Breaking the Habit: How to Increase Your Average Speed
I have a friend named Nathan Barry who recently wrote three books in just 9 months. How did he do it? Following a simple strategy. He wrote 1000 words a day. (That’s about two to three pages.) And he did it every day for 253 days in a row. It was not a sprint; Its average speed was the key.
This post originally appeared on James Clear’s blog .
Now compare this strategy to the classic image of a writer hiding in a hut for weeks and writing like crazy to finish his book.
The maniac in the cockpit has a high “top speed” – maybe 20 or even 30 pages a day. But after a few weeks at such an unstable pace, the book is either ready or its author. In comparison, Nathan’s top speed never reached the peak of a mad writer in a salon. However, for a year or two, his average speed was much higher.
This lesson goes far beyond writing.
For example, anyone can get inspired, head to the gym and push themselves for one workout. This is the maximum speed. We spend a lot of time dwelling on this. How hard was your workout? How motivated are you? How fast are you promoting it?
But what if you averaged all your days over the past month? How many of these days were included in the workout? How about the last three months? Or last year? What was your average speed ?
Look at it the other way, and you can understand, for example, that you were sick for a week, and there were a couple of times when you skipped the gym after a long day at work and you were also on the road for two weeks. Suddenly, you realize that your top speed may be high at times, but your average speed is much lower than you think.
As far as I can tell, this principle is true for your work habits, your eating habits, your relationship habits, and pretty much every other area of your life.
The amazing thing about average speed
Here’s what’s surprising about average speed: Average speed doesn’t take long to produce incredible results.
We so often waste our time and energy thinking that we need a tremendous amount of effort to accomplish something meaningful. We tell ourselves that we need to be inspired by motivation and desire. We think we need to work harder than everyone else.
But when you look at people who are really making progress, you see something different. Nathan wrote 1000 words a day, every day. And nine months later? Completed three books. By no means did he necessarily work harder than everyone else. There is nothing sexy or shocking about writing two or three pages a day. Nathan was simply more consistent than everyone else, and as a result, his average speed over those 253 days was much higher than most people.
Of course, from all this follows a natural question: “How can I increase the average speed?”
Let’s talk about it now.
Use Habit Gradation to Increase Average Speed
I was recently told about the idea of ”breaking the habit.” That is, moving from your current habit one level higher. Basically, breaking the habit is about increasing your average speed.
Here are some examples:
- If your average rate is three healthy meals a week, can you “go” to one healthy meal a day?
- If you train at an average speed twice a month, can you “increase” that to once a week?
- If you have a crazy job and only talk to your old friends on the phone once every three months, can you schedule those calls on your calendar and “kick” the habit up to once a month?
You get the idea. Habit breaking is about looking at your goals and your current average speed, and thinking about how you can continually increase your productivity just a little bit.
I wondered how I can apply this myself. For the past eight months, I have compulsorily published a new article every Monday and every Thursday. ( Click here to see them all .) Now I’m thinking of taking this habit to the next level.
For example, I could follow Nathan’s strategy and write 1000 words a day. Presumably, this would allow me to continue writing two articles each week while working on other useful things at the same time, like my own book.
Where to go from here
When it comes to our habits, we all have average speed. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, that average speed could be much lower than we would like.
In truth, anyone can get motivated and push themselves one day, but very few people consistently put in an effort every week.
It’s important not to judge yourself or feel guilty about the average speed being slower than you would like. It’s important to know what’s really going on, understand that it’s under your control, and then accept the fact that a small but consistent change in your daily habits can lead to a significant increase in your average speed.
When it comes to your health, your job, and your life, it doesn’t take a huge amount of effort to achieve incredible results – just constant effort. It’s time to move to the next level. What’s your average speed?
What is your “average speed” in your life, your health and your job? | James Clear