I mentioned that there would be a lull in my output here. There’s been a lot going on and my priorities have been elsewhere.
This post will cover some of what I’ve been up to personally, but, I’ll tie it in with the theme of consistency as I believe it is a great skill to have.
What is Consistency?
Well, it is about repetition, and maintaining effort and energy to produce a desired result.
My output on this site has dropped considerably over time. My intention was always to post about once a fortnight. I have plenty to say and little time to say it. I thought this was a fair target and wouldn’t be too grueling.
Sadly, I’ve not been able to maintain consistency with Outfox Code.
😫
It’s not the end of the world, but I feel that with consistency, the results begin to compound and you can make some great progress.
Take exercise for example, if you work out or go running regularly, you build your fitness over time. However, if you only exercise sporadically then there is the chance that you lose some of the fitness you have gained between sessions.
As an aside to this, just because I can’t always maintain momentum and write posts as often as I hope doesn’t mean I should just give up. If I don’t quite hit my goals, at least my intentions and how I organise myself allow me to give it my best shot.
How to Build Consistency
I have some good tips on how to be more consistent.
One of them is a Japanese term:
Kaizen
a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, etc.
You can apply this to your life, your studies, your general habits.
The definition above is a little misleading and makes it sound like an irrelevant practice. I’m here to give a tiny insight into how Kaizen totally is a useful thing to learn.
The idea is simple, to build a habit you need to be doing something regularly. However, going from hardly ever exercising to running 10km can be intimidating and that intimidation can play on your mind and your motivation.
I’ve been known to push the larger, more intimidating tasks into the distance so that I don’t have to face them.
“I’ll start next week.”
Do you ever say this to yourself? I do. Where Kaizen can help is that you approach the habit from a small, granular level rather than going full on into what it is your want to achieve.
Small changes can lead to epic results.
Want to exercise? Start with something so small it seems ridiculous. Do some stretches in the ad-breaks of your favourite show.
Want to diet? Start by leaving one mouthful on your plate at the end of a meal.
Want to learn to code? Start by learning one line of code – for example, how to print “Hello World” to the console.
Do this for a week, and then slowly build the amount you do. Even though it is tempting to do more, don’t. The whole idea is to ingrain the action into your daily routine. eventually a habit will form, you’ll have that consistency established.
Try it, and let me know how you get on. There are plenty of books on kaizen and also on habit building.
My favourite on kaizen is One Small Step Can Change Your Life by robert Maurer Ph.D.
Also check out the resources page for some other useful habit building books.
Where did my Consistency go?
Into a few things actually, firstly, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been offered and accepted a new job as a Junior Integration Developer!
Without going into too much detail, I’ve been looking for ways to progress and exploit my strengths as a developer. This role ticked all the boxes and I’m very excited to begin a little later this month. I’m sure you’ll see more information on my LinkedIn profile over time. As my efforts to progress became more important I had less time to talk about things.
I’ve also needed to divide my attention away from development. I was trying to study in my spare time while balancing a demanding job, being a father and a husband.
It’s been tough. I’ve not had capacity for much at all really and needed to prioritise.
With the little free time I’ve had spare, I’ve started to use it as a way for me to recover. The vary what parts of the brain I’m using.
I’ve spent more time doing other activities that I enjoy that use different parts of my brain. This has mainly been in the form of screenwriting.
I love movies and I’ve been screenwriting for long time but, more seriously since around 2018.
My son will be 1 next month. It’s been a crazy year. I’ve learned so much and I’ve enjoyed writing posts on here about my journey as a developer.
A big tip for you all is, don’t burn out desperately trying to achieve your goals.
Smaller steps in the right direction can lead to some really profound achievements.
I think I’ll leave this post there, I think that sentence nails it.
“Smaller steps in the right direction can lead to some really profound achievements.”
Be kind to yourself.