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What if there was a way to learn anything fast, create things the world finds valuable, and increase feelings of happiness all at the same time?

What if I told you that thing exists, it's practically free to start, and available to anyone?

What is it?

Writing.

In today's newsletter, I'll share with you how writing has changed my life, how it can change yours, and five actionable steps to help you start your own writing habit.

But first, let's clear up some common misconceptions about writing.

Common misconceptions

When you hear the term "writing," you may be thinking about your boring English classes, research papers you had to write, and all the tedious work emails you have to deal with.

Leave it to school and work to suck the fun out of everything.

The truth is, writing is the modern-day creator's most powerful tool for building a business.

Productivity YouTuber and New York Times best-selling author Ali Abdaal credits writing as the skill that made him a millionaire.

In his video titled "How Writing Made Me a Millionaire," Ali describes how starting a blog and writing about being a medical student and part YouTuber led to him making millions of dollars over the years.

The habit of writing helped him build an audience, grow his YouTube channel, and write Feel Good Productivity, a book that has officially cemented him as an expert in the field.

His only regret?

Not starting sooner.

So, what is it about writing that's so beneficial?

Writing Benefits

At its core, writing is thinking.

And being able to write clearly means being able to think clearly.

In his book, Hidden Potential, Adam Grant explains that we learn things faster by writing about them.

That's because our memory creates stronger ties to the information once we write about it.

It's also due to something called the Protege Effect, where by explaining a concept to someone else, we end up understanding it better ourselves.

Writing gives us that tool to articulate an idea to someone else helping us learn it faster ourselves.

Writing also happens to be useful for making money too.

Solopreneurs and digital writers such as Dan Koe, Nicolas Cole, and Justin Welsh have all credited writing as the skill that has unlocked millions of dollars in earnings for them.

By writing and sharing their ideas online, they were able to attract audiences and build libraries of content.

They then went on to build multi-million dollar businesses off the back of that content in the form of educational material such as courses.

And it's not all about money either.

Writing has been shown to increase levels of happiness and reduce anxiety as well.

Studies have shown that the simple act of journaling can lead to a whole host of positive benefits when done regularly.

Still not sold?

Neither was I.

What writing unlocked for me

7 months ago, I wanted to funnel my creative energy into making YouTube videos but I didn't know how to start.

I didn't know how to:

- write a script

- Edit videos

- Come up with ideas

- speak into a camera

- design thumbnails

And all the other stuff needed to make great videos.

One day, I came across a podcast episode where Ali Abdaal was speaking with guest Nicolas Cole, author of The Art and Business of Online Writing.

The passion and energy during this conversation was palpable.

Here were two highly successful digital creators who were both crediting their ability to make millions to writing.

And it got me thinking to myself, "If these guys can do it, why can't I do it too."

So, in an effort to lower the bar to get started with creating content, I decided to write.

I had zero experience when I started and hadn't written anything since college.

But in those seven months, I wrote and posted over 150k+ words of content and developed a daily writing habit that hasn't skipped a beat since I started.

I built up the skillset and confidence to:

- create content daily

- generate infinite ideas

- understand value propositions

And gain clarity in my goals with a tool to take action towards them.

All that writing experience has allowed me to finally feel ready to tackle script-writing and creating YouTube videos.

And it all started with a deceptively simple step to get the ball in motion.

So, Let's dive into 5 actionable steps you can take today to build a writing habit so that you can start building your own creative future.

1. Build an idea bank

The first obstacle every new writer faces is figuring out "what" to write about.

It's so common it even has a name: writer's block.

But writer's block doesn't have to be such a headache.

A simple trick to overcome the blank page is to start with an idea you've already been thinking about.

And that's why the first step to building a writing habit isn't to write.

It's to start cataloging ideas into an idea bank.

By jotting down ideas as they come to us throughout our day, we can build an idea bank to draw from when it's time to sit down and write.

Most people think they don't have ideas.

The truth is, they're just forgetting about them.

At the start of the 20th century, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus developed the forgetting curve.

Ebbinghaus found that people forget about 60% of the information they process within the first 20 minutes.

That's why when you have that genius idea while taking a shower, you can't remember it an hour later during a conversation with friends.

We've all had this experience before.

