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How to stay consistent when you have no time
Doing the boring things well
Liam Sandford
October 18, 2023
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How to stay consistent when you have no time
Consistency is hard. It used to be my biggest downfall to achieving goals. I often didn’t feel like showing up and in those moments I chose not to. I took action inconsistently and I made little progress on anything. For me inconsistency looked like once every couple of months.
Despite what people tell you, consistency does not mean every day. ‘Daily habits’ have become the culture in the entrepreneur and creator communities, but how does that work when you have a 9-5, family commitments, a side business, and many other plates spinning at one time?
To me, consistency is showing up when you say you will. Leaving no time to negotiate with yourself. Whether it is a speaking habit, writing a newsletter, or learning a new skill, putting time aside and when you get to that time actually doing it. If once a week is all you can handle without overwhelming your schedule that should be your target. It must be realistic.
Realistic targets
If you know you can’t take action on your goal at the same time every day that is an unhelpful target. I take weekends off, meaning my target to show up is at most 5 days a week, and often it is less.
Setting realistic targets through consistency has led to:
Writing and publishing my first book in 6 months
Writing my second book in 6 months (more on this soon)
Publishing on social media every day for the past 750 days
Publishing a weekly newsletter for the past 48 weeks
Hosting 194 X (Twitter) Spaces in the past 2 years
This wouldn’t have been possible without the target of 3-5 days a week showing up for 1-2 hours. Usually that target time is spent an hour before work and an hour after work. Building it either side of a routine you already have makes it easier to make your reality.
Do the boring stuff well
It’s not just about the fun stuff. In any goal there are tasks you don’t find that exciting. You have to do the boring stuff well and do it when you need to. It would be easy to avoid or push down the road, but doing the less fun tasks mean you can get to the fun bit and really make progress.
Consistency in itself can be considered boring. You are showing up often, even when it would be easier not to. But easy is not what you want, fulfilment is.
This is where systems work well. With a system you have a set way of doing things to increase productivity and efficiency in getting the task done. People with systems go far because they know how, when, and what effort is required to complete even the most dull of tasks so they can get to what they really want to be working on.
Removing procrastination
The trouble is, you sit down at your designated timeslot to take action and spend 30 minutes figuring out what you’re going to do, then falling out of the mood and nothing gets done. I had this trouble when I started writing Effortless Public Speaking, until I started creating the 5 minute plan.
The five minute plan is a quick five bullet point plan that takes place the night before. The process is incredibly simple:
Schedule 5 minutes the night before you are planning to complete the task
In 5 bullet points outline the specific actions you are going to take
The next day, follow the bullet points one by one
Spending 5 minutes outlining your plan the night before gets you thinking about the task ahead of time. This makes it easy for you to start as soon as you sit down to do it. You don’t need to figure out what you are going to do because it is already planned out and it’s fresh in your mind.
Actionable takeaways
Set realistic targets on when you can show up. Consistency does not have to mean every day.
For the boring stuff, don’t ignore it. Instead get it out the way. Systems is the most effective way to do this.
Create your 5 minute plan before taking action. It will ensure you know the exact steps you will take when you come to take action on your goal.
If you can say something in 5 words, why use 10?
Brief is better.
Simple is better.
— Liam Sandford (@liamsandford)
2:06 PM • Oct 15, 2023
That's all for today!
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