Flexible Consistency and Productive Time Allocation

Expect the unexpected. A year back, we would never have imagined that life would turn out the way it is now. How do you maintain a continuous habit - reading, writing or learning something new? One miss demotivates you not to pursue the practice. A method that can help with this is - Flexible consistency.

Flexible consistency is building a routine with a small cushion for failure. Have you broken a streak? It is okay - pick it up where you left it off. These are a set of principles meant to keep us on track.

• Plan for disruption. Don’t keep the habit or learning time rigid. If we can’t finish it in the morning, we move it to the evening. If something urgent has come up this week, remember to schedule it for the next. Research shows that habit formation is not affected even when we miss one opportunity. A good idea here is to build redundancy - we decide to spend 30 mins on learning, then keep aside two 30-minute blocks in your schedule.

• Fail like a scientist. When a scientist fails, he isn’t disappointed - he notes the failure and what caused it and moves on. Attaining learnings through experiments is the core principle behind achieving a growth mindset and overcoming the fixed mindset. If we missed learning a day - introspect on what blocked us, mentally note the trigger and resume the next day. Breaking the chain is fine - discarding it is not.

• Schedule over scope. When we see a blocker coming along, we stick to the schedule but reduce the scope. If we wish to read for 30 minutes and find it difficult to make time, read for 10-15 minutes instead. Convert the task to a micro habit. It might look trivial, but the mental victory in not breaking the chain boosts our confidence. Keep the flexibility to trade the intensity of the routine with consistency.

We have a burning desire to learn but cannot find the time. It is not a unique problem; it is a universal problem. The solution to this problem is mindful time blocking. The key term here is to be conscious or intentional about blocking time for our productive activities. It would help if you were also flexible while blocking the time. It would be best not to overload our calendar with these blocks. They should be short enough so that we can move them around quickly.

A cardinal rule - Never try to delete a time block. Edit it, move it around but don’t delete it. We might feel that we do not have the time. We always have time - we just don’t make it a priority. For instance, if we have two one-hour blocks for productive activities like work or learning in your calendar every week, and something comes up, we can either:

• Move the block. Keep the blocks atomic and movable. Find another suitable time and reschedule the block to another time. Missed a self-learning session? No problem, move it to another time slot and pick up where we left off.

• Shorten the block. When unexpected meetings arrive (especially so for early employees), reduce the time block and spend less time. If we fixed a reading time of 60 minutes, do it for 15 or 30 minutes. Maybe you can go through summaries or revise previously read chapters.

• Delete the block. At times, emergencies come which require our undivided attention. Then, we will be unable to give any time at all. It is the last resort, and we must avoid this at all costs. If we have to do this, delete the block, return to the next available time and resume. Don’t give up just because there is a break.

Reference: The power of flexible consistency by Anne-Laure Le Cunff