We’re talking about the location of your office. As they say in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location.

Let’s think about this from two angles. The first angle is for those of you considering getting an outside office.

Obviously, the neighborhood of the office is a factor. But mostly, I want you to think about the distance from your home. How far are you willing to commute to an office?

For years, I drove 25 minutes each way to the college where I taught. That was a perfect distance because I could listen to almost an hour of podcasts every day or dictate a bunch of writing.

Your mileage may vary. Before renting an office, you need to decide how far you’re willing to drive. Knowing this ahead of time helps narrow down your options. My current office is just a two-minute drive from my home. I’m glad I held out for something that is ultra-convenient.

Now let’s think about the second angle, which is for those of you working from home. Location can be a factor for you, too. My home office started in a spare bedroom upstairs in our house. Then, as my son got older, he wanted a bigger room, so we switched.

In the last year, I seriously considered building an office in our basement just to have more of a separation between work and home. And I may still do that at some point if I decide to work from home again in the future.

Maybe you don’t have an extra bedroom for an office in your house. Even if you currently write at the kitchen table, is there any other space in your home you could use for a writing area? Could you convert a little nook somewhere? Could you set up an area in your garage or basement? You always have options for creating a writing area you like better.

It’s also worth remembering that many famous writers have only worked with a typewriter or computer and a random desk. At the end of the day, all you really need is something to write, and something to write with. But if you can support your writing with a better location, then so much the better.

Today’s Challenge: Think about where you currently write. Is there a better location, either in a separate office away from your home, or by improving or switching locations at home?

The post Office Space: Does It Have a Good Location? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

But there is more to writing success than just doing the work. A big part of the equation is the environment in which you do your work. Since we’re still in January, this is a natural time to think about changes that can make it easier and more fun to write.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll focus on some ways to clear the clutter in your workspace. Although we writers like to talk about lofty ideas like book concepts, character arcs, or publishing strategies, the plain truth is that your environment has a big impact on your mindset and writing success.

Most of the time we don’t give a lot of attention to how our workspace is organized—or if it’s been organized at all! But if this is where your creative work comes to life, you should make sure it’s set up for maximum efficiency.

There is an intimate link between your physical environment and your mind. When you clear the clutter from your environment and have an orderly, clean place to work, you can be more productive and less anxious.

All that said, some writers still believe that a messy workspace somehow benefits their creative output. I can just hear the voices of protest: “But Kent,” you say, “I’m a stereotypical writer or creative person. I do my best work in a messy, chaotic environment.”

If that describes your point of view, let me share three observations:

1. I don’t buy the stereotype of a messy writer or artist. Sure, there are disorganized creative people. There are disorganized, messy people in every kind of field. But not all writers or artists are like that. The most successful writers I know are highly organized and strategic people.
2. Being disorganized and messy is a choice, not a personality trait. Yes, certain personalities tend to be more clean and organized by nature. However, you can make the choice to have a neat work environment.
3. Just because you CAN work in a messy environment doesn’t mean that you should. It’s like driving a car with low air pressure in the tires. Can you still drive that way? Yes. But can you do something about it? Yes. You can put more air in the tires and the car will function more efficiently. If you currently have a messy workspace and everything seems fine, you can be even more productive with a clean workspace.

If you’re ready to make a fresh start and begin creating a better environment for your writing, tune in over the next couple of weeks for the rest of the series!

Today’s Challenge: Ask yourself how you could benefit from having a neater, more organized workspace for writing.

The post Clear the Clutter: Series Introduction appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Today we’re going to talk about practice #2:

Set up a dedicated writing space that is free of distractions.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever tried to write in a space that you use for other things like eating, entertainment, or playing computer games?

It may seem convenient at the time, but what you’re really doing is signaling to your brain that you should be doing all those things at once. The environment where you write has a powerful effect on your ability and motivation to actually get the work done.

This is why it’s important to try and write in a space you only use for writing.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Even a simple table will do—or a broom closet if you need! When you work in that space, the environment tells your brain it’s writing time… not eating time, entertainment time, or sleeping time.

It is also helpful to set up your writing space so that it’s free from distractions, which includes clutter. There is nothing more conducive to great writing than a clean, neat, organized desk free from the clutter of everyday life.

In addition, it’s also helpful to shut off as many distractions as possible from our digital devices. It’s hard to concentrate if you constantly have pings from your phone going off while writing.

All this may sound like a tall order, but you can start simple. In fact, I’m in the process of creating a whole separate office for myself. I find that I write much better away from home than at home. I may end up just building an office in my basement.

