Last week I shared about an article by Michael Thompson and some insights from legendary investor Warren Buffett regarding one of the most valuable skills in the world: the ability to communicate well. And I believe both Thompson and Buffett would agree with this statement: Better Communication Equals Greater Success!
In his excellent article, Thompson offered 6 practical tips for honing your communication skills (to achieve greater success!). Today I want to dive into his first tip: “Develop a daily writing habit.”
Whether it’s reminders, thoughts I want to save, potential goals, strategies or tactics that I want to further evaluate in terms of importance and priority, or LinkedIn posts and articles, writing is a significant part of my daily life. I am constantly recording my thoughts and proactively foraging for great quotes, concepts, strategies, tactics, etc. in order to engage, inspire and empower the thousands of people I serve.
This daily thinking, writing, evaluating and applying what is most important has changed my life for the better!
One specific life-changing decision related to my daily writing habit has been my committing to and consistently using the Evernote app. (If you haven’t heard of Evernote, go look it up)! Evernote has made me far more effective and efficient. No matter where I am traveling in America, 24/7, I can easily either type or use voice-to-text to save and organize unlimited amounts of important thoughts, reminders, ideas, content, strategies, goals, dreams, etc. In addition, it only takes about one second to set a reminder so that Evernote will automatically bring whatever content I wish to my attention on whatever day, whatever hour, even whatever minute of a day I choose.
Many of my notes become LinkedIn posts. Other notes become articles. Other notes become e-books or even print books. Other notes become presentations and discussions I lead across America. None of this would happen if I did not consistently write on a daily basis. In my case, I am not referring to hours of writing each day. I am referring to capturing and effectively leveraging priceless wisdom, lessons learned and observations or experiences that flash through my mind throughout the day.
In conjunction with my Evernote use, another life-changing habit is how I work writing into my daily schedule. I am very active. One of my most important life habits is to “keep moving.“ I frequently walk more than an hour each day. Also, some days I spend another hour or more on a recumbent bike or other exercise equipment. Because my mobile phone is always with me, and Evernote and other apps are five seconds away, I spend virtually all of my “keep moving time” thinking, prioritizing, writing and executing on my highest priorities and annual goals. I cannot begin to describe the incredibly positive impact of this habit and using an app like Evernote on a daily basis! My most enjoyable and productive time each day is while I “keep moving,“ and leverage the incredible potential and effectiveness of an app like Evernote.
Develop a daily writing habit. It is not only fun and enjoyable, it is smart, wise and will change your life! And, with the incredible technology available to each of us today, you never have to touch a pen or a pencil or a piece of paper unless you enjoy doing that. And, you can easily save any and all of what you write for whatever length of time you desire.
By the way, for what it is worth, this entire article was written via voice-to-text while I was enjoying an hour-long walk!
