1% Improvement in Many Areas Leads to Huge Gains
Increase the number of words you write a day.
A few weeks ago I read James Clear’s book Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results, and I wrote about it in this post, “Why & How to Create a Writing Habit.”
The word atomic in the book’s title refers to small. The word habits means movements that a person makes daily.
The book’s premise is that small habits extrapolate to amazing results.
Clear makes another interesting assertion—atomic improvement in each of many small areas can lead to major improvement overall. In this case, the amount of improvement is 1 percent. This means that you’d break down a larger dream into many small parts, and then increase the effectiveness of each part even by 1 percent to see huge gains overall.
The example Clear gave was for a team, like a national bicycling team. They could think, What if we improved our uniforms—their weight, their ability to shed air—by 1 percent? The weight of our bikes? What if we improved our tires? The shaved portion of our bodies?
Let’s break this down for a writing life.
Increase the amount of time you spend actually writing. Let’s say you write for 30 minutes a day. One percent of 30 minutes is 18 seconds, so you’d increase your writing time by 18 seconds daily.
Increase the number of words you write a day.
Increase the number of pages you write.
Increase the number of pages you edit.
Increase the time you spend reading.
Increase the amount of time you spend thinking about writing.
Increase the amount of time you spend studying writing in workshops, writing groups, university courses, and so forth.
Increase the number of manuscripts you submit for publication.
Increase the number of contests you enter.
Increase the number or length of posts you write on Substack, Wordpress, or other blogs.
Increase your vocabulary.
Increase the size of your audience.
Increase the money you make.
Increase the number of places you offer to give readings.
This concept is uptight, yes, and implementation would be demanding. Who could measure 1 percent of time spent studying writing and increase that by mere seconds per day? Not me.
Still I admire the idea. One percent is a small fraction of a whole, and if 1 percent makes a difference, then the concept is worth exploring.
Comment
Can you think of any way that you can improve parts of your writing practice by 1 percent?
Happy Thanksgiving To You
I’m grateful for
you
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your belief in me
your eyes on words I write
your presence here
your trust in me
items you share with me
stories you share with me
time you spend with me
and so much more.
I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving.
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Janisse
Ways I Can Help You With Your Writing
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I use the small increase method when I walk and exercise. Every little increase makes a difference in the long run. It's a great way to increase a writing habit or practice as well.
Your motivational words are much appreciated.