One suggestion that stuck with me is this: make habits accessible. Remove the obstacles that get in your way before you even start.
For me, one of those obstacles was my laptop. Sounds weird—I love my laptop. It’s getting on a bit, so old I replaced the expiring copy of Windows with Ubuntu. But it still works, and I’m a big fan of mending things when they break rather than replacing them.
The problem is where it lives. It’s in the spare room, and it’s kind of a beast to lug out in the morning. So when I tried to combine my writing with my morning routine, that became a hurdle. Just the act of setting it up felt like too much friction when I was barely awake.
The better option turned out to be my phone.
I reorganised my files into a neat structure, added a few shortcuts, and now every morning I can just tap and open the doc I need. No setup. No resistance. I’ve cleared the path, and that’s made all the difference.
As I mentioned, I was aiming to combine the habit of writing with my existing morning routine. That’s another useful tip from Atomic Habits: habit stacking. You anchor a new habit to one that’s already established. That way, it becomes automatic over time.
So now, every morning, I wake up, journal, plan my day, then write for a bit—just ten minutes—before I move on to a short workout. I’m not a fan of gyms (but to each their own). This rhythm works for me.
The time limit helps too. Doing something—even something small—is better than doing nothing. Ten minutes a day doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up. It keeps the story moving forward, a little at a time, without pressure.
And the last piece of the puzzle? Forgiveness.
At just ten minutes a day, it’s easy to keep the streak going. But if I skip a day—if I’m not feeling it, or life gets in the way—that’s fine. No guilt. No regrets. I know I’ll be back at it tomorrow.
That, to me, is what makes a habit sustainable. Not perfection. Just progress.
