By my best estimate, I’ve written 1,461 blog articles to date.

That’s a heck of a lot of articles.

My obsession with blogging didn’t happen through any accident. It wasn’t as if I wanted to blog every single day. I had to push myself to write each post. It took time, a good bit of agony, and some crucial habits.

There are six specific habits that I’ve developed, which have allowed me to work towards the larger practice of daily blogging.

1. I use my best time of day.

Writing requires creative energy. Where does this creative energy come from?

It comes by writing during the best time of day. My best time of day is the morning, but everyone is wired differently. I often find that I can churn out a great article or two around 9pm at night even though my mind is tired. In a sense, it is precisely because I’m tired (and relaxed) that I’m able to develop these articles.

Generally, people experience creative bursts during dopamine-producing activities, which might be times like showering, driving, running, or even dreaming. Ironic as it may be, the mind is distracted from the task that requires creativity. Thus, the mind is freer to make connections and come up with ideas.

Another possibility for increasing one’s creative output is by establishing a routine.  This principle been called “the great paradoxes of creativity: that the most extraordinary works of imagination are often created by people working to predictable daily routines.”

There is nothing creativity-squashing about a daily routine at all. My boring routine is just a series of habits that have allowed me to be a daily blogger.

2.  I talk to people daily.

I talk to people every day. I feel like I’m on the phone for multiple hours during the day. Both the afternoon and evening times are packed with call after call to potential clients, entrepreneurs, and partners.

Even when work is over, I’m not done talking. A happy hour (or two) helps to round out my day with even more talking. Even at night, I can usually still be found emailing or IMing.

My day is full of communication with other people.

This is an intentional habit, but it does come naturally to me. The reason why I value all this communication is because it empowers me. Conversation stretches my mind, makes me creative, pushes me further, gives me ideas, and sparks new inspirations.

Without the sharpening of my personal relationships, I could never blog the way that I do. My communication habit is simply one way that I pour inspiration and life into the habit of blogging.

3.  I force myself to write every day.

I write every day. Holidays? Vacation? Sickness? I still write.

Why do I do this? Well, part of the reason is because I’m a workaholic. Another reason is because I love work, so it’s not hard for me to do what I love. The third reason is that it makes me a better writer.

Some of the world’s greatest writers and bloggers make it a practice to write every day.

Lifehack:  “Write every day, or multiple times a day if possible.”

• Gretchen Rubin: “I write every day.”
• Jeff Goins:  “Write every day.”
• Ray Bradbury:  “My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life.”
• Susan Sontag:  “I will write in the Notebook every day.”
• Haruki Murakami: “When I’m [in] writing mode for a novel...I keep to this routine every day without variation.”
• Raymond Chandler: “He sat down at his desk every single day and concentrated.”
• Sarah Waters:  “My minimum is 1,000 words a day.”
• Annie Dillard:  “Visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it.”
• Esther Freud:  “Find your best time of the day for writing, and write. Don’t let anything else interfere.”
• Ana?s Nin:  “I write every day.”

To borrow an Anthony Trollope quote: “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the efforts of a spasmodic Hercules.”

I’m not that smart. But I can at least do things daily, and maybe that’s why I’ve been able to produce so many blog articles.

4.  I wake up early.

Some people tend to think that well-to-do entrepreneurs loll around in bed until 10 or 11, wake up for a quick swim in their infinity swimming pool with a view of the ocean, then drive their Lambo to a five-star restaurant for brunch.

That’s not me, and that’s not most people I know.

Most successful people that I know wake up early and are getting things done before the rest of the world even wakes up.

Here’s a sample:

• Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks:  4:30
• Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL:  5:00
• Tim Cook, CEO of Apple:  4:30
• Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox:  5:15
• Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and Chrysler:  3:30
• Bill Gross, PIMCO co-founder:  4:30
• Jack Dorsey, founder of Square:  5:30
• Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group:  5:45
• Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo:  4:00
• Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors:  4:30

You get the idea. These people aren’t hitting the snooze button. They are getting up, hitting it, and making things happen.

Getting up early has its obvious benefits, and it has allowed me to write a lot of articles. But more important than the time of waking up is the simple benefit of doing it daily, habitually, and automatically.

This is the kind of daily-grind consistency that I need to push me, compel me, and make me do the stuff that I know will make me successful.

5.  I exercise.

My daily routine isn’t exactly the world’s most exciting or unique, but it works for me. Along with getting up early, there’s another way that my habitual routine helps me write.

The secret? I work out.

I’m not a bodybuilder or much of an athlete. I just try to stay healthy. I know that a healthy mind, one that can continually create articles, demands a healthy body.

According to neuroscience research, daily activity and exercise doesn’t just strengthen the body. It strengthens the mind, too. Exercise boosts happiness, improves sleep, enhances the immune system, and even creates new brain cells.

Here are a few of the studies:

• Neurobiologist Fred Gage discovered that daily exercise can help keep neurons alive and stimulate brain cell growth.
• A Princeton research project found that adult monkeys who engaged in exercise doubled the amount of brain cell production.
• A study from the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois revealed that people who exercised for 45 minutes three times weekly improved their mental-processing skills.

I can’t verify all the scientific research, but I certainly know from experience how daily exercise makes me feel, and what it helps me do.

6. I take time to envision success.

Daily writing can sound like a grind. But it’s not all agony and pain.

There are some huge benefits to being a productive blogger. I’ve built several million dollar businesses just from having a blog. I’m doing it again just for fun.

Here’s the key:  I plan for success. I dream about the success. I enjoy the success. I keep visioning that success. It drives me forward. It pushes me on.

I can’t get away from the daily practice of blogging, because I know how valuable it is. If you discovered a technique that allowed you to earn millions of dollars a year, wouldn’t you continue doing it?

That’s what keeps me going.

Conclusion

The best habits are those that drive you to create more habits, better habits, and to eventually achieve big things. The daily stuff I do — waking up, working out, sitting down at the keyboard — they are all relatively small things.

But small things grow to produce major life change. I hope that you can produce major life change. It starts with your habits. Blogging daily is one of the most valuable habits you can build.

What daily habits will you work on in order to become more successful?