Three Easy Daily Habits To Grow Your Photography Fast
No matter what I did, I never kept more than two new habits at a time. Then I realized, one of two things happen.
One, I try to incorporate several new habits, all at once. It does not work. My focus splits across them all. This way, none of them receive the attention they should.
Two, it is easier to go one by one. Go step by step. After I adopt a new habit, I will move on to the next. The probability of success is higher this way. Every day a little bit more.
Habits are two-edged swords. Good habits add to your overall well-being. They make you healthier, smarter, and richer. Bad ones are detrimental. They make you sick, fat, and poor. Whichever dominate, direct your path towards success, or the other thing.
The power of habit is undisputed. Doing something once matters little. Repeat task the whole month for results to start showing. Repeat it for a year to become a different person altogether!
Repeating the task each day is step one of the process. Getting better at it, step two. There is an empowering rule to self-improvement: improve by 1% each day, and by year-end, you will have improved 37 times over! This is called a compound effect.
“The effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them over time” — James Clear
“Overnight success is a myth”, every successful person will tell you. It always takes longer, months, years. However, you’ll never get there, without the daily work. Showing up every day and putting in another extra 1% is what makes the “overnight success” a possibility.
“So forget about decades, forget about years, and forget about months. Focus on days.” — Austin Kleon
Here are three habits to choose from, which you can apply immediately and improve over time. Each day an extra 1%. Easy.
Habit #1: The Importance of Daily Inspiration
Feeling inspired all the time is not possible. Making an effort is while keeping the 1% rule in mind. The good news is this: everybody feels stuck, uninspired, or stuck in a creative rut at one point or another.
Inspiration comes in many shapes and forms. Different people are inspired in different ways. Some consume art in galleries, while others go out and exercise. Some read poetry while others meditate. Some browse social networks while others watch TED talks.
Inspiration leads to motivation. Motivated people act. Action is what we want! Every day! Include moments of inspiration in your daily routines. Create little cues in life which trigger your desire for motivation. Put your favorite photo book somewhere visible. You will pick it more often. Make time in your calendar to seek inspiration. Make finding inspiration a reward. Reward yourself after you finish a task. For example, “I will read my favorite photo book after I finish writing this draft.”
Trouble finding inspiration? Few ideas to get you started:
- learn something new (an Udemy course, anyone?)
- create a vision board
- change your environment
- keep a notebook (more on that later)
- learn about the history of photography
- research what others are doing
- listen to new music
- meditate
- get outside your comfort zone
- break your daily routine
- watch a great film
- reach out to new people
Waiting for your muse and she ain’t coming? Don’t wait to be inspired! Inspiration is born out of action, so grab your camera and start something new!
Habit #2 — Carry Your Camera Everywhere You Go & Use It
One of the best ways to make new habits stick is to make them accessible. Learning to play the guitar? Place it next to your couch. Want to read before sleeping? Place a book on your pillow in the morning. Practice photography every day? Carry the camera everywhere, at all times.
I take my camera with me almost everywhere. I take it to work and squeeze in a short photo walk during a lunch break. I take it to the grocery store just in case the light is great. I take it to a dinner date with my wife, because those nights are always magical. I take it when traveling to visit my family, well, because they expect me to, but more importantly, because the change of scenery inspires me. I take it hiking, rock climbing, or when I go for a coffee. Here are some images I created in situations most people would consider not bringing their camera.
For this habit to work, I swapped my kit from multiple bodies and lenses DSLR system over to a lightweight mirrorless Fuji camera with one lens only. Here are some tips on how to go about doing that:
Habit #3 — Keep Notes
Notetaking is a powerful habit for many reasons. The most important one is remembering. I never remember things I hear or read. Not at the level so I could explain the idea.
“Researchers found that if important information was contained in notes, it had a 34 percent chance of being remembered. Information not found in notes had only a five percent chance of being remembered” (Howe, 1970, in Longman and Atkinson, 1999).
It was proved many times over: note-taking creates many benefits:
- improves focus and attention to detail,
- promotes active learning,
- helps prioritize things,
- boosts comprehension and information retention,
- extends attention span,
- improves organization skills,
- increases creativity.
Here is a simple guide on making notes and important things to keep in mind. First, make note-taking a habit. Write something down every day. Have your note-taking tool of choice with you at all times. Second, remember the following: Notes should be organized, so you can revisit them later. Notes should be understandable. Your notes should include references for further research or more information. There can be sketches. You can record audio. Last, make sure to summarize long notes. Their purpose is for you to come back to them and quickly read through to remember the important stuff.
Some of the tools I use for note-taking, along with cues I created to keep this habit:
1. old-fashioned physical notebook — mine has a pencil carrier attached, so I never have to look for something to write with (quite important, you know).
cue: carry the notebook in my bag, along with the camera, it has become part of my everyday carry
- a tablet to jot down ideas — any notetaking app will do, I currently use Apple’s Notes as they now come with a neat tagging & organizing system which helps keep all the notes clear and categorized so its easy to come back to them later
cue: my Apple Notes app sits on my Dock so I can see it every time, I also created a shortcut for Siri to launch it when needed
2. phone reminders — in past months, this way of making notes has become the most powerful and useful — quickly accessible from my phone’s home screen, I can make a note whenever I come across an interesting idea and have it reminded back to me when needed. I make quick notes in my car while listening to podcasts, I make quick reminders when my “running brain” stumbles upon something I forgot to do, I remind myself to pay bills, change a broken lightbulb, create a shopping list, etc.
cue: sits on my phone and tablet home screens as a large widget, so I see it all the time. Moreover, voice assistants have become quite powerful, so I use them whenever I can to dictate my reminders: “Hey Siri, remind me to…”
3. using a “third brain” system — in my case an app called Notion. This is my centralized platform where I retain all my important and necessary information. It’s the most complex system combining my daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. It’s where I plan out my blogging, and keep a list of topic ideas. I transfer my Apple Notes to Notion so I can revisit my ideas and sketches. I keep a habit tracker there. I keep a list of books I read, with notes, takeaways, quotes, my book rating, authors, and links, so I can easily recommend them to others. I use it to archive important documents or keep a list of my favorite recipes with pictures. This way, whenever my cooing needs a bit of inspiration, I can go for it there.
cue: just as with Notes, I keep Notion at my home screen Dock so I can see it all the time. You can set up your Notion to transfer data from other apps automatically, and have it wait for you there for later need.
In the end
My goal was to show you how different habits guide your actions towards a more productive and creative life. Applying one, two, or all of these habits is up to you. The most important is to keep your habits consistent. There are few nudges you can use, even if you miss performing the habit, for whatever reason. You can have a rule never to miss more than one day. Or, you can create a mantra, which you will repeat if you don’t feel like performing the habit — for example: “you can quit tomorrow”.
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