Now we come to harvesting, which is simply creating the words. The previous actions, if you do them consistently, make it much easier to write. You have probably noticed in your own life that it’s harder to write if you don’t have ideas, you’re not exploring curiosity through reading, and you’re too busy to write.

Harvesting as a concept couldn’t be any simpler. You simply go to the field, get the crop, and bring it to the barn for processing. In writing terms, it means you must sit down and produce the words.

If there is one universal truth in writing, it is this: the words won’t write themselves. This means you need to aside time each day to write. It’s that simple, and also that difficult.

A growing writer is an intentional writer. When you plant the seeds, water them with reading, prune unnecessary activities, and harvest your words, you have joined an illustrious club known as “writers who get things done.”

The price of admission to the club? Nurturing a growth mindset and doing what is needed to produce the crop.

Question: Are you “harvesting” your words on a daily or weekly basis?

The post Harvesting: Producing the Words appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Opportunities are wonderful! You can write for more outlets or reach more readers with your own writing. With this expanded influence and connection also comes the need the limit your activities to the few things that produce the most results.

It’s hard to run a YouTube channel, host a podcast, write books, maintain a blog or newsletter, speak at conferences, and do all the other things you see influencers doing… unless it’s your full-time job and you have a staff. You need to pick and choose what to focus on.

The best filter is to focus on those activities that you enjoy, and that you will do consistently. You can grow a platform and writing career in many different ways. But as you grow in your career, you will have more options, and you will need to prune the ones that don’t serve your vision and direction.

As they say, you can be whatever you want, but you can’t be everything. Focus on just a few activities that will get you the biggest results in your writing life.

Pruning is not easy. At times it can be downright painful. But after you have prepared the soil of your mind, and planted and watered the seeds, you must cut back all the dead weight so the growth process can continue.

Question: Are there some activities in your life you should prune so you can focus on the bigger priorities?

The post Pruning: Eliminate A Few Activities appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

We have a plethora of ways to gain knowledge today, including podcasts, ebooks, audiobooks, video courses, and so much more. But none of these learning sources compare to good old-fashioned books. When you engage with a great book, you enter into a sustained dialogue with the author. You take a journey you cannot get any other way.

So make reading books a habit. The mode doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you are reading them. Ebooks, print books, audiobooks—they all lead to the same result.

Reading will help you connect the dots, spur new ideas, fill in the gaps in your knowledge, and inspire you to keep writing. Aside from consistent writing, reading is the habit that will nourish and expand your seeds of ideas into a bountiful harvest later on.

Question: Are you making time to read each day?

The post Watering: Read Books for Nourishment appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

In the previous weekday episodes, we have talked about activities that will help you maintain a growth mindset as writer. We began with preparing the soil of your mind, which in practical terms means getting around other people who will encourage and motivate you. Then we moved to planting, which is keeping track of your ideas. After that, we discussed how to water those ideas through reading. We moved on to pruning, which is eliminating the dead weight from your schedule and life so you can focus your energy on growth-producing activities.

Now we come to harvesting, which is simply creating the words. The three previous actions, if you do them consistently, make it much easier to write. You have probably noticed in your own life that it’s much harder to write if you don’t have ideas, you’re not exploring curiosity through reading, and you’re too busy to write.

Harvesting as a concept couldn’t be any simpler. You simply go to the field, get the crop, and bring it to the barn for processing. In writing terms, it means you must sit down and produce the words.

If there is one universal truth in writing, it is this: the words won’t write themselves. This means you need to set aside time each day to write. It’s that simple, and also that difficult.

A growing writer is an intentional writer. When you plant the seeds, water them with reading, prune unnecessary activities, and harvest your words, you have joined an illustrious club known as “writers who get things done.”

The price of admission to the club? Nurturing a growth mindset and doing what is needed to produce the crop.

The post Harvesting: Producing the Words appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.