Pick what you love 😍
It's impossible to stay consistent unless you truly love what you're doing. You can force yourself to be consistent for a few days, weeks, or even months, but you can't stay consistent at something you don't genuinely care about.
As long you pick something you love, even during the most challenging times, you can (and should!) go back to the why. When we're stressed and losing hope, it's often because we are focusing too much on the task ahead and not enough on the reason we were initially inspired to tackle such an ambitious task. Think back to the moment you fell in love with what you do and remind yourself of what continues to motivate and inspire you.
Write down your why and your big picture goal so you truly articulate them. Tape them to your wall near your bed or your desk. When you're feeling down, read them again.
Break down goals into smaller pieces 🥖
While it's important to be ambitious, tackling overly ambitious goals too quickly can make us feel discouraged - setting goals that are too large can actually be counterproductive. Instead, take your overarching goal and break it down into bite sized steps. Write these steps down and schedule time to do each on your calendar, so you can feel confident you can get to each task to reach your goal in a known time frame.
Reflect on how far you've come 📖
Day to day we always feel like we're fighting fires or treading water. We don't feel like we're making much progress and constantly feel like we're running out of time. If we just consider what we've done or what happened each day, we rarely feel especially motivated or accomplished.
When you're feeling down or like you're spinning your wheels, take a moment to reflect on how far you've come. I promise you - even just making a list of what you've done in the past month will help you inspire yourself.
Focus on the process, not the outcome 🚗
Outcomes of course have a material impact on your business, but they're partly or even largely outside of your control. If you focus solely on the outcomes, you'll easily be discouraged when things you can't control go wrong. You'll leave your motivation at the mercy of random variables. While you should still track your outcomes, focus on the process. Be proud of the energy you've put in, the work you've produced, the lessons you've learned, the ways in which you've grown as a person, and the people you've met along the way.
Theme your weeks 📅
Most people find context switching hard. Switching from writing a blog post one hour to marketing our content the next to taking photos the next is inefficient and even disorienting. To reduce or avoid context switching all together, list out the overarching categories of work you typically do - maybe it's writing, marketing, managing, filming, and planning. Dedicate entire days or even weeks to one category before moving onto the next. Rotate through your categories at the frequency that makes the most sense for your work.
Get into a cadence 🎵
Do things at the same time each day. Getting yourself to do something can be hard enough - adding the additional complexity of deciding when you'll do it each day or week just creates greater friction, another road block on your way to staying consistent. By doing things at the same or similar times each day or week, you get your mind and body into a pattern - after a while, you'll naturally gravitate toward and feel ready to do your task at these regular intervals.
Bake in flexibility 🤸♂️
Don't be too rigid. Craft a system where missing a few days or even a few weeks won't be world ending. You never know what may come up, and things almost always take longer to come together than we optimistically imagine, so it's wise to build in a buffer, a margin of safety. That way, you won't feel stressed or discouraged even when the unexpected happens.
Create a nice work space 💡
If you don't love your work space, it's hard to love your work. Splurge a bit to create a great work space. Buy the fancy monitor, get the cool wall paper, move your desk to a place with natural light, go shopping for house plants - it's all worth the investment. If you're excited to physically be at your work space, you'll find it easier to motivate yourself to do your best work.
Reward yourself 🎁
We all need something to look forward to. When you reach a meaningful milestone, treat yourself. Take yourself out to a nice dinner, go on a little trip, or buy yourself a present.
Have boundaries ❕
Breaks can feel unproductive, but boundaries truly make us better. We do better work when you give ourselves time to take breaks, enjoy the weekend, watch a movie at night, exercise in the mornings, or spend time with family over the holidays. You'll come back to your work feeling more refreshed and able to be more productive.
Have an accountability buddy 👯
Working alone is tough. Find a friend or fellow creator who is also working toward staying consistent. Check in with each other via text. Keep each other posted on your progress. Lift each other up when feeling down. Celebrate key milestones together. Brainstorm new ways to stay consistent together. Share tips with each other.
With these 11 tips, you're well on your way to consistency and success. Try a new one each week and let us know which ones are most game changing for you 🚀
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