Habits break

When I started blogging, I hoped, but didn't expect, to manage to continue the habit for more than a month. Well, that succeeded. Even after a few single-day breaks, I picked up speed, writing and publishing something the next day.

Ninteen days ago, something changed. A confluence of circumstances that broke the habit.

Ninteen days ago, I published six posts at once. I was thus entitled to a single-day break. And this one time, a two-day break. Publishing six posts at once should allow me a three-day break, though not much more... But the habit was already broken.

Habits come in many forms. Some require energy, some require pre-existing peace of mind, some require a conscious decision every day, some take a varying amount of time, some are done in the morning. For me, writing is all of these. I write poorly if I'm exhausted, stressed, or lazy, or have too little time before going to work or whatever I'm doing that day. All of these factors make writing an activity where everything has to align. Therefore, it's possible to break the habit simply by pulling too hard on any one of them.

Eating breakfast is, for me, the opposite kind of habit. It requires neither mental nor physical energy, I can do it while stressed, I'd do it on autopilot, and since it takes roughly the same amount of time every day, it's easy to plan for in the morning. Even if I skipped breakfast three days in a row (could I even manage?), I'd have no problem falling back to my habit.

Let's see if writing one post was enough to unbreak this habit.