"How to Continuously Do Something: Ten Tips to Help Me Stick to Daily Updates"

This article is Lu Canwei's 58th original piece.

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First of all, congratulations to myself for updating daily for 14 days. I’ve realized that persistence is truly a very, very difficult thing.

For example, some people can consistently work out, while others say they won’t change their profile picture until they lose twenty pounds, and as a result, they never change it again.

But sometimes, persistence can be a very simple thing, like consistently playing on your phone or not exercising.

So how can we persist in doing something?

Starting from a young age, we often overestimate ourselves in the short term but underestimate ourselves in the long term. For instance, when it comes to losing weight, we always hope to develop six-pack abs, but so far, we still have just one. When we set goals, we often set a very large target, then we start strong, then weaken, and finally exhaust ourselves. Often, after our initial enthusiasm, we lose all motivation to continue. Try setting a simple small goal each day, like for weight loss—not losing twenty pounds at once, but running for 40 minutes each day. If that goal seems too big, you can start with doing 20 push-ups daily.

Positive feedback is needed; often, the reason we give up is due to a lack of positive feedback. For example, if you want to make money but have no income every day, over time, you will give up. If you want to create a product but have no users, eventually, you will also give up. If you want to update your public account daily but see no readership for a while, you will give up too. Therefore, when you do something, you need to receive feedback as quickly as possible. For instance, when you write an article, create a minimal product, or earn just 10 yuan a day, break down the tasks and shorten the feedback cycle.

Increase exposure; when you decide to do something, you can inform everyone in your social circle. Let them know you are doing this, for example, I let everyone know about my daily updates in my friend circle. Once I miss a post, my friends will urge me, making it impossible not to update.

Increase losses; for example, in some daily check-in communities, the most common practice is to pay a deposit for check-ins, and if you miss a day, you lose money.

Increase sunk costs; for instance, if we buy a movie ticket and find it uninteresting halfway through, we might still finish watching it because we’ve already invested half the time. This time spent watching is our sunk cost. Similarly, if I update my public account daily, the longer I continue, the lower the probability of giving up, after all, I’ve been doing it for so long.

Set fixed times to turn persistence into a habit, like brushing your teeth every morning after waking up. Only then will you not let your thoughts influence your decisions, as it becomes a habit.

Increase triggers; for example, the small group shared by Mu Wen is a trigger. His trigger is always sending red envelopes and gathering 666 people. Before you start, you might feel anxious, like when I didn’t know what to write before starting, feeling like I could write anything. At that moment, my trigger is to open Notion, create a new page in my writing section, and start writing.

Do it together with others; communities are a great thing. When everyone works on something together, seeing others do it makes it harder for you to give up. For example, I decided to update daily for 100 days after seeing Mr. Er Yu’s public account updating every day, so I found it impossible not to update. Also, we have a bedtime reading group where we read before sleeping and share our thoughts in the group.

Maintain flexibility; most of the time, I write in front of my computer at night, but sometimes I know I’ll be out and won’t have time. In that case, I might use my fragmented time on my phone to draft the article and choose a suitable time to post it.

Learn to give up; when you realize you really can’t continue, decisively give up and start over. After giving up, we see things more clearly, so when we start again, we know this path is not feasible and won’t take it again. For instance, I previously gave up because I had things to do at night and didn’t know what to write. This time, if I have things to do, I’ll write in advance using other methods. If I don’t know what to write, I’ll record snippets of information and concepts anytime, and later piece them together into an article when needed.

Lastly, a point not mentioned above is to regularly review. For example, on the 14th day, I will conduct a review, and on the 28th day, I will write another review... Every so often, let yourself write down what you did well and what you didn’t, and then execute better in the future.

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