Writing rituals are something I come across whenever I look into advice for how to be a productive and consistent writer. I never paid them much mind. The basic concept made sense, but they didn’t seem like something I wanted to bother with. Routines and rituals are not what make me tick.
Then I began reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book explained the why behind rituals (specifically what he calls motivation rituals) and I realized they were more powerful than I had thought.
What is a motivation ritual?
Forming and keeping good habits can be hard. Motivation by itself is not enough to overcome our brain’s natural resistance to creating new habits. People who study habits have come up with various tricks to make it easier for us to succeed. When it comes to motivation rituals, the main concept at work is this:
You can make difficult habits more attractive by training your brain to associate them with a positive experience. A motivation ritual is a way to associate the habit you want to grow (such as clearing your brain to focus on writing) with something you enjoy (a cup of coffee in your special writer’s mug, perhaps). Over time, the ritual becomes your brain’s cue that will help you begin the habit.
In the book, the author describes how during his years as a baseball player, he developed a pregame stretching and warm-up ritual. He intentionally went through the sequence the same way every time. It prepared him physically, but at the same time it prepared him mentally. He goes on to say:
I began to associate my pregame ritual with feeling competitive and focused. Even if I wasn’t motivated beforehand, by the time I was done with my ritual, I was in “game mode.” James Clear in Atomic Habits
Aha! So that’s what a writing ritual is all about. When done correctly, it can help us clear our heads and get into “writer mode.”
How to design a writing ritual
I am not suggesting that you can invent a ritual and it will magically boost your writing focus. I am suggesting a well-designed ritual can help you form and keep a good writing habit. Here are some key points to keep in mind if you want to create a helpful writing ritual.
- The ritual must associate something you enjoy (like a creative writing prompt) or a series of easy steps (like the baseball warm-up) with the habit of focused writing.
- The ritual is not likely to work if that action is already associated in your brain with bad habits. (i.e. creative writing prompts = daydream for the next hour)
- If your current writing space is full of cues that distract you, you may need to change up your environment in order to create a new ritual that will point you to new habits. This could mean choosing a new place in your home or office to do focused writing. Or it could mean creating a ritual where you put certain distracting items away to clear your physical and mental space for focused writing. (Sort of like Mr. Rogers changing his shoes.)
- The ritual needs to be repeated consistently, and the specific cues in the ritual should be only for that particular habit. The idea is to train your brain to think something like: “when I put on those brown headphones, it’s time to concentrate.” Or “When I put on my favorite writing sweatshirt and sit in my desk chair, I am Lisa-the-writer, not Lisa-the housekeeper or Lisa-the-cat’s-servant or anything else.”
- Try to adopt a attitude-based mindset instead of a goal-based mindset. The ritual is not about meeting your daily word count. The ritual is about becoming the sort of person who can sit down and focus on writing on both the good days and the bad days.
Ready to give a writing ritual a try?
I am continuing to ponder how I can tap into the power of a writing ritual. How about you? Do you have a writing ritual that helps you get in the zone?
Lisa E. Betz believes that everyone has a story to tell the world. She loves to encourage fellow writers to be intentional about their craft and courageous in sharing their words with others. Lisa shares her words through dramas, Bible studies, historical mysteries, and her blog about intentional living. You can find her on Facebook LisaEBetzWriter and Twitter @LisaEBetz