Habit Question

If you were going to be 10x more successful this year than you were last year, what habits would you need to start or stop?

Consistency Is Only One of the Keys

I think “consistency” is the worst thing to happen to social media culture.

(And this is coming from the girl who has consistently blogged for 626 days in a row).

I talk with people all the time whose number one reason for not posting on social media is that they couldn’t keep up with the pressure of being consistent.

So they just stopped posting entirely.

And their project/passion/business fizzled out.

Because in our digital culture, we’ve confused consistency with perfection.

And perfection paralyzes us from taking ANY action at all.

What we think consistency on social media means:

• Posting at the same time each day

• Having a particular day of the week for livestreams

• Making sure our quote graphics fit our exact branding

• Using the same fonts all the time

• Putting the same filters on every picture

• Always writing with the same tone of voice

• Having a checkered "one-picture-then-one-quote" layout

• Planning content months ahead of time

What consistency on social media actually means:

You. Showing up. With value. Again and again.

(And if you think for a second that consistency alone is what grows a social media following, you've been duped. People don't follow you because you post Reels every day. They follow you because your content is valuable to them, no matter how often it comes out.)

Consistency is ONE of the keys to success.

But value is even key-er.

What if instead of trying to be perfectly consistent on social media, you just tried to be valuable?

Time Management is Honouring Your Decisions

There are two aspects to time management:

1. Deciding when you’ll do something

2. Honouring your decision by actually doing it then

When I first heard this idea, I was blown away. It can’t be that simple, can it?

Then I tried it. It really is.

It comes back to the idea that is always on my mind, the secret to the entire universe: Getting yourself to do the things you said you’d do.

Building in Thinking Time

There’s the time you spend doing the thing, and then there’s the time you spend getting yourself to do the thing.

Sometimes, the latter takes longer.

Emptying the dishwasher is like a 60-second job, but I can easily spend 30 minutes procrastinating doing it.

While I probably just need to hang a JUST DO IT sign on the dishwasher, there are some activities that I argue we should build in time to think about doing.

The extra time includes:

• Considering

• Thinking

• Contemplating

• Journaling

• Planning

• Organizing

• Prepping

Do you add extra buffer time to your to-do list items?

Buffer Time

I’m working really carefully on creating buffer time.

Making the time in between the tasks I have on my calendar bigger.

Scheduling in time for things to take longer than planned. For unexpected interruptions. For going back inside when I forget my phone.

It sounds like it would be straight-forward, but it’s my biggest challenge at the moment.

But slowly, I’m building buffer time into everything I do, and it feels SO good not to rush everything.

The Now or Never Clause

I’ve been walking around with a rip in my jacket for two years.

And it’s been on my list to fix it for two years.

And today, I decided to release it from my to-do list.

It’s now or never.

And sometimes, I choose never.

Even though it’s probably only a 30-minute job.

I’d rather just wear it ripped.

So I’m giving myself a Now or Never Clause.

If something on my to-do list isn’t important enough to get done now, it probably isn’t important enough to get done ever.

Goodbye, boring list of things to do that I will probably never do but feel guilty about every time I look at my list.

Good riddance.

Scheduling Thinking Time

I’ve started scheduling time in my calendar just to think.

To sit with a pen and let whatever thoughts I need to think come to me.

(My mum always says she can’t think without a pen, and I’m exactly the same).

It’s blissful to schedule this time into my calendar, instead of attempting to squeeze it in when I have a free moment.

Have you ever tried scheduling thinking into your day?

Less But Better

I’ve been a long-time minimalist, but only recently have I discovered minimalism’s chilled-out cousin, essentialism.

To me, the difference is this: Minimalism is about reducing things so you can do more of what matters.

Essentialism is reducing things so you can do less of what matters – but do it better.

Greg McKeown who has brought this idea to the mainstream world is slowly but surely changing the way I run my schedule, my day and my entire life.

You absolutely cannot miss this.

It's Okay to Show Up & Screw Up

It’s better to show up and suck at what you do than to not show up at all.
It’s about building the habit of showing up.
Sometimes I write absolutely shocking blog posts. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
Because part of the deal of writing a blog post every day for two years is that some of them are going to suck.
I’m on board with that.
One day, I’ll be able to look back and see my journey.
I already feel like my work is 10x better than it was when I started blogging – EVEN on the days when it totally sucks. At least it sucks 10x less than it did before.
But that’s only because I keep showing up and giving myself opportunities to suck at writing a little bit less.
My new mantra: showing up and screwing up is better than never showing up at all.

Self Love & Discipline

I don’t have to decide if I will show up for my goals today – because it’s not even a question. My actions are automatic.

But they weren’t always – my bestie Georgia will tell you she had to physically push PUBLISH on my first blog post for me because I had been procrastinating so much she couldn’t handle it anymore 😂

I was the WORST at getting up in the morning. I couldn’t get to work on time to save myself. 

When I stopped viewing discipline as restrictive, and started seeing it as the key to freedom, everything turned around.

You can be disciplined too.

Discipline is self love. It’s showing your future self how much you love her.

It’s doing the work in the morning so you can watch Netflix later, guilt-free.

Love yourself enough to give yourself the gift of self-discipline.