Ferate's 5: 5 Ideas To Become More Consistent. (022)

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I recently had a conversation with Jonathan Watts, Author of Chasing Greatness, and he asked me a question that I have to share with you. This dude is killing it and I am excited to not only read his book but also have him on the podcast soon. He is 23 years old and already self-published his first book. Incredible, I got tons to learn.

Check out his website & book here: https://www.chasegreatness.net/ 

Follow him at https://twitter.com/jonathan__watts 

During our conversation, we connected over our interests in reading, the greats, podcasting, and writing! Also, crazy how health and performance always come into the mix, he previously was pursuing coaching and then made the pivot to entrepreneurship and business.

He asked “with so many different things going on, so many projects to dive into, how do I stay consistent?”

What a heavy hitter…. So here’s insight into what I shared with him and few ideas that hit me later.

First, it is improving your relationship and the story you tell yourself. Deep down I know I am consistent, but there is also that little voice that tells me I am not. That little whisper pushes me to be more consistent. Blessing and a curse. I know I am consistent but that little voice is also telling me I am not which keeps me on the consistency track.

Second, VITAL TO DEFINE WHAT CONSISTENCY MEANS TO YOU! Daily deposits or once per week? What does being consistent mean to you? What is the measuring stick you are using for your effort and commitments?

5 Ideas To Become More Consistent.

Parkinson’s Law

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Set strict time constraints for your deep work.

James Clear shared this idea on several podcasts about switching from writing his newsletter full-time to experimenting with applying Parkinson's Law to his writing process. As an experiment, he tried to condense the writing process by setting a strict time limit of one hour for crafting his newsletter. Think about that… 1 vs. upward to 40 hours per week.

Becoming more focused and writing more efficiently when using time as a non-negotiable rule. Forcing him to distill his thoughts and produce a concise, high-quality newsletter in a shorter amount of time.

Think about that one project we all had in college. The same amount of work was accomplished in 3 months to finish and one late night of cramming.

Pay Yourself First from Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Using the idea of pulling out money from your paycheck first to invest in yourself. Before paying all the necessities you make the most important thing the priority, you!

Same idea for your time. Paying yourself first by committing that fresh energy to the things you WANT TO DO.

I have been there, you do all the to-do’s that day and then finally at the end of the day you “try” to work out and invest in yourself. Way tougher than training first thing in the morning. Feeling accomplished after training no matter what happens the rest of the day. Shout out to Cathedral Coffee for that early morning investment.

Daily Deposits & Counting Commitments.

Define what your daily deposit is. Can be investing in your health or in Jonathan’s and my case writing or podcasting for even 20-30 minutes. Asking yourself what could I do right now that my future self would be stoked about?

Small little deposits every day start to add up and compound. Building off of each other just like Will Smith’s famous story of treating each day like your laying brick. Focusing on laying each brick (day) the absolute best you can and after a while without even realizing it, you have a wall full of your best days.

Steven Pressfield author of The War of Art and several other books has an incredible passage about daily deposits and counting commitments. This is one of my absolute favorites that I revisit often.

Design Your Ideal Day In Detail.

Design your day, design your week, and design your life. Write out what would be your ideal or perfect day in detail. Identify when then decide what specifically you are working on. Design what your ideal day looks like by including all of the other commitments like work, commute, and your relationships.

Include it all. Then ask “Why?”. I like why Wednesdays and why weekends, diving into why I made those decisions. Is that what I wanted? Can I get into more detail about how I am spending my time and how I could better spend my energy?

Tim Ferriss DAY BLOCKING.

This one I haven’t been able to put into practice as much. I love the concept because I AM SO GUILTY OF TASK SWITCHING. The hardest part for our brain is switching between one task and another. Work, twitter, oh shit new podcast, work, “Hey how’s it going? What’s up?”, oh it’s sunny outside nice, then back to work. That is my soul’s kryptonite.

Time Ferriss has shared a process where you block out days instead of hours. Making one day about a specific project and everything it needs. Hypothetically, Tim Ferriss works on the 5 Bullet Friday Newsletter on Monday so it is ready to be emailed out. All podcast responsibilities are on Tuesday. This could be recording, editing, research, lining up future guests, discussing sponsorship contracts, and more.

The goal is deep work, eliminating task switching, and reducing decision fatigue. BLACK & WHITE ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT, WHAT IS URGENT, WHAT IS BOTH, and WHAT IS NEITHER.

I would love to hear what you connected with the most, how you wrestle with consistency in your own life, and what specifically you are trying to be consistent with. INTERESTED IN A WEEKLY or MONTHLY ACCOUNTABILITY TEXT? Hit me up, I got you!

Keep killin it, stacking your daily deposits, and making every day the best day of the year until tomorrow.

Bryant Ferate