How To Stay Consistent Using Time

You know that consistency is crucial if you want to achieve any goal.

You can’t go after something for one day, take a break for 2 days, go after it again for 3 days and then break for an entire week.

The constant starting and stopping never allows you to build momentum, leaving you feeling betrayed and frustrated.

You have the best intentions to do what is needed but there’s a disconnect between your intentions and actions.

To win the year, you must win the month;

to win the month, you must win the week;

And to win the week, you must win the day.

So how do you create a daily routine that allows you to tap into consistent action, build momentum and make progress?

Start with the One Habit That Sets Off the Rest

What is one habit that if you did would lead to your perfect day planning out?

This could be:

• Going to bed at a specific time

• Waking up at a specific time

• Reading in the morning

• Taking a cold shower

• Going to the gym

• Meditation

This one habit is known as your domino habit.

A habit if done, sets up and autocorrects your behaviour for the rest of your day.

This habit sends a signal to the brain and body that because this has been done, the rest can flow.

This is different from a morning routine.

Morning routines take time to get right and can be overwhelming.

So to cut that out, focus on your domino habit.

The habit that acts as a catalyst for your day.

Identifying your domino habit is just the beginning.

Now you need a system to help you stick to it relentlessly.

Time as a Trigger

There are moments, and dates, in your life that you remember more vividly than others.

The day you moved to a new city and went to a new school.

The day you got your first car.

The day your child was born.

The day you graduated.

Your first kiss.

Your birthday.

It can also be less personal dates but still have the same effect of creating a boundary between this era and the next one.

The beginning of a new year.

The beginning of a new week.

The beginning of a new month.

These are known as temporal landmarks: “moments that stand out in time and structure people's perceptions and use of time.” (Dai, H. & Li, C., 2019)

Temporal landmarks separate our past, present and future selves from each other and can often be used to create a “fresh start effect”.

Looking back at the examples, you might wonder if you have to wait until your birthday or a big milestone before you can experience this “fresh start effect”.

The good news is you don’t have to.

You can experience this “fresh start effect” in your 24-hour day.

You can experience multiple times in one day and here’s how.

Mastering Temporal Landmarks in Your Day

A simple tool you can use to achieve temporal landmarks in your day is the alarms on your phone.

The alarms act as a trigger that signals a change.

By having this trigger, you will always have a cue that triggers your behaviour.

So to stay consistent with your domino habit, you can use your alarm as a trigger.

Let’s say your domino habit is waking up at 6:00.

To ensure you wake up at 6:00, let’s say you want to be in bed by 22:00.

To be asleep by 22:00, you want to be in bed by 21:30.

To be in bed by 21:30, you want to have finished eating by 18:30.

You keep working backwards until you come back to your domino habit of waking up at 6:00.

All these alarms and their triggers trigger you to move to the next phase of your day.

This makes you stay consistent with your domino habit and thus consistent with your behaviours during the day.

By relentlessly staying consistent with your domino habit, it acts as a guarantee that the day will be a success.

Or at least a 7 - 9 out of 10.

Having these alarms as triggers helps in:

1. Reducing cognitive load

By having the alarms go off when they do, they act as automatic signals that tell you what to do. It reduces the decision-making of deciding what to do and instead instantly knowing because of your alarm.

And by wasting less energy on decision-making, you have more energy to focus on your tasks in a day.

2. Decreasing procrastination

It reduces procrastination because by knowing when to start and end a task, you flow with the day. Procrastination is also reduced because it takes away a lot of the complexity of time management.

What if I Miss My Domino Habit?

If you miss your domino habit or one of the alarms during the day: don’t worry about it.

Use the next alarm as a reset.

If you hit the next alarm it will allow you to stay on track without depending solely on your domino habit.

Thus each alarm becomes an opportunity to reset if you fall off at any stage of the day.

Act and Apply

1. Identify your domino habit: if you look at the habit that has allowed you to be most productive, what was it?

2. Reverse the temporal landmarks

3. Set Your Alarms and phase shift.

4. Set a maximum of 6 alarms.

   Anything more might be too overwhelming, and complicated and take away from the effects of the alarms.

Have fun setting up your temporal landmarks and implementing this system for effortless daily consistency.

Take care of the day and the days take care of the week.

Take care of the week and the weeks take care of the month.

Take care of the month and the months take care of the year.

Take care of the year and the years take care of the decade.

– Shana

P.S:

If you want 1-1 help finding your zone and building your dream life and business with more ease, book a free consultation with me:  https://calendly.com/shanamdluli/claritycall