Increasing Writing Willpower
Whether or not you are in the finite or infinite willpower camps, here are some interesting ways that willpower may apply to writing.
Practice willing yourself to write every day, setting a writing intention, or affirmation daily increases your chances of starting to write some day, if you aren’t already writing each day and increases your chances of continuing to have the willpower to write (Bolker, 1998; Schmeichel & Vohs, (2009; McGonigal, 2011). We all already know that practicing writing or writing something every day is a best practice, but believe it or not willpower is something in itself that may need practicing as well (Muraven, 2010). The desire to do something--anything, even write increases with practice. Practice, not just writing, but your willpower as well.
Posture or simply firming up your muscles can increase willpower, and of course, help you write for longer periods of time. Good posture and a firm stance, not only on the content you are writing, but in your physical body increases blood flow, glucose regulation, pain tolerance, and the ability to accomplish unpleasant tasks(Hung and Labroo, 2010; Baumeister & Tierney, 2012). Avoid periods of sitting too long, it actually not only decreases your willpower, but also your thought power as well (Medina, 2014). Sit up straight and suck your stomach in, I guess our mothers were right after all.
Delay can actually increase willpower. Many students believe they are procrastinating their writing, but in truth, writing takes thought, and thought can take time. And, there are many pre-writing processes, some students in order to help organize their thoughts before writing need to go for a run, clean their house/workspace, play video games, or believe it’s the deadline that pushes them into writing. These pre-writing activities are cognitive spaces where thinking and idea organization happen, and cutting them short or forgoing them entirely can be detrimental to your writing process, and as well as to your willpower to write (Murphy, 1978; Sommer, 1980). Plan for procrastination (Wolff, 1999). Give yourself time to think. Then in the end, if you are still having trouble with the willpower to write and put away the distractions then, tell yourself not now, later. Use if/then thinking: If I play that video game or clean my house for now then at 3:20, I will begin writing. Or the rewarding reverse: I will write until 3:40, and then I will play that video game or clean my house.
Renewal helps increase willpower and writing. Having the prospective that “when you work hard, you’re energized to work more” and the belief that willpower is renewable can increase not only your willpower (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008; Walton & Dweck, 2011) ). Knowing that the more you write, the more you can write, and the harder the writing task might be, the more you can dig into it can increase your willpower. Greg Walton and Carol Dweck (2011) found “students who believed that willpower was not limited reported eating less junk food and procrastinating less than students who did not share that belief. They also showed more academic growth, earning better grades that term than their “pessimistic” counterparts .”
Underestimation also increases willpower (Loewenstein, 2000; Nordgren, 2009). Overestimating your willpower can lead to a decrease in willpower. Overestimation of your writing abilities or speed can quickly lead to being overwhelmed and giving up on a project. It’s a balance—your willpower is finite—you cannot infinitely press on, forcing yourself to go and go and go and go, particularly, if you don’t believe it can be renewed, and if of course, you are not doing the next few things on this list actively.
Eat. Reduced glucose levels decrease willpower (Gibson, 2002 ; Baumeister & Tierney, 2012). Your brain needs glucose to operate and without it, the brain’s ability to function decreases exponentially. When your glucose levels are healthy and in the right ranges, your willpower stays strong, depending on your body type and needs, it does matter what you eat and when you eat it, so know your body and eat to satisfy its needs. Small, frequent regular meals are suggested during heavy writing, studying, or thinking periods. Avoid too much junk food snacking while you write—those foods tend to not only sap your energy, but your willpower to continue (Gibson, 2002 ).
Sleep increases willpower (McGonigal, 2011; Medina, 2014). The lack of sleep not only affects your desire to write, but also your writing. Lack of sleep can also affect your glucose levels, which we already know affects both your writing and your willpower to write (Baumeister & Tierney, 2012; McGonigal, 2011).
Exercise increases endorphins, and endorphins increase willpower (McGovern, 2005; McGonigal, 2011; Medina, 2014). A false dilemma often arises when it comes to writing and exercise, it is often seen as an either/or problem. Many believe they do not have the time to do both, and it’s either I write or I exercise; however, it needs to be a case of and/both. Write and exercise. Exercising will increase not only writing and thinking abilities, but also your willpower and desire to write or continue writing.
Friends can increase willpower. Selecting support groups or friends that are working to achieve specific goals have been shown to influence those around them. We tend to mirror or mimic those around us, and their actions can prime us into or away from action (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999; Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin, 2004; Bonini & Ferrari, 2011). Setting up a writing group or attending writers functions, or simply identifying as a writer and talking or listening to others talk about writing can boost your writing willpower and give you support that you need to keep going.
Open Monitoring Meditation has also been shown to increase willpower and creativity as well (Hölzel, Lazar, Gard, Schuman-Olivier, Vago, & Ott, 2011; McGonigal, 2011; Kjaer, Bertelsen, Piccini, Brooks, Alving, & Lou, 2002). The unburdening of concerns, daily stresses, and the general attitude that everything is working out increases willpower and clears the mind to focus on writing more. Writers’ do need time to think, observe, and just simply be.
