We humans are creatures of habit. That's good, most of the time, like when we go to the gym regularly or get up at the same time every day or refrain from dangling raw chicken over alligator-infested waters.
But like all things human, there's a negative flip side to habits: getting in a rut. The phrase, perhaps unsurprisingly, originates from the 1800s when our ancestors traveled in covered wagons. Over time, the repeated weight of so many wagon wheels covering the same ground dug grooves in the dirt and mud. Getting stuck in a rut led to an unasked for inertia, one in which it proved difficult if not impossible to regain momentum.
Take our writing habits, for example.
Writing in the same place at the same time and with the same tools, beverages, and environmental sounds do much to build consistency. And consistency, friends, is the chief goal of a writing habit in the first place.
Ah, but the benefit of such a habit flies right out the window and off with the breeze when we are struggling to self-edit. Revising under the same circumstances in which we created the thing in the first place can prove a hindrance to (or total impasse in front of) the mental shape shift that focused and fruitful editing requires.
Next time you sit down (or stand up!) to edit, take your work to a different place (literal and figurative) from the one in which you compose. You can choose quiet (library), public (coffee shop), or distracted (while in a car or subway). Even going to a different room in your home works. If you normally play background music, turn it off or switch up the genre.
By changing our environment, even subtly, our brains understand that we're doing something different.