More 5% Idea – Let’s Use it on an Area Important to You

(This is part of a series on the 5% Idea. You may want to start with the first post. Also, I forgot to post this back when I created it. It's a "missing piece" of my discussion of the 5% Idea. Sorry about the omission--Chris)

In my two previous posts about the 5% Idea, I mentioned that we often have difficulty making and keeping maintenance habits (an example for me is flossing my teeth regularly). With habits like flossing, exercise, working on future business planning, etc. we sometimes bounce between forcing ourselves to work on the habit (and overstretching) and forgetting it entirely (becoming burnt out by the habit). We talked about why that is, and why the 5% Idea can be a fresh approach. If we’re a little patient, this approach can get us some great new results that last a lifetime. In this post, I want to detail exactly what you need to do to start using it.

At a high level, here’s how you apply the 5% idea to build up a consistent maintenance habit:

• Examine your past, either by measurement or logging a period of time, to establish a true “average” for you.
• Work to build the habit at that level, focusing on delivering those results continually. Be patient.
• Grow the level of the habit in small increments until you’ve built up the habit to the right level for you.

Step 1 – Establish the baseline for this habit based on evidence

Step one in getting new