People don’t like writing.

Ok, some people don’t like writing.

It’s one of the biggest pain points I hear from clients. They don’t like to write. They struggle to come up with blog ideas. It’s something we all struggle with when we try to write.

There is some interesting research that might be something we can use to help us with our writing. This research involves acting as if the world is watching, thus giving us the feeling of obligation to write.

Act as If the World is Watching You Blog

Do you remember the last time you exercised?

Most people struggle with exercise routines.

One of the main reasons is self motivation. When we’re the only ones that care about our exercise routine it is easy to let one workout session be skipped. This is a slippery slope and one missed session turns into two and two into four.

It happens to everybody and not just with exercise.

Blogging works much the same way. It’s something many of us struggle with and we somehow convince ourselves that it is Ok to miss one post. Before long we realize we haven’t published a post in a month or six months and by then it’s too late.

Studies suggest there is a way to overcome this pattern of inconsistency.

From the Scientific American article How the Illusion of Being Observed Can Make You a Better Person:

A group of scientists at Newcastle University, headed by Melissa Bateson and Daniel Nettle of the Center for Behavior and Evolution, conducted a field experiment demonstrating that merely hanging up posters of staring human eyes is enough to significantly change people’s behavior. Over the course of 32 days, the scientists spent many hours recording customer’s “littering behavior” in their university’s main cafeteria, counting the number of people that cleaned up after themselves after they had finished their meals.

…..

The researchers found that during periods when the posters of eyes, instead of flowers, overlooked the diners, twice as many people cleaned up after themselves.

There is more in the article. Please read to discover the other findings from the study.

Simply having posters of people staring at you had the ability to change littering behavior in cafeterias. People performed better when they were conscious of others watching them…even if the people were on posters!

I think that’s a crazy, but useful breakthrough.

When blogging you can use the same technique to write better posts and to maintain a schedule.

The next time you’re feeling like you don’t have the energy or the creativity to write a post, think about the other people in the world that need to read your content. Convince yourself that the world is watching you blog. You have an obligation to these people to write something great.

The pressure should make you react in a way that lets you start writing quality posts consistently.

You can even put up a poster of your target customer on your wall. Have a photo of your actual best customer on the wall might be a little strange, but there are posters or photos available of anonymous people.

Hang them on your wall near your desk and make sure they are staring right at you.

The next time you sit down to write and you aren’t feeling motivated you’ll look up at the person on the wall and sub-consciously feel like you owe it to them to write a great blog post. You might not even realize it, but you’ll feel this obligation and it will help you publish more consistently, which is one of the main reasons blogs become successful.

Try this out and see how it works.

Then report back and share your experience in the comments.

I’m watching you ;)