66-Day Present

I've often wished that my writing habit were as strong and consistent as my Facebook habit. That would be wonderful. Best self-gift ever. Recently, I stumbled across this study showing that simple new habits are formed, on average, in 66 days.

Now, writing every day is not as simple as drinking a glass of water after breakfast, but since Christmas is only 66 days away, it's just too perfect not to try to give myself that gift.

So, the goal by Christmas day is to have a default writing habit. That is, when I sit down to nurse or rest or wait for dinner to simmer for ten minutes, I write instead of checking Facebook. The method is to complete this activity five times a day, leaving my computer open to my novel instead of to an Internet browser. This doesn't mean that I can't check Facebook. It just means that I need to reinforce my writing habit first.

I'll be interest to see if this works. It would be super cool if it did.