Sometimes, I'll be walking my dog, and a random question will pop into my head like, "Where do ideas come from?"

And if I don't write that question down, I almost always forget about it.

To counteract the forgetting curve, I'll make a note of that strange idea so that I can come back to it later.

Cataloging ideas, questions, and topics to look into further allow me to build starting points for my writing.

That way, when I sit down to write I'm never staring at a blank page.

I have notes and ideas ready for me to explore.

And don't worry, you don't need a fancy app for this.

I use a simple notepad if it's around, or in most cases, I just use Apple Notes.

2. Start by Journaling

I used to think of journaling as a way to secretly gossip about all the mishaps in my life and the people in it.

Movies where teenage schoolgirls start the page with, "Dear diary..." had brainwashed me into thinking journaling was a massive waste of time.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Journaling has helped me develop my writing skills, find creative new takes on ideas, and gain clarity on my goals.

By writing about my ideas in a low-stakes, unstructured way, I can explore what I really think about certain topics without any filters.

This also relieves me of the added pressure of having to have my writing be "good."

Journaling gives me the freedom to just think and write.

Great! Everyone knows journaling is good for them but how do you actually do it?

Most of the time, I journal for 3 different reasons:

1. C - Clarity

2. A - Action

3. T - Thoughts

Let's call it the CAT framework for journaling.

Since we are talking about writing today, go ahead and pull out a pen and paper to write down these journaling prompts.

Clarity

When journaling for clarity, I'm asking myself "what" and "why" questions to gain clarity on my goals, aspirations, and motivations behind them.

One of my favorite prompts:

"What would my ideal day look like, and why doesn't it currently look like that?"

This prompt is great because it does two things:

1. It forces me to confront the gap between my current life and the one I want to be living.

2. It gives me clarity and what I could be doing now to live an ideal day.

My ideal day would be something like

- wake up and walk the dog

- do some writing with some coffee by my side

- work on video projects for a couple hours

- go for a run and lift some weights

- meet with some friends for lunch

- maybe play a little music afterwards

- spend some quality time with my wife

- cook a bomb dinner and play some video games or read to cap the night

Sounds like a pretty nice day, right?

This journaling prompt made me realize that the ONLY things preventing me from having this ideal day 100% of the time are my job and my ability to manage my time.

But it also made me realize I don't need extravagant amounts of money to be happy.

It showed me that I already have most of what I desire.

Action

Once you've clarified what you want and why, you can ask yourself some questions about how to achieve those goals.

Ex. "What are 3 things I can do this week to help me reach my goals, and what's one thing I can do today?"

My personal goal is to build a creator business so that I can live my ideal day more often and help other people do the same.

To achieve that, I can do these 3 things this week:

1. Write a newsletter to nurture my audience

2. Create a YouTube video to reach new people

3. Study successful creators to learn how they did it

And today, I can start by writing the newsletter.

This helps us get out of planning mode and into action.

Thoughts

Great, so now we know what we want and how to take action towards it.

Let's have some fun and mess around with some ideas for a minute.

Journaling about thoughts is where I get some creative juices flowing and make new connections.

What I'll do is pull a note from my idea bank or a question I had and then write about it freely.

This works even better if you don't look up the answer to your question right away.

The problem with looking things up first is your opinion becomes shaped by the opinions of others.

This means your own weird insight can get lost after you've read what other people think.

Journaling about random ideas before looking up the answer has led to some of my more interesting insights, such as "All goals can be made into a game" and "Creativity can't exist without constraints."

Those two insights led to me writing many thousands of words and many articles exploring the ideas further.

Try out this exercise:

- Write down a topic to explore at the top of the page.

- Ask yourself, "What do I think about it?"

- "Where do I see this in the world?"

- "How can I apply it to my own life?"

- "How could this help someone else?"

Asking these questions will inevitably lead to ideas for content to explore later.

3. Make it obvious and easy

One of the biggest hurdles in building a new habit is sticking with it consistently.

A staggering 88% of people fail to keep up their New Year's resolutions just 2 weeks into the year.

That's because when our motivation is high, we often take on too much too fast, which causes us to fail at the first sign of resistance.

Life piles on its responsibilities fast, and we start to struggle to keep up with everything.

