At church this morning, our pastor talked to us about praying as a habit. I was really relating to everything he was saying, but I was equally relating each of his points to writing as a habit.

You see, writing is my favorite hobby in the world, and yet I have not opened my laptop to write all summer. Until today. During this morning’s sermon, I was asking myself why that was? If I’m a teacher who’s off for the summer, and I have tons more free time, then why haven’t I written at all, three weeks into my summer break?

The short answer was simple. It hasn’t been my habit. I have so many habits this summer that most people would find admirable. I wake up between 5 and 6am every morning and go for a sunrise walk. I have my coffee, I read, I listen to uplifting podcasts. Writing is not on that list. I get ready, make breakfast and usher my children out the door for various summer activities. Before I know it, it’s time for dinner and bedtime. Where did the day go?

Life is busy and people are heavily scheduled. But the answer to how to make writing a habit has a simple answer too. Just like my morning sunrise walks and podcasts, just like making breakfast and coffee, writing needs to be intentional and planned. I’m an essential oils educator, and a quote I like to use with people when they tell me they don’t have time to learn about oils, is a quote that applies to those of us who love to write but claim we don’t have time: “We find time for the things that matter to us.”

For most people, the best way to form a habit is to do that activity at the same time each day. For me, I’m feeling that the morning would be the wisest time for me. The time I’ve been reading and listening to podcasts, absorbing content, could be spent creating content. And I feel like this comes and goes in waves for me as a writer. I would love to hear from those of you reading this blog post who write: Do you find that you have seasons where it’s important for you to take a break from creating content and to absorb and take in the creativity of others’ content?

I could be hard on myself for this long hiatus, but I do feel it’s served me. I get so many ideas and feel so inspired from the seasons where I am just a consumer of content. Though quite a bit of time has passed since I’ve written a blog post, on my phone, I keep a note on my Notes app titled “Blog Post Topics.” I add to it every day! Almost every book and blog post I read, almost every sermon or podcast I listen to inspires me and ignites my own creativity so that now as a strive to get back on the writing horse, I have this exciting list of ideas to fuel my passion.

They say it takes 30 days to form a habit, so then dear reader, I plan on carving time out for myself these next 30 days, and I will follow up at the end of that 30 days and report back to let you know how it’s going.

I hope this has inspired someone else who loves to write but for whatever reason has not been. If you have any words of wisdom for me and others who may stumble open this blog post, I would love any and all ideas for how to make writing a habit and show up for this extraordinarily soul feeding hobby.