Struggling to meet your resolution? Try a smaller one

Resolutions often fail.

We all have our reasons. For me, it’s time. I’m always busy, so adding a new recurring task means squeezing other things aside.

Take writing.

I’ve written for a while but didn’t start publishing until Ship 30 because I was inconsistent. One month I’d have written lots — the next, zip. And as Dickie Bush and Nicholas Cole point out, that’s no way to treat a customer.

The advice seems the same everywhere — write one thousand words a day.

I’ve always hated that advice. A thousand words that make any kind of sense would take me at least an hour — and a long, painful hour at that. What can I push aside to get that hour?

Not much.

Besides, pushing things aside is a short-term strategy. It might work for a while but it’s not sustainable — and it just creates a backlog of other tasks. It won’t let me build a routine.

So what to do?

James Clear has a Two-minute Rule — break the task down so you can start the first two minutes consistently and build from there. Sean McCabe suggests making resolutions smaller. So, with the help of my journal, I analysed my writing.

The answer surprised me.

An hour of writing was painful. Sometimes I’d hit a thousand words, but often not. Yet the first twenty minutes generally flowed — I’d do four hundred words without a struggle.

Finding an hour is a challenge, but twenty minutes I can do.

I can always find twenty. I did for HIIT when I needed to exercise more, despite it being a chore. It looked like I could consistently do four hundred words each day.

And so I did — the routine now worked.

The general advice was wrong for me. The goal should never have been to write a thousand words a day — but to create a consistent routine. If your resolution doesn’t let you be consistent, pick a smaller one.

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