The difficulty of maintaining daily habits

Sticking to your daily habits is hard.

We often know what we should be doing, yet another day goes by without doing the task.

Another day not going to the gym.

Another day being distracted from your goals.

Another day not making time for focused work.

These days compound and add up over time.

Another week, month, or year passes without making progress.

How can I make time for the things that matter most?

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In the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about habits.

Since James Clear released his book, “Atomic Habits,” many people have been working to implement the strategies he shares about.

One of the main principles in this book is the idea of making each thing you do as digestible as possible.

Rather than overwhelming yourself with a massive tasks that seems impossible in the moment – break that task down into smaller, easy-to-do action steps.

James’ theory is that this will build confidence and momentum towards maintaining the habits that you want to be doing consistently.

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Making Time for Important Tasks

Since finally reading the book earlier this year, I too have been working to implement some of these ideas.

For me, maintaining a daily writing habit is my main goal.

This is the lever-moving task that benefits both my business and my mental health greatly.

When I fail to write regularly, it is evident in my thinking, behavior, and idea generation.

It’s a task that affects much more than just a checkbox on the to-do list.

With this in mind – I still have struggled to keep up with this habit, especially in the past month or so.

But why is that?

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Done Is Better Than Perfect

My theory is that we like to trick ourselves into believing that something needs to be perfect in order to make it worthwhile.

If I want to write every day, I often believe each day has to be some kind of masterpiece in order to fulfill the habit.

But really this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Habits are meant for consistency – not perfection.

Daily habits provide the practice you need to get better at something. This daily practice compounds over time, allowing exceptional growth in the long term.

One of the greatest barriers I face when maintaining this daily writing habit is making the time to do it.

From my personal experience, the best time to write is first thing in the morning.

The earlier the better.

Hop out of bed. Chug some water. Open up the laptop. Start typing.

Some of my most productive days consisted of 5:00am alarms so I could write for 60+ minutes straight away.

There’s just something about early mornings that provides virtually NO distractions, and allows my ideas to flow in a unique way.

I’m not sure of the science behind it all, but my brain just seems to be firing at the right speed and capacity directly out of bed – allowing for some of the best writing sessions to take place.

But… getting out of bed at 5:00 or 6:00am isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

In fact, it’s usually terrible!

So, what then?

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Make It Easy

Here are a few steps to make sticking to your habits easier:

• Done is better than perfect.
  • Writing 400 words is better than 0
  • Going to the gym for 20 minutes is better than not showing up
  • 30 minutes of focused work is better than not trying at all
• Make time for it. (and put it on your schedule)
  • Experiment with what time of day you “do your thing”
  • Remember it’s more enjoyable than your mind makes it out to be
  • If it’s not scheduled, it won’t happen
• Make it easy.
  • Prepare everything you can to make it as easy as possible:
    • Lay out your gym clothes the night before
    • Prepare writing topics the night before
    • Turn on “do not disturb” mode and limit distractions

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The Verb Becomes the Noun

Writers write.

Runners run.

Readers read.

Artists create.

The verb makes the noun.

If you want to be a certain way, do something enough to convince yourself it’s true.

Confidence comes from repeated action, not repeated thought.

Don’t overthink – overdo.

Explore new ways of making your daily habit as easy as possible.

Reduce friction to make it happen more often.

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Finding what works best for you is one of the first ways to unlock your potential.

When you find a method that clicks – double down on it.

You’ll produce more than you ever thought possible.

You’ll be more creative than ever before.

You will have become the noun.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

It just matters that you do it.

Over and over again.

–Eric Pfohl