Staying Consistent When Life Happens
Progress, Not Perfection
It’s been biiiig week. HUGE.
Last Monday, I packed up my life and moved back to my home city of Sydney after five intense and incredible years in London.
I was feeling energised to get into a new rhythm, connect with friends, and tackle the mountain of life admin waiting for me. But the universe had other ideas. A tickle in my throat turned out to be Covid, and I spent my first week in bed, struggling to type a coherent email.
Along with work, unpacking and social plans falling by the wayside, The Foreword dropped off my to-do list too, which is why there was no newsletter last week.
Despite knowing I wasn’t in any state to write, the guilt still crept in and weighed on me more than I expected. The mean boss (with terrible people management skills) who lives in my head kept shouting, “Why don’t you batch-create and schedule in advance?! Why didn’t you give Lilith more notice when you started feeling sick?!”
After sitting with it, I realised that breaking this streak of steady newsletter content had brought up insecurities I have around consistency.
I’m the first person to advocate for the importance of consistency when building community and momentum, but I also know how hard it can be to stay on track. It can feel like one wobble will lead to another, and topple the whole tower of cards we’ve been building. But faltering with consistency doesn’t have to define our progress.
So, all of this is to say I’m still on a journey of finding my flow, but there are a few techniques I’ve picked up along the way. Here are some realistic tips for maintaining consistency:
Find Your Frog(s)
You might have heard the phrase “eat the frog” before. It’s one of the sage pieces of advice that MONDAY co-founder Jaimee Lupton offered when we interviewed her for one of our early newsletter editions. It involves doing the task that you least want to do first to avoid procrastination. But after attempting to take on this advice, I realised that I wasn’t actually aware of which tasks I enjoyed least. So, I created a list each morning, one with my priorities in order of urgency and one in order of what I was most excited to do. After a few weeks, the patterns became pretty clear, and were actually surprising. Turns out I enjoy admin way more than I thought I did, and social media content creation way less.
Work to Your Strengths
Once you’ve found your frog(s), it’ll be a lot clearer as to which tasks you can start “eating” first or which need to be reassessed. There will always be jobs we don’t love, and no role is 100% fun, but if something is being bumped off the to-do list day after day, it might be worth speaking to your manager about how this could become a smaller part of your role, or how you can tackle it consistently. Rather than complaining about that particular task, make a case for how much more you’ll get done if you focus on what you enjoy and are great at. And freelancers and small business owners, there’s no shame in outsourcing!
Done is Better Than Perfect
I’ve mentioned this one many times before, but this piece of advice honestly changed my life. Sometimes, I get frozen by perfectionism to the point where I’m putting a task off because I don’t feel like I can complete it to my full potential. Practice freeing yourself from an overachievement mindset by focusing on progress over perfection. Break tasks into smaller, less intimidating steps, or set a timer and finish the task within it, no matter the result.
Gamify the Process
We might have grown-up jobs and responsibilities, but we still have monkey brains that just want to be rewarded. Whether this is a points system, a rewards chart or a progress tracker, turn consistency into a game to motivate yourself to keep going. If something is more effort than enjoyment, trick yourself into making it more fun.
Reframe Guilt as Growth
Like a lot of women, guilt is a frequent emotion for me (in case that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I find it helpful to try and reframe these uncomfortable feelings when they’re becoming overwhelming in a work context. The fun little spiral that I find myself in usually goes: Breaking consistency or giving up on something > feeling like a failure> feeling guilty > feeling ashamed > anxiety > repeat. It’s not easy, but when that voice starts to suggest that I’m a failure, I’ll write down what I’ve learned, how I might grow from the experience and what I’m doing well. Next time those feelings arise, do the same and look back on all the positive insights.
Missing Perspectives’ High Agency Women
One of our favourite platforms, Missing Perspectives, just launched a new partnership with Blackbird VC, which features conversations with female founders about what they’re building and how they are building it. One of their recent instalments was with Marina Sano and Jing Xuan Teo of Amplify Bookstore, who we interviewed back in 2020 and have loved watching go from strength to strength since. I can’t wait to see which other inspiring founders are featured in the series.
Taste Maker
Help! I’m addicted to subscribing to recommendations-based newsletters! This time, it’s Taste Maker, a food guide from creatives, artists and professional eaters. The foodies featured share their top dishes, restaurants, cafes and dream dinner companions. Most guests are from Naarm/Melbourne, so when I make my next trip down, I can eat my way through the city courtesy of its coolest flavour connoisseurs.
Lydia Wood Drawings
It’s only been one week, and I’m already feeling nostalgic about London. During the 2020 lockdowns, artist Lydia Wood began sketching her local pub, The Blythe Hill Tavern, and soon expanded to create line drawings of establishments across London. Now, The Pub Project has her aiming to draw every pub in London—that’s around 3,500! If you’ve spent time in the UK, you’ll know how important pubs can be to the fabric of local life and culture, and I think it’s such a sweet way to honour iconic social spaces.