “Write! Just Write!”).

Our sessions occur on Zoom, so you can join in no matter where you are.

Here’s how it works:

• I’ll start each session with a 5-minute talk on writing—some thoughts on developing a creative mindset, overcoming creative obstacles, or writing craft topics.

• I’ll provide an optional writing prompt, and …

• We’ll write!

• At the end we’ll do a check-in on our goals, both short-term and long-term.

• I’ll answer a writing-related question at the end of each session.

Because a quote

“When you are designing a new habit, you are really designing for consistency. And for that result, you’ll find that simplicity is the key. Or as I like to teach my students: Simplicity changes behavior.”

—B.J. Fogg

Because friends in stories

One of my favorite novel series of all time is Elana Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, but when I think of friendship novels, they tend to be by and about women, not men, which I find interesting.

And then the friendship novels about men come with quotation marks around friendship because they’re often more about an activity or quest.

It was a joy to talk with Tomas Moniz on Write-minded, who’s written a new book about male friendship, All Friends Are Necessary, and whose entry into the writing world was shaped by his community of writer friends.

End Notes

What I’m reading: The Art of Memoir, by the master Mary Karr. I am about to dip my toe back into a memoir I’ve been dipping my toe into for a long time, and … I have a new memoir-writing venture that is getting liftoff and which I hope to share … soon!

What I’m listening to: Birds! I downloaded the Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab app, and I sit outside every morning, listen to the birds wake with the morning, and identify their songs with my app.

What I’m watching: I’m a latecomer to this, but I’ve been taken with Lessons in Chemistry, which … includes one of the most narratively interesting—and startling— openings (watch through episode two, at minimum … and then you’ll have to watch episode three).