Discipline, Consistency and Routines
The boring secrets of success
When asked about the secret of their success, most successful people, whether top students or entrepreneurs point towards discipline and consistency. The willingness to persevere in your studies at the library, when your peer students have already gone home, or are out partying. The audacity to keep working on refining your business model and customer service approach, when the sun has gone down, and the 9-5'ers have packed their bags and left for home.
Truth be told, this is extremely unattractive and boring. Seems like a monotonous life, right? All work and no play? Working on your projects day in and day out sure is very unsexy. Especially when the payoff is much later (a year or more).
Striking a happy balance
However, I have found that there is an element of balance that we can bring into this military-like regime. If we build in time for relaxation and rejuvenation (which is essential for a highly productive mind), we can work even better when it’s time to bring out the big guns. This relaxation includes time for meditation (mind) and exercise or yoga (body).
Daily Routine 2.0 - Part I
A daily routine definitely helps, but is tough to adhere to. I am sure every single one of us have spent hours coming up a perfect timetable which factors in work, play and rest. Implementing it is a real big challenge. Now, Elon Musk plans his day in five-minute chunks - this is not very practical for most, without the help of a personal assistant.
Daily Routine 2.0 - Part II
I suggest this option, which works for me: divide your day into hours-based intervals. As a student and blogger, I find that solid, full hours are often needed to learn detailed essays or finish long-form articles. Visualise, and write down (or use Google Calendar) to set priorities for every waking hour. Just a rough idea of the task you want to get done.
Daily Routine 2.0 - Part III
For example, you don’t need to be super-specific with the physical exercise you want to do on a particular day, just a catch-all heading like Working on my health will suffice. This is especially for all us impulsive people, who try to become logical and process-oriented, and end up fighting an impossible battle with the mind. In fact, embrace your impulsiveness, do any task which aligns with your pre-set priority, and brings you even a step closer to your goal. Daily, small incremental growth is an undervalued asset in today’s hyper-speed, multi-tasking world.
The biggest advantage of this method? You can get started with this immediately, and you don't need to invest precious time in creating that timetable.