How do you reward yourself for a job well done?
You reached your word count for the day. You plotted your novel, finished a chapter, or sent your book off for edits.
It’s time to celebrate! So what do you do? Reach for that frosted brownie? Indulge in a bowl of ice cream? Grab a bag of salty potato chips? Head out for your favorite fast-food hamburger or taco?
It’s what we all do—some of us too often as evidenced by the numbers on our scales. Especially after a year or more of lockdowns where we had few other choices, many of us have gotten far too accustomed to reaching for food every time we desire a reward for our hard work.
If this type of habit has your clothes fitting a little tighter than you’d like, read on for some tips on why food is such an enticing and satisfying reward. Then find 20 non-food rewards that you may enjoy just as much—or more.
Why Is Food the Perfect Reward?
Food is the perfect reward for three main reasons.
- It’s fast and easy.
It’s always available. Most of the time, all we have to do is walk to the refrigerator or cupboard. At most, we must drive to the corner store or fast-food restaurant.
- It satisfies both the body and mind.
Food not only feels good in the mouth and tastes delicious, it triggers the release of feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain, often leaving us feeling happier than we were before.
- It’s consistently rewarding.
Food is reliable. It works every time. This is why some types of food that are most rewarding (high-sugar, high-salt, and high-fat types) can become addictive.
Besides these three main reasons, food can also remind us of positive experiences in the past. Certain dishes may be associated with friends and family and the warm feelings we have when we’re with them.
It’s easy to see, then, why food can be hard to resist when we seek to reward ourselves. How can we change this habit?
Writers Can Choose Alternate Rewards
We human beings are driven by our desire for rewards. It’s what motivates us to go after our goals again and again.
This is the drive that compels you to write and submit and publish. Your desired reward may differ from someone else’s, but it’s the reward that you’re after.
You shouldn’t deny yourself, as rewards are important to your continued progress. Instead, replace the food rewards with other types of rewards. Most are not as easy or convenient as food, but they are likely to be healthier for you, and in the long run, better for your writing career.
Below are 20 possible rewards that may work for you. After reviewing this list, feel free to add some of your own. What matters is finding those rewards that will help motivate you to reach your daily word count, submit your stories, and publish your books again and again, without expanding your waistline.
20 Non-Food Rewards for Writers Who Work Hard
1. Listen to a Podcast
There are many excellent podcasts out there today about writing, publishing, book marketing, and more. Listening to one of them can be motivating and encouraging, and may give you that reward you’re looking for. To get you started, here are three that I’ve enjoyed, but there are many more:
2. Watch an Inspiring Ted Talk or Video
Listening to an experienced writer talk about the writing process, or even a speaker talking about creativity or motivation, can leave you feeling a lot better than you would after eating a bowl of ice cream. I will often choose to listen to authors I admire. Doing so can help me feel more empowered to overcome my own challenges.
3. Get Yourself a Writerly Treat
If you’re like most writers, you love visiting the office store. All those pens, notebooks, journals, papers, computers, and printers! It’s heaven. Take yourself there as a reward and get something that makes you happy.
4. Take a Half or Full Day Off
After working hard, you need a break. Take a mental health day and allow yourself to do whatever you want to do. Don’t feel guilty about it! You deserve it.
5. Spruce Up Your Writing Nook with Fresh Flowers
Whether you gather them from your flower garden or get them from the store, fresh flowers can add cheer and color to your writing nook. You’ll feel a little more special with them around.
6. Spend an Afternoon at the Library or Bookstore
Allow yourself a few hours to just drift through rows of bookshelves. You know you’ll love it!
7. Test Drive Your Dream Car
Do you have a car you’d love to own? Or maybe one of your characters drives a particular vehicle. Either way, why not go find one and take it for a spin? You’ll have a fun adventure and you may gain some wisdom you can use when writing your next chapter. Even better—take a selfie next to it and use that as your profile picture!
You could also just go for a drive. We rarely allow ourselves the time to do this anymore, but it can be a great way to get your imagination humming while shedding some stress, particularly if you head out to the country roads.
8. Go to a Matinee
Feel like a kid again when you sneak out to see a matinee. If you want to justify the expense, spend some time reviewing the plot when you leave. It’s great practice if you’re working on identifying the hook, inciting incident, turning points, climax, and all the rest.
9. Indulge In Your Favorite Hobby
Hobbies aren’t self-indulgent—they’re good for you. (Read more: “5 Important Reasons Why Writers Need Hobbies.”) They inspire creativity and can even help you overcome writing problems. Whatever your favorite hobby is—knitting, playing a musical instrument, painting, crafting—give yourself some time to enjoy it without guilt.
10. Call a Good Friend
With social media and email, we’re not talking to each other as much these days as we used to. That’s a shame, as visiting with a good friend or family member can be one of the most rewarding things you can do. Pick up the phone and instead of scrolling, dial!