Active Daydreaming is focusing lightly on a particular thought, person, idea, but then letting your mind wander around it. Mindmap out what you thought of—mindmapping can help build connections and paragraph or section focus. It can also help you decide what is important in the content you are writing, and what could be discarded as a paragraph, section, and/or project focus or topic. Short paragraphs can help you with that as well--if you find the paragraph is too short or doesn't say enough, cut it out.
Intention setting and Waypower each day is important, particularly when it comes to writing, but waypower increases willpower says Peter Gollwitzer (1999 ) because it facilitates intention into action. Knowing the way to action, or how to take action, or when you will take action, or for how long you will take action keeps you from being overwhelmed when issues or problems arise and increases your willpower to complete the task. Using if/then thinking can help keep you on course: “If situation Y is encountered, then I will initiate behavior Z in order to reach goal X (Gollwitzer, 1999)." Applying waypower to writing can increase focus, and the ability to make and keep writing goals. If I run out of time today to write at work, I will begin my work day tomorrow writing until I have completed this section.
Reducing Choices can also increase your willpower. We live in an age of abundance; there is so much to choose from. But a side effect of this can be decision fatigue, thinking of willpower as a resource can help you simplify, focus, and triage needs, wants--putting your energy where you want to use it most (Schwartz, 2003). Reducing the amount of choices you make on a daily basis can help by saving more time for writing and preserving the desire to write. There is also much to be said about choice and reducing your choices when it comes to writing as well. You cannot write it all, and nor do you want to—this can be overwhelming, another sap on willpower, so each writing project needs close choice monitoring as well. This is where an outline can come in handy or when a good editor can help. Focus on the kernel of what you’d like to say and reduce any choices that take you away from that focus.
Routine increases willpower. It strengthens brain connections and the more those connections are used the stronger they get (Brann, 2014), but also because it can avoid decision fatigue--decisions are made ahead of time with little effort. Much has already been said of Steve Jobs', Barack Obama's, and Mark Zuckerberg's simple clothing choices. Tom Feriss echos a similar sentiment on routine and decision making, “Defining routines and systems is more effective than relying on self-discipline… develop routines so that decision-making is only applied to the most creative aspects of [our] lives.” Like writing. When it comes to writing having a routine to write can be more effective (Bolker, 1998). Having a writing routine can strengthen brain connection, connections that are used more often in consistent ways get stronger--this alone increases willpower and the desire to write, but when it comes to writing, we often feel like we need to feel like writing or be inspired to write, and while a routine can help with this feeling, it seems like a long way from inspiration. However, Oliver Burkeman (2012) asks an important question: “Who says you need to wait until you ‘feel like’ doing something in order to start doing it?” I’ll bet you don’t need to be inspired to do the dishes—you just know you have to do them at some point. Changing our perceptions of writing—the why and how it occurs, can help increase the time, when, where, and how you write. Writing like the dishes is just another task to do. Routine can help with that. As Chuck Close is so famously quoted as saying, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2004) has noticed that once there is flow in what we are doing willpower increases as does our enjoyment of the task at hand: “There's this focus that, once it becomes intense, leads to a sense of ecstasy, a sense of clarity: you know exactly what you want to do from one moment to the other; you get immediate feedback. You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears, you forget yourself, you feel part of something larger. And once the conditions are present, what you are doing becomes worth doing for its own sake.” I'll bet you have felt that before, even if it was only doing the dishes. And, if not give routine a chance to help you feel that.
Time of day may affect your willpower, and it can also matter for writing as well. Some research (Tierney, J. 2011; Danzigera, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L, 2011) suggests that as the day goes on we begin to suffer from decision fatigue or loss of willpower; however, other research (Walton & Dweck, 2011) suggests that this is only the case if you believe in decision fatigue or that our willpower is waning. Perception is the point. Write when you can. Many famous writers write best in the morning while other writers often write better later, but what they have in common is a consistent time of day. Write at a consistent time of day and consider your perception of time. Often, we believe that there is not enough time to write. In fact, the 2011 American Psychological Association Stress in America study found that many of us feel that having more time for ourselves would help us overcome our lack of willpower; however, willpower does not grow just because we have time or without challenge it seems. Changing this prospective and how we see time might be just as important in sustaining writing willpower as protecting the time we have to write in. The very lack of time and/or the challenge of time can be just as motivating and willpower increasing just as the perception of having more time, if we'll let it be. Remember a time in your life that you had so much going on that when you looked back you wondered how you got it all done, but you did--it was because you were so busy that you got it done. Remember when you had all that time to write, but you did not do any writing. Productivity can produce more productivity; increasing willpower to complete the task. Write when you are busy, and consider how you think of time and willpower--are they finite or infinite?
Stop telling yourself you can’t do it believing that you can do something affects your willpower to do it. There is so much good research out there on the power of being positive and believing in your goals, but there can also be side-effects to that as well if you are overly optimistic or unrealistic: your brain can hurt your goals by fantasizing too much, your brain procrastinates on big projects by visualizing the worst parts, your brain loves mindless busywork disguised as progress, your brain does better when it can plan, and your brain will “abandon ship” at the first sign of distress according to Gregory Ciotti (2012). Fantasizing too much about writing will keep you from writing or planning to write or recognizing writing problems--stay realistic, but don’t turn that editor on too soon in the writing process or you can damage thought collection and organization (Oettingen & Mayer, 2002; Berthoff, 1978).
