Want to write 1,000 words a day? Start with just 100 words a day.
If even that’s too challenging, start at a sentence a day.
Pick a starting point so ridiculously easy you have no excuse not to do it.
Build momentum.
A goal tied to a potential outcome — like a number of views, followers, or sales — is never entirely in your control.
But output goals are 100% in your control - X number of blog posts written, outreach calls made, etc.
Perfection is the enemy of consistency.
As Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels famously said, “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready, it goes on because it’s 11:30.”
Consistency doesn’t have to be time-consuming.
Consistent creators develop systems to make it easier to produce and release work on a regular basis.
I do this with Twitter in order to consistently post at least four tweets a day - I write them all at once and then schedule them using Buffer.
What has helped you become a more consistent creator?
Btw, I expand on all these concepts here: https://joshspector.com/consistent-creator/
i love your small habits point. that's exactly right.
Thanks - I appreciate it.
I love this. thanks for sharing @joshspector!
Another thing that has helped me is to celebrate my small wins regularly. This ties into your "build momentum" point. It's a rare event to hit a huge milestone but I'm regularly making a small amount of progress. By celebrating when I write 100 words and not just when I hit 1 million words, I'm able to keep it up. For my celebrations I like to pause my work and play a fun song or two.
Probably the most related to #1 on your list - making something as small as possible so I can get started. I break a task down as far as I can and complete each step.
Fully agree that it's the best strategy to start with a small habit, I would even say that habit doesn't need to be related to your ultimate goal. It can be something small that will convince your inner self you're able to stick to something. Wrote about this a while ago and called it the "Minimum Viable Habit": https://medium.com/@rbouschery/find-your-minimum-viable-habit-fab7e06bf784