How often do you write? If it’s not daily, you might need to reconsider this. I’m not necessarily talking about blogging, but more about writing in general. Maybe you think you don’t have enough time for it or maybe you think it’s not helpful and it’s just a waste of time, but is it really?
Based on my writing experience and on what others think about this topic, I’ve compiled a list of 7 reasons why you should write daily:
1. It (re-)teaches you to focus on only one area
Have you noticed how hard it is to focus these days? Everything and everyone seem to want something from us. Every company is fighting to get our attention and being bombarded with so many things from so many sources makes us develop a habit of being all over the place.
2. You are forced to shape your thoughts
This is somehow related to the first topic, but with a different effect. If you ever felt overwhelmed, you know how hard it is to take things one at a time. Your head seems to explode from all those ideas that seem to be equally important, so they equally seek for your attention. And because they all seek for attention, they create a mix from which is hard to extract independent ideas. Furthermore, since you have a mix of ideas, you’ll have a mix of emotions, which can bring you up or pull you down. Through writing you can take each idea one at a time.
3. It gives you a liberating experience
Through writing, you take the things you have inside and throw them out on a paper or in a word document. After that, you can do whatever you want with it. You can even burn it, as some psychologists recommend, thanks to the emotional transfer between you and that paper.
4. You can view your ideas from a third person’s perspective
Have you ever had the feeling of something being very powerful in your head, but it turned out very stupid when you tried to express it? This one of the effects of having the idea written. Seeing it outside your body allows you to think about “stuff” related to the idea, not about the idea itself. It allows you to zoom out a little and see the whole picture instead of focusing on a certain part of it. You know that tree-forest reference, I’m not going to mention it again.
5. It brings you self-awareness
Imagine being accompanied by someone 24/7. Wouldn’t you like to know everything you can about that person? Well, that person is YOU! You are with yourself 24/7, but I’m sure there are times when you surprise yourself reacting or thinking in a way you never thought it is possible for you. Through daily writing, you catch that idea or that behavior and, as I mentioned at no. 4, you can see it from a different perspective.
As a bonus reason, writing daily is fun as long as you stay true to yourself and it also allows you to get in touch more with your audience, if you are a blogger (which you probably are).
Ok, I’ve mentioned my reasons, but yours might be different. How important it is for you to write daily?