The Real Reasons Why I Write Daily

I don’t have a huge audience and I don’t get many views—but that’s ok. I don’t do extensive research or have some impressively qualifying Ph.D.—but that’s ok. I don’t explore just one or two topics, I explore many—but that’s ok. I don’t excel at conjunctions, prepositions, compound sentences, or even grammar as a whole—but that’s ok. There are a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t write daily, but here are the four reasons I do.

Maybe, just maybe, they will inspire you to do the same.

1 | To Practice Publicly

The best way to get better is to practice publicly. Recently, I’ve learned that, for me, a healthy dose of extrinsic motivation (i.e. originating from external sources) helps to overcome a lack of personal willpower. This is especially potent for certain goals in my life—daily writing being one of them. “Why don’t you just write in a private journal?” my mother asks. Love you, mom, but it just doesn’t work. Writing daily—and more importantly—publicly, is like that first splash of cold water on your face in the morning. It gets me going. It starts the engine.

Now, there is a difference between external validation and extrinsic motivation. The former connotes a desire to be valued by others because of the work you’ve done. The latter simply means that the presence of onlookers motivates the completion of a task.

I write daily, in part, because I want to become a better writer. Have I defined what “better” means for me yet? No. But I don’t doubt that over time I’ll begin to gain clarity of its definition.

2 | To Provide An Inlet for Inspiration and an Outlet for Expression

My girlfriend Isabella will laugh when she sees this, only if because I repeat it quite regularly, but I am a very curious person. “Insatiably curious”, I believe, is the phrase I use in my little profile descriptions across my digital personas that scatter the web. I normally add this little sprout, too. 🌱

Writing daily not only provides me with an inlet for inspiration, but also with an outlet for expression. I keep a running list in my phone of the little curiosities I come across in my daily life. They’re half-baked whims that one day maybe will see the light of day. “On interacting with strangers,” “the paradox of the long-term,” “classroom time vs. alarm time” are a few examples and the list goes on. My daily writing is an avenue for me to explore those ideas. I’m not too strict with myself, that’s not the point. If only for the sole reason of having a place to explore inspiration and expression, daily writing would be worth it.

3 | To Have Space For Slow Thought

I write in the mornings. I wake up around 6:30 am, put a pot of coffee on, slip into my comfiest mocassins and my cozy clothes, and sit in my little leather writing chair at the edge of my “living room.” It’s in quotes because I live in a studio so really this all happens in one room, but hey, that’s New York living.

Then I open up my computer, click over to Medium.com, press the “New Story” button and then I stop—for a while. Could be as long as 45 minutes of staring at the blink… blink… blink… of the cursor.

This part of my morning is what I like to call “blink time” (real original, right?) and it’s one of my favorite parts of the entire day. It allows me, on a daily basis, to have time for slow thoughts. It’s similar to meditation in that I’ll wait for a thought to come into my mind, I’ll let it roam around for a bit, maybe banging into a wall here or stubbing its toe there. Then it’ll either stay, ready to be transported out of my fingers and into the keyboard or it’ll dissolve away, quickly replaced by its next colleague.

Daily writing allows for slow thought—with key emphasis on “slow.” The rest of our lives are whirlwind to-do’s and don’ts. This sliver of morning helps prepare me for a much faster day ahead.

4 | To Build Better Habits

Finally, writing daily not only helps me habitualize a creative task that I’m hoping to improve upon, but also it acts as a catalyst to a number of other important daily habits I’ve been eager to build for many years:

Waking up earlierEating a big breakfastStarting the day off slowlyMeditatingReading the newsAll of these smaller habits have followed suit because of my insistence to write daily. Now, by the time I walk into the office around 9:15 am, I’ve already begun the day on my own terms.

Daily writing is a personal undertaking and trust me, it’s not easy, but what it brings into your life is worth any temporary trepidations you might have.

See you on Monday!