Visualizing the worst that could happen while you’re gathering ideas to write or while you are drafting can slow with procrastination or derail your writing process entirely. To combat the procrastination that can happen when you visualize the worst it's important just to start somewhere, anywhere--even if that's transition sentences between topics or your conclusion or even the body of your writing task, not necessarily at the beginning. And, once started shut the editor out until it’s needed, which is usually in the final revision and/or editing stages of writing . You will be more likely to finish your project once started, no matter where it was started from says research (Zeigarnik,1967; McGraw & Fiala, 1982).
Prime. Social psychologist, John A. Bargh (1999) introduced the idea of priming. Priming is the visual, aural, and oral cues that we unconsciously perceive and automatically process, which influence what or how we are going to do something. It is a good idea to prime yourself to write each day and not go on auto-pilot each time you open your laptop only to automatically spend your writing time answering email, reading Facebook, or surfing the web. Your brain becomes absorbed by these regular tasks, and before you know it, your writing time and willpower to write has come and gone. How to prime yourself? Leave your computer open where you were last writing, leave your web browser open to the next article or resource you were using to write, plan for tomorrow--leave a clear stopping point/beginning point each day in your writing, make your screensaver a quote or series of quotes on writing or about writing, and log-out of all email/social media sites, so they are not the first things you see when you come to write.
Plan what you write and plan to write. Our mind is always organizing, ranking the tasks and goals we would like to accomplish—once our mind is given a task or a problem, it begins working on a solution, but if the priority given to the task or problem is low, the mind will push it down the mental to-do list, choosing to work on higher ranking priorities first (Pinker 1997; Medina 2014). To avoid this when you are writing, give yourself many, smaller deadlines and break the writing into smaller, easily do-able tasks each day, or prioritize the writing task higher on the list—the longer a writing task takes the more likely you are to lose willpower to continue the project. And, accomplishing more, writing goals helps create a sense of continuous progress. The feeling of progress or flow as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2008) calls it is important when it comes to writing without it we lose enjoyment of the task and willpower is not sustained as easily. Csikszentmihalyi (2008) defines flow as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” Work for flow in your writing process, but also in your writing content.
Flow can also be defined when it comes to writing in two other ways. First, flow can be finding and following your writing process. There are many writing processes and ways to write, but identifying yours is crucial, and depending on the writing project you are working on, you may have more than one process (Murphy, 1978; Coe, 1981; Faigley, 1986; Crowley, 1990; Flowers & Hayes, 1981, Villanueva, 1997). What is your writing process, what stages do you use? When? The most typical process is invention/pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing in that order, but yours might differ (Murphy, 1978; Coe, 1981; Sommers, 1980); Faigley, 1986; Crowley, 1990; Flowers & Hayes, 1981, Villanueva, 1997). And second, flow can mean writing coherence, cohesion, organization, or connection from word to word, sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph besides our actions as we write (Emig, 1971; Hartwell, 1985; Kolln & Funk 2011; Witte & Faigley, 1981; Braddock, 1974; Shrunk & White, 2015). How does your writing flow? How you get from idea to idea, word to word, sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, section to section? What's your organizing principle or strategy? Use various organizational strategies from outlines to PowerPoint slides to lists to help you organize writing content and to increase the flow of your writing. There are also many new productivity and organization apps that can help you organize your thoughts and reading lists as well as your writing time. Some of these apps can even help you find and protect the time to write through the use of a time journal and access to calendar options. And finally, at the first sign of writing difficulties or missing a deadline or a writing goal, your brain may want you to quit, but the best defense is to re=frame what has happened or is happening—focus on how far you have come, how much you have already accomplished, rather than how much more you have yet to do or how you may have messed up (Adams and Leary, 2007; Schmeichel and Vohs, 2009; McGonigal, 2011). Don’t punish yourself!!!
Forgive yourself in order to maintain and later increase your willpower to complete your writing project. There will be days you won’t be able to write as much or even at all, but what matters is what happens after those days. Research shows that forgiving yourself or practicing self-compassion rather than criticizing yourself when a willpower failure occurred increased or maintained willpower to succeed (Adams and Leary, 2007; Schmeichel and Vohs, 2009). In fact, writing yourself a little affirmation or intervention note ahead of a willpower challenge enables you to get back on track quicker and easier. As, Kelly McGonigal (2011) says, “feeling bad leads to giving in … self-compassion is a far better strategy than beating ourselves up.” So, when writing a willpower intervention note, first notice and acknowledge your feelings—do you feel guilty or full of doubt or angry at yourself, then recognize common humanity—you are not the only one to have done this before, this is part of the process of change, this is how it gets done, and finally, write yourself that encouraging note—you’re doing well, this is only a minor setback (McGonigal, 2011).
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