11. Book an Author Photo Shoot
As an author, your image matters, particularly in today’s publishing industry where most of your readers are likely to recognize you by your photographs. If you’ve reached a significant milestone in your writing career, find a quality photographer and schedule a photoshoot. Dress for the occasion and enjoy yourself. The investment is worth it and will help you put your best image forward for years to come.
12. Remodel Your Writing Nook
How long has it been since you’ve spruced up your writing nook? Reward yourself by clearing the clutter and adding a few fun knickknacks, or go full out with new paint and materials. Find more on this topic: “How to Boost Focus & Productivity with a Writing Space Makeover.”
13. Hire Yourself an Editor or Book Doctor
One of the best investments writers can make is in themselves, yet we often resist for fear that we don’t deserve it. The more you invest, however, the better a writer you’re likely to become, so use this as one of your frequent rewards. If you reach a writing goal, hire an editor or book doctor to look over your story and help you improve it.
14. Take a Day Trip
You can use this time to research a location in your story, or simply get out and expose yourself to something new. Writers need novelty in their lives, as without it we can get dull and our writing can become stale. (Read more: “How to Balance Routine and Novelty to Boost Writing Productivity.”)
15. Have Your Favorite Cup of Coffee or Tea
Most writers have one—a favorite hot beverage. Maybe you love a certain Starbucks coffee or a unique blend of herbal teas. Whatever it is, make yourself a cup and allow yourself to enjoy it sip by sip.
16. Go for a Walk
Few things go together as well as writers and walking. In How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990), novelist Orson Scott Card has suggested that it’s “worth the time to take an hour’s walk before writing. You may write a bit less for the time spent, but you may find that you write better.”
(Read more: “What Famous Writers Know About Walking.”)
Walking boosts creativity and cognition, and because it’s a form of exercise, it increases those same feel-good neurotransmitters as your favorite food does.
Take your camera with you (or snap some pictures on your smartphone) to make your walk even more creative, or bring along an audiobook to get in some “free” reading time.
17. Take a Luxurious Bubble Bath
One of the things that make food so rewarding is that it appeals to our senses. A hot bath can do the same, particularly if you add some nice-smelling bath salts or essential oils. To beef up the reward, light some candles and put on your favorite music.
18. Get a Manicure or Pedicure
Most people feel these procedures are relaxing, and they leave you feeling more attractive and put together. Choosing your colors can be fun and creative and can make you feel more alive.
19. Go for a Bike Ride
Just like a walk can get your endorphins pumping, so too can a bike ride, with some added velocity.
20. Give Yourself a Facial
Skin care is important not only to help you look your best but for your overall health too. Your skin acts as a barrier between you and all the dangerous microbes in the world, and the healthier it is, the better job it can do of protecting you.
Take 30 minutes to an hour to enjoy a moisturizing mask, then finish it off with a spray toner and luxurious cream. Or focus on your eyes, which are always overworked in writers! Get one of those cooling moisturizing masks that go over the eyes, lay back, and let it do its magic.
What non-food rewards motivate you?
It would be great fun to go fishing, something I haven’t done in years. I’d want an old-fashioned cane pole with a red and white bobber, worms for bait, a jug of ice water, a big straw hat, and a good book (for when the fish aren’t biting).
I love that image of you out there fishing, Pat! I hope you get to do that soon! Sounds like the perfect reward for a hard-working author. :O)
Love #s 3 & 6. Shopping for pens, notebooks, diaries is the best except for maybe shopping for books (#6) and shoes!
When I read the title, I thought there can’t possibly be 20 Non-food rewards. But really all of them are great ideas!
Ha ha ha. I’m with you, Joanna. Thanks! Glad you liked them. I was kind of surprised myself!
Walking in nature is always good, and it improves our health.
So true. A good one to do whenever we can.
Although it involves more writing, I love to “chill” with a crossword puzzle. It stimulates the mind and, like playing a game, it’s satisfying. And–it’s finite.
Another thing I like to do–but I have to limit it–is watch a Hallmark movie that I’ve already seen! I can’t watch violence, and a new good “film” can give me nightmares. If I were to tell anyone, especially someone who knows me as a writer–of serious novels–they’d lose respect for me. But I also like to watch the plot unfold and not the exact moments that the movie always has–like a formula but also done in a new way.
I read (and re-read) serious books and love watching them unfold, noting structure; collecting lists of verbs, and most of all, experiencing a universal truth. But these times are for when I’m rested. You always know a Hallmark movie won’t “bite” you, and you always know it will end happily ever after.
Nice idea, Marion. I like word searches myself! As for Hallmark movies–studies say that comfortable TV shows can actually relieve stress–looks like you already knew that! And yes a good way to examine plot. Checking the time stamp at different points in the film can be educational–most apparently have certain plot points at around the same time.
Yes—all good stress-relieving ideas. Thanks for sharing! :O)