Good Habits

I am trying to establish the habit, both for the littles and myself, of starting out our day with a glass (or small plastic cup, in their case) of water before we have anything else. It's hard for me in the cooler months, because I love to start my day with tea (if I get up before them, I will sometimes have a cup of hot water with lemon and honey, but it's too hard to explain to them how that is different from tea and therefore not a double standard), and hard for them because ever since they started drinking anything more than breastmilk they have loved orange-juice-and-milk to begin their day.

But we're persevering. The thought of that hot tea waiting for me at the end of my glass of water, and the OJ&M for them keeps us glugging. And for me, the thought of the health benefits for all of us are a reward in themselves. The littles, of course, don't care so much about that, this is just another of Mamma's weird notions (like washing hands after we use the toilet, not throwing clothes out of the dresser drawers, and not getting out of bed at 5 in the morning. Gosh, Mom) that they have to endure. My hope, of course, is that the habit gets so ingrained that it sticks when they are grown, just like brushing teeth.

As for how this relates to writing ... well, I set myself a goal to finish at least one, preferably two mss in November. That means writing every day. Often, to be perfectly honest, I don't feel like sitting down and writing. Just like preferring to drink my tea instead of having my water first, as soon as I sit down to write, I think of the cleaning, the baking, the sewing, the reading ... everything else that I'm not doing in order to write. And while I can do that afterward, it often feels like I should be doing it first.

The first sip of water is the hardest. After that, the rest of the glass follows naturally. And that first sentence, staring at a page without a shred of inspiration? So hard. But once I force my fingers to start typing (or writing, if I'm working in my notebook), the rest comes more easily. Last night I had set myself an hour of writing before watching Once Upon A Time. At first, it was not easy. But by the time 8:00 rolled around, I didn't really want to stop - I kept the computer on my lap and typed during commercial breaks (very interesting mental exercise, btw, trying to switch my perspective back and forth between tv show and ms!).

And while it isn't always the most fun to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning, or to write a few paragraphs every day, even (and especially) on the days when inspiration is far flown from me, the habits I'm installing will, I hope, last forever, and have marvelous results for the rest of my life.

What are some daily habits you try to set for yourself, and do any of them help you when it comes to establishing routine for writing?