Even if you don’t have extra space in your home or apartment, you can do something as simple as sit at the kitchen table or somewhere else in the house. The awesome thing about being a writer is that you don’t need much… just a writing tool, a chair, and a table or desk.

Question: Do you have a dedicated writing space free of distractions?

The post Writing Habits Practice #2: Set Up a Dedicated Writing Space appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to do a series of conversations focused around mental health for writers. Everybody knows mental health is important, and we see lots of signs of depression, burnout, frustration, anger, and even increasing rates of suicide in society. Writers are not immune to those forces. In many ways, perhaps we are even more susceptible than the average person because we tend to spend a lot of time alone.

In light of that, we are featuring a Mental Health Series for Writers during the month of May. Each week, we will feature an interview that relates to themes of mental health. Today’s episode features a good friend of mine, Melissa Bloom, who uses her background in molecular biology, clinical trials, and yoga to focus on the new frontier—the brain. Through her Aligned Life Community and one-on-one coaching, she helps people gain a new perspective through which to view their lives.

In this conversation, Melissa shares why we need to eliminate the idea of competition, the pursuit of perfection, the concept of missed opportunities, and why we take score way too soon.

The result of dealing with all these unhealthy tendencies is that we can move past our fear, doubt, and sense of overwhelm, and into a life where we are creating from a sense of joy and purpose, rather than stress and guilt.

Melissa is truly wise soul, and I know you’ll be moved by this impactful conversation just as much as I was.

You can learn more about Melissa’s work, her upcoming book, and more below!

Learn more at MelissaBloom.life

Sign up for Melissa’s newsletter

Connect with Melissa on Facebook

Follow Melissa on Instagram

Reach out to Melissa on LinkedIn

The post Melissa Bloom on Moving Past Fear, Doubt, and Overwhelm appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Let’s talk about one of the hardest truths to swallow. Here it is: the circle of relationships that brought you to where you are is not the circle of relationships that will take you to where you want to be.

Most of us don’t like conflict. We don’t want to feel like we’re leaving others behind. This fact alone prevents a lot of people from growing because they are not willing to make tough changes to their personal and professional relationships.

You’ve probably heard about what happens in a crab basket. When you put a bunch of crabs in a basket, and one tries to crawl out, the others pull him back in. Most social and professional circles work the same way. Whenever you try to grow or improve, the people around you who don’t want to grow will try to discourage you. They may not do so directly, but they will express doubt that your plans or dreams are realistic. People will try to keep you in the crab basket of mediocrity in all kinds of ways.

Let me get personal for a moment. Once I had been teaching college for 12-13 years, I knew there was something more I wanted. I didn’t want to do that job forever because the context of our tiny college was very limiting. We had a small number of students, my salary was very limited, and there was zero potential for either one of those numbers ever increasing.

I was very friendly with the people I worked with. I still consider most of them to be friends. But none of them had any intentions of building a business. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, and they are wonderful people. But I knew that if I wanted to build a business, I had to start spending time around people who thought and dreamed bigger, and who were doing the kinds of things I wanted to do.

So, I started getting involved in mastermind groups and communities. I started taking courses and investing in myself. I started doing freelance work. I started podcasting and writing my own books. Most of the people in my day job didn’t know what to think of this because it wasn’t in their DNA to build something of their own.

I’m not talking about denying the value that some people have had in your journey. You can be grateful for a season or a phase in your life and recognize its value, while at the same time also understanding that you need to have a different focus moving forward. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

Life is a journey, and if you’re not willing to let go of some things, you won’t have room in your heart and mind for the people and things that you need to carry with you going forward. It doesn’t mean that those relationships were not important, and that you can’t still be friends. It just means that you are going in a different direction in life, and you will be spending the bulk of your time and energy around people who have the same goals as you do.

This is a very difficult thing to do. You have to do a real gut-check because it means some people in your life won’t agree with your direction, and you will not fit into your old social circles and old ways of thinking. So be prepared for that.

One more thing about all this: there will be some people who see what you’re doing and will want to join you. Make sure to make time and energy for those people who are curious about your new direction and find ways to help them.

Daily Question: Are you willing to let go of some relationships in order to make room for new ones that are more in line with your new direction in life, writing, and business? Be honest.

The post The Art of Letting Go appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

If you are familiar with the organization Alcoholics Anonymous, you have probably seen or heard about the way people sometimes introduce themselves at these meetings. “Hi, my name is Kent, and I’m an alcoholic.”

