Writing my Book "Happy Habits" in Public 📖 Part 1

Nothing beats creating a digital product in public and sharing the progress. All of a sudden I decided to fulfil my long-term idea to write a book about habits as a play on words with my last name.

Easter Saturday evening at Coogee Beach in Sydney, one of my favourites

Initially I only wanted to sit down and read a Kindle ebook I just bought, Discipline by

J.R. Heimbigner

- what he calls a “mini book” with less than 100 pages. And it inspired me to write my own!

Sitting at the vibrant atmosphere of Sydney’s relaxed Coogee Beach just by myself, I watched the waves come and go, enjoyed a yummy Danish ice cream and opened the mentioned book.

Born in Germany and living in Switzerland before moving to Australia reminds me about the power of discipline which is one of the habits I developed myself.

As an example I posted 6 weekly episodes about Social Selling on LinkedIn and forgot to stop - now I’m 333 weeks in. That series turned into a Meetup group, a webinar series (44th episode upcoming Monday) and two books about LinkedIn - even my former role at Hootsuite started from that series.

Yes, discipline works well once the habits are built combining why and what for whom.

As a play on words of my last name I wanted to write a book about habits for a very long time. Surely not a masterpiece such as Atomic Habits of James Clear - rather a shorter, practical book. And now J.R.’s mini book became the trigger.

Typically I start with a rough concept before heading to the cover. Who is the best buddy to ask for it? Well, ChatGPT developed nicely over the last 2.5 years, and it knows very well what and how I write.

Recently I created my own custom GPT called ConnectGPT (that’s all about personalised connection invites on LinkedIn and Substack) based on my books and posts.

So I developed the concept together with ChatGPT as my buddy, also as a mini book. What’s so special about that format?

J.R. Heimbigner explained concept and power of that format in his recent Medium article, Why I Believe In The Power Of Mini Books, And You Should Give Them A Try.

“Living in a world filled with distractions, time constraints, and endless content” creates “a desire for people who crave quick solutions to their problems. And when they want an authority, the look for short books with specific answers.”

My LinkedIn book Connect & Act sports 42,000 words across 164 pages which took me 120 hours to produce - up to the launch in Sydney plus two virtual launches. My mum’s recent book Parkinson’s, so what? with only 16,000 words over 88 pages fits more to the mini book size.

Good thing: those can be written and published much faster!

The well-known Coogee Pavilion as a magnet in Sydney’s nightlife

After one hour back and forth at the beach with a view to the stunning Coogee Pavilion (too loud to write inside on a Saturday night) I had a decent idea not just for one book but a whole series.

I would call the series Happy Habitz like the spelling of my last name with a range of books to consider writing:

1. Happy Habits about developing better habits

2. Brainstorm Buddy about clever usage of AI

3. Digital Discipline about finding focus

4. Addiction Attention about scrolling kilometres of Instagram feed

5. Distraction Detox about the downside of social media

6. Curiosity Code about developing ideas

7. Purposeful Priorities about finding meaningful directions

As ChatGPT knows me well, it remembered my passion for alliteration.

Was it all my idea or did I outsource that? Taking the concept of Brainstorm Buddy ahead, I take it as a sounding board to assemble my puzzle elements faster than I would do. So it remains my thought process.

A lot of room to breathe and let thoughts flow around

But with so many books about habits on the market (James Clear’s Atomic Habits might be the most famous example), what can I really add without being a practicing scientist explaining decades of experience in research?

I relocated to the impressive bar of Sydney’s Swissôtel for a late drink and worked on the concept of the book with my own angle.

Working in technology partnerships in the marketing technology industry as main profession for two decades, I realised that this is exactly what I would add - we’re not alone in personal development. Improving good habits and eliminating bad habits is better and easier with an accountability partner.

Therefore I added partnership to the concept of my book which lists a range of own experience, added by the key concepts from four famous books which I know for a while. Here are the main quotes I found:

1. “Before you can change your habits, you must first recognise them.”

   - Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit

2. “Emotions create habits. Not repetition. Not frequency. Emotions.”

   - BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits

3. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

   - James Clear, Atomic Habits

4. “The right people will help you achieve the right things.”

   - Greg McKeown, Essentialism

These four parts built the concept of my book (four is my lucky number) with all of them having an intro, three chapters, one page with external voice from an expert out of my network, a summary, and a set of three tasks.

Here is the concept in a visual overview (ChatGPT improved image creation a lot over the last year):

The concept of my book turned out into 4 P’s

Heading towards 18,000 words in total, it still qualifies as a mini book in the definition shared above.

Besides this book I’m creating my own book writing program called “Write Your Book Backwards” where I suggest writing and launching a non-fiction book in 42 days. Is that realistic knowing that Connect & Act took me four months while working full time?

Actually yes, for a focused mini book in the 72-128 pages scope it will work. Those who know me longer might remember that I have a networking series on LinkedIn called #42coffees - so it is my second favourite number. And it represents seven weeks. With the right concept it will be possible - and I now put it to a test.

Tracking the progress on a daily base helps to estimate when the book will be ready. Here is my example:

My book tracking process reusing a layout template from another book

I will keep you posted next week about the progress - with a bit of luck I will have my first full draft ready.

To all published authors in my network: how did you create your book concept? Keen to learn from fellow writers!