Regular Writing Isn’t Enough — You Need to KNOW You’re Making Progress

It isn’t enough to make progress on your writing; you need to KNOW you’re making progress.

Dan Pink’s ultra-short Pinkcast video on Progress Rituals reveals how seeing your progress increases your ability to make more progress.

The Nudge You Need…

Easy inspiration is just a text away when you enlist a text-accountability buddy.

My friend Mike and I became exercise accountability buddies after we both had knee surgery. Every time we did exercises and other things essential to our recovery, we sent a text. Since we both had multiple sessions a day, we had multiple times to acknowledge our progress, e.g. “Completed morning exercises and I’m icing now.”

Mike and I often included encouragement emojis ( ) and phrases (Way to go, Good job). Multiple quick texts throughout the day reminded us to just take the first step. The hardest exercise was always getting my butt off the couch and onto the floor.

Best of all, Mike and I had occasional exchanges like this:

You and a writing accountability buddy can rally, applaud, and inspire writing progress with surprising simple, yet tremendously powerful texts. More about the power of enlisting a writing buddy.

If you want face-to-face support from new writing allies, I come out of semi-retirement from time to time to teach at the Loft Literary Center. (Sign up for the Loft’s newsletter to get advance notice on upcoming classes from a wealth of talented and dedicated Teaching Artists.)

More about how tracking will keep your writing moving.