Make a public commitment, to people who will hold you accountable. You don’t need to publish your writing each day, but just write at least 5 minutes a day.

Turn off notifications and, if you’re not using pen and paper, close all programs but the one you’ll use to write. Preferably though it in the night before, so you aren’t distracted when the writing time comes the next day.

It’s best to set your writing time right after something else you regularly do each morning: wake up, shower, brush your teeth, etc. Try to set it before anything that might lead to further tasks or distractions, like email checking.

Report to your accountability group every day, whether you were successful or not. When you are unsuccessful, strongly commit to getting back on track the next day or even set up penalties or rewards for extra motivation.

Think about what you want to write during a workout, on a walk, in the shower, while you eat, on your commute, in a boring meeting. But definitely think about it before you go to sleep.

• You’re busy: separate 5-15 minutes to write, first thing in the morning, and stick to it.
• You’re intimidated: The important thing is to start.
• You’re not motivated: Commit to writing to an accountability group and report to them if you wrote or not.