How Can I Track and Reinforce my Creative Habits?

Tracking Word Count

Recently, I have been writing more frequently. I have been finding a lot of joy in tracking my word count as a measure of what I have written. There are a lot of versions of habit trackers out there. I drew one myself by sketching a picture of a tree and chopping it into boxes. I counted by 100 words for each box and I color in how much I have written. My goal was to write 10% more than what I wrote in 2020 and I blew that goal out of the water. There are probably prettier ways or more exact ways to track word count, but my version worked for me.

Here’s an image of my current word count tracker. I just drew a picture of a coffee mug and chopped it into boxes, each marking 100 words.

Tracking Time on Task

One issue that was causing me trouble was how to keep track of time on task that wasn’t writing something that went into word count. I was doing a lot of character development work and plotting for a long fiction piece I was working on. How could I reinforce that well-spent time on task if I wasn’t coloring in boxes? I decided to create a time-on-task log to write down what I worked on each day and how I felt about it. I already do something similar in my fitness notebook for each workout. It’s very reinforcing for fitness, so I was hoping that jotting down what I worked on and plans for next steps would be helpful in writing too.

Delayed Reward for a Habit Streak

So far, I am enjoying working on my writing daily and the time-on-task log and the word count trackers are helping to keep me motivated. I think when I log my thirtieth entry in my log of writing projects, I will reward myself by purchasing a book on writing craft. I have been dying to buy more books about writing, but I hesitate to overload myself. Sometimes, I end up spending more time reading about writing rather than actually writing. Maybe if I “earn” a book about writing, I won’t end up with a pile of unread writing books and no writing completed. I have used a similar policy for fitness or art supplies. I don’t buy too much upfront but allow myself a treat for working hard overtime.