At some point in your life, you will have come across this term, probably from a YouTuber, a motivational video, or someone writing a newsletter.
The sales pitch is straightforward: Apply consistency to your life and achieve the unachievable. The accompanying pictures and videos convince you this is the missing piece.
You think… Once you apply consistency
It’s over for everybody. Two weeks go by. And you’re back where you started.
It’s not consistency. It’s you…
01What You Are Doing Wrong
All you end up doing is creating a negative relationship with consistency in your mind. This negative relationship eventually reaches a discomfort threshold. Cross this threshold and you’re back to square one.
The mistake here is associating the completion or achievement of a goal with consistency. So if the goal doesn’t happen, there is no reward. No reward signals to the brain:
“This is not working. We’re wasting time.”
If it happens enough times during your teething phase with consistency, you will give up. Here’s an example:
- If you set a time block every week to do the laundry, your reward is clean laundry at the end of the block.
- If you set a time block every week to clean the house, your reward is a clean house at the end of the block.
- If you set a time block every week to complete your website, your reward at the end of the block is…
See the problem?
Websites take longer to build. There is no immediate reward. At least not according to this implementation.
It takes around 66 days to form a new habit. You will have given up by day 14. This is the internet, so it should be obvious you’ve been doing it wrong all along.
At least that’s how I found out.
Jokes aside, the problem lies in the way consistency is marketed. We see consistency as showing up every day and doing the thing that needs to be done so we can achieve the unachievable.
This is the worst possible way to implement consistency in your life.
02What you need to do right
I’ll be direct here: Implementing consistency requires implementing a plan. Saying you’re going to be consistent is not going to work.
First: Timebox your day.
Timeboxing can be thought of as an agile methodology where you allocate a set amount of time for each activity, task, or project. This set amount of time is called a timebox.
Second: Break your goals down.
Let’s say your goal is to complete your website in two weeks.
This is what consistency will look like:
- Monday, 3–5 pm → Build About Me page
- Tuesday, 2–5 pm → Build Blog page
- Wednesday, 3–5 pm → Build Sign-up page
- Thursday, 1–3 pm → Build Home page
- Friday, 3–5 pm → Review and cleanup
It’s objective, reward-based and manageable.
You then update the calendar for next week based on what’s left. You can break your goals down as small as you want but they must be completed within the block you designate.
Your job, then, is simple: Show up and do the work.
To Summarize
What you’ve done is give yourself a map to navigate consistency.
You know exactly what you need to do to stay consistent. You know when to do it. You’ve reduced resistance in your brain by providing a navigable structure. Now the goal is to stick to it for 66 days.
Top tip: Do not structure your weekends. Go wild.
This is all there is to implementing consistency the right way.
Seriously. I checked.
