Why Today Is A Bad Day To Start That New Habit You're Excited About

Ev Chapman
August 7, 2021

Good intentions don’t work. Mechanisms do... Jeff Bezos

I was sitting in a workshop two weeks ago where I challenged my clients to a challenge to show up on social media for 100 days. It was a Friday, the challenge was set to start Monday. Some decided to start straight away. Admirable, but foolish. Their motivation died over the weekend and they had to start at 0 by Monday.

Intentions are admirable. They'll get you started. But systems will sustain you.

I've been creating & publishing on the internet daily for over 130 days. That doesn't happen by accident. If I didn't have a robust system of rituals, routines and processes I would have stopped doing this long ago.

When the motivation dies, the systems you build will hold you up.

Here are some of the things I do to keep the momentum going day after day:

  1. Get up and write every morning. The first hour of my day I reserve for writing. Not editing, just writing. I always have a few ideas on the go that I can work on.
  2. Edit in the afternoon with a glass of wine. At the end of the day around 5pm, I grab a glass of wine, pick an essay idea and start to edit it until I've got something to publish. I've found having a gap between writing and editing has helped me publish better work.
  3. Stay curious. When I'm running low on ideas I turn to consuming. Even a small input from a book or podcast or even a conversation with another creator always sparks new ideas for me to create from.

Don't try to be superhuman. Create your rituals, routines and systems to sustain your daily creator habits.

Liked thIS? Then You Might Like My SPARK Newsletter...

My best content in your inbox each Sunday.
Learn How To Build Your Unique Personal Knowledge & Share It With The World

Join 1200+ other creators building a magnificent obsession around their their unique ideas.
Or Keep Browsing More Posts Like This...

Stop Cruising Through Life On Auto-Pilot & Open Up To New Possibilities

Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.
Read post

Why You Probably Don't Need To Be More Consistent In 2023

Consistency. I bet it's on your list of 'want more of it' in 2023. After all, it's the holy grail of productivity & self-improvement. And yet most of us feel like we're failing at it most of the time. But what if locking yourself into a rigid view of consistency is actually hindering you rather than helping you?
Read post

3 Lessons Strength Training Taught Me About Consistency

Strength training has taught me more about consistency than any other thing I've done in life (including growing as a creator). The other day my trainer programmed inverted rows (under a low bar and pulling/rowing up). Every time I've attempted them before I have had to do them in batches. So when she said 15 reps I yelled an expletive in my head.
Read post

Want To Accelerate Your Results? Find Ways To Show Up Daily

When starting something new you should probably find a way to do it daily. For years I thought the way to become a creator was to write two blogs a week (or 2 podcasts or two vlogs). After all, that seemed like a reasonable amount of writing each week.
Read post

Three Ways To Finally Do The Thing You've Been Putting Off

I almost signed up for an 8 week summer book writing bootcamp this morning on Instagram. I don't need another Bootcamp or mastermind or course to actually write my book. I have an outline, I have half the content for it already! But I thought maybe this is what I need to get this thing finished.
Read post

You Don't Need Another Guru To Tell You How To Live Your Life

Reminder: You are under no obligation to play by anyone else's rules. Most of us don't remember a time before the noise of the internet (& Twitter) meant every time you scroll you see another influencer or person with a social media account telling you how you should be doing everything in your life.
Read post