A better, more sustainable approach to building a new habit is to make it as easy as possible to start.

Instead of dedicating 10 hours a week to writing content straight out the gate, it's much better to stick to small, 15-30-minute writing sessions.

If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of sitting down for 30 minutes to write then start even smaller!

5 minutes a day of journaling is still better than zero minutes.

What will usually happen is that 5 minutes will go by, and you'll feel like writing more.

And if after 5 minutes you still don't feel like doing it then put writing away for the next day.

The real habit we're building is showing up to do the thing everyday even if it's only for a couple minutes.

The second part of this is to make it obvious.

This means making it natural for you to gravitate towards doing the writing.

For instance, I'll write down a journal prompt or question before getting into bed and leave the journal out so that when I wake up it's the first thing I see while making my coffee.

Not only is it in front of me, but I already have the prompt written, so I don't even have to "think" about "what" to write.

I just have to do it.

Find ways to reduce friction to writing as much as possible so that it becomes a natural part of your day.

4. Habit stacking and rewards

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear lays out that one of the best ways to build a new habit is a technique called habit stacking.

This is where you pair a new habit with an existing one.

It increases the likelihood that you will stick with the new habit because the old habit cues you to do the new one with it.

For instance, I drink coffee every morning.

So, when I wanted to start a writing habit, I paired it with my morning coffee routine.

Now, while my coffee brews I start journaling and planning out my day.

Once the coffee is ready, I sit down with it and do my longer writing work blocks.

This has cued my brain to start writing before getting distracted by other obligations.

The second part is the reward system.

We are more likely to stick to our habits if there is a reward system built into it to cue us to initiate it.

Lately, I've been indulging myself with a bit of nostalgic leisure by playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Final Fantasy 7 was literally my favorite game growing up so playing the new one has been a dream come true.

The problem is it's very tempting to play instead of write.

To counteract this pull to play video games, I use it as a reward system for completing my commitments.

I set a clear rule for myself:

No playing video games until my daily writing and exercise routines are complete.

This motivates me to not waste time and get my commitments out of the way so that I can enjoy some sweet nostalgia before work.

5. Plan your Sorcerer's Hour

At some point, you will need to do more than journaling to reach your creative goals.

Once you've:

- Built an idea bank

- Started a small daily journaling practice

- Found ways to make writing easy and obvious

- Built-in reward systems for finishing your writing

Then, you're ready to take your writing habit to the next level.

I call this The Sorcerer's Hour: One hour dedicated to making the magic happen.

That's where you dedicate at least one hour a few times a week to work on bigger projects like video scripts, articles, and social media content.

"But Zacc, I don't have time for that."

The harsh truth here is nobody has time for that.

It's all trade-offs.

You are spending one hour doing something else.

So if you want to reach your creative goals then your have to make the trade to do less of that thing and make more time for writing.

That could mean less time spent consuming social media, watching TV, or going out late at night.

It could also mean you start waking up earlier.

That's the trade I made a few years ago.

I started waking up at 6 am every day so that I would have more time in the mornings to work on my creative projects.

The extra time in the morning has allowed me to focus on my goals before the rest of the world starts distracting me.

The most important part about The Sorcerer's Hour is you have to schedule it.

If you don't write it down and make it sacred, you won't stick to it.

Every morning, when I plan my day out with that first sip of coffee, I write down exactly what time I'm going to sit down and make the magic happen that day.

This works for your new journaling habit too.

Plot out the exact time you're going to sit down and write.

Set up a notification, and you'll never miss a day.

And don't underestimate the power of a couple of focused Sorcerer's Hours.

I wrote the first draft of this video script in 2 hours exactly.

I started by creating an outline the night before.

I woke up and journaled about some of these ideas while brewing my coffee.

Then I sat down with that first sip of roasty goodness and got to writing.

Now, I think it's time to treat myself to a little Final Fantasy.

Weekly Quest:

Try one of the journaling prompts I listed above and see what ideas, actions, and goals come out of it.

This entire newsletter came from a journaling exercise where I simply asked, "What's an outcome aspiring creators desire?"

One of the answers was a consistent writing habit.

Now go crush writer's block from its pathetic existence.

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See you next Tuesday!

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-Zacc Rowlands