Now, I’m not actually an alcoholic and I’ve never been to an AA meeting. But the phrase has been portrayed enough on TV and the movies that almost everyone is familiar with it.

Why do they do this? Why would you state it out loud that you’re an alcoholic, especially in the midst of a room full of people who identify with the same struggle?

One of the reasons is that it levels the playing field. No matter who you are, what your level of success is or isn’t, no matter how much money you have or don’t have, what you look like, or how old you are… everyone at an AA meeting is on equal footing. They are all there for a common purpose—united by their desire to stay sober.

But there is another reason. Saying something out loud, and affirming your identity to others verbally, has great power. To put it in writing terms, you may BELIEVE or THINK you’re a writer, but have you ever said it out loud to anyone? When is the last time you verbally said to someone in a conversation, “Hi, my name is so-and-so, and I’m a writer” or “I’m an author?”

This may sound juvenile, but I can assure you, it’s not. On a recent Daily Writer Community Call, I made everyone in the meeting go around and verbally say that exact thing. It was extraordinarily powerful.

So, I challenge you to tell someone you’re a writer in the next 24 hours. Don’t do it over text, email, or social media. Do it verbally. Even if the only person you say it to is a two-year-old, that counts for something. The very act of you verbalizing it will have great emotional power over you. It will give you amazing confidence and sear in your mind that you are indeed a writer.

Daily Question: In the next 24 hours, who are you going to tell you’re a writer?

The post Say It Out Loud appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

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The Disney Imagineers are a group of architects, engineers, designers, and writers known for being one of the most creative think tanks on the planet. The group was originally founded by Walt Disney to oversee the production of Disneyland in California, but today is responsible for designing and building Disney theme parks and attractions all around the world.

In their fantastic little book The Imagineering Way, the Disney Imagineers said, “Every new project at Imagineering starts with the assumption that it will be fun and exciting. We never say we don’t really want to do it this way—we do it the best way we know how. We are our end users because we like the product.”

Think about your current writing project. When you sit down to work on it, what do you assume? Do you assume it will be difficult? Unbearable? Something you just need to get through?

Or do you assume it will be fun? That you will enjoy the process? That you are adding value to others and will have a grand adventure?

In life, we generally get what we expect. If you expect drudgery, that’s what you’ll get. If you expect to have the time of your life… well, that’s what you’ll get, too.

Having the right mindset changes everything.

The post The Imagineering Mindset appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

As writers, we spend loads of time worrying about the details of writing: getting the words done, editing, publishing, and so many other things. Sometimes it’s good to step back, take a look at the big picture, and ask, “What do I really want from this book project?”

My guest today is here to help us figure out the answer to that question. Carolyn Roark is a writing coach, editor, and ghostwriter who helps aspiring authors express themselves beautifully and find the right platform for their ideas. Her clients have included everyone from venture capitalists to restaurateurs to cancer survivors.

She finished her Ph.D. at 29 (impressive!) and headed straight into the Ivory Tower. In her bio, she says, “Five years later I stole out a window and never looked back. I loved teaching analysis, theory, and composition, but if I never attend another committee meeting it will be too soon.” As a former college professor, I can totally relate!

In this conversation, Carolyn helps answer some burning questions, such as: What can a book do for you? How can we maximize the benefits of a book for our personal life and business?

What are some obstacles or problems that get in the way of success with book launches and marketing? What are the mindset shifts authors need to make around their book launches or marketing?

Click on the links below to find out more about Carolyn and connect with her on social media:

Check out Carolyn’s website

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The post Carolyn Roark: What Do You Want Your Book to Do for You? appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Over the last few days, we have been talking about developing a growth-oriented mindset. This is a mindset that is not fixed in place, but is instead flexible and ready to grow.

After you have prepared by tilling the soil of your mind, planted by keeping track of your ideas, watered your mind by reading, pruned the dead weight from your schedule, and harvested your creativity by getting your writing done, it’s important to celebrate by enjoying your success.

For some reason, writers have a hard time being content with any amount of success they have. Maybe it’s jealousy or a mentality that says whatever they have achieved, it’s not enough. Maybe it’s an attitude they inherited from their family that they can never be good enough.

Whatever the case, it’s vital to recognize that when you write, you have done something worth celebrating. It doesn’t need to be a giant ego boost. You can celebrate in a way that inspires others and doesn’t put yourself in the spotlight.

When you accomplish something worthwhile, take a moment to stop and recognize the value of what you’ve done. Take pride in your work. Enjoy your success.

If you don’t develop this habit of celebration, you will never be happy with your achievements. How sad would it be to work so hard but never feel satisfied?

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