There’s hope though, there’s hope for sticking with a new system you’ve just created, whether it be a new way to fold and store laundry or a new study habit, there are ways to make sure you follow through with new systems you put in place.
But first. Why is it so difficult for us?
For starters, we have 100% commitment and intent to follow the new system and maybe we even do for a week, but that one time we do it wrong or don’t do it because we sleep at a friends house after a night out, we end up never getting back on track and revert to the easy and old ways of doing things.
Sometimes it’s less us and more other people.
Say you have kids, or maybe roommates live with you and you’re trying to be more diligent about keeping the sink empty. With your new system instead of letting dishes pile up you clean them right after you use them. You’ve gotten into a good habit of doing it too, you don’t even have to think about it anymore, but sure enough, the rest of the family is stuck in their ways, and don’t like getting up to go to the sink after they are done eating. So dishes continue to pile up in the sink. It’s an uphill battle.
Fine Tuning
You stick to the system, for the most part, but never get the full benefits from it because you don’t completely follow it. You fail to fine-tune the system so that it works optimally and you stick to it.
Making small adjustments and Iterating is how you can really follow through on your systems and get them functioning as efficiently as a Chinese manufacturing company that pumps out 10,000 units of glass sea horses per day.
What works
What really works, what will force you to stick to the system?
Committing to sticking with it for 90 days, telling a friend you’ll donate $150 to your favorite anti-charity. For example, if you hate guns then you’ll donate to the NRA.
Yeah.
Sticking to your system now aren’t-cha?
The accountability aspect helps too, but if you’re really against the anti-charity idea, then you can use an app called flora where you can invite a friend and then pledge an amount of money, and if you stick to it you don’t have to pay the money. What’s also great about this app is that the tree grows as you check in which is a great gamification model and helps with you feeling like you’re progressing and growing.
There ya have it, sticking to new systems is difficult, we all know it, but it’s worth it to keep trying and improving and that’s all that matters. But also remember the more simple you keep a system, the higher the chances of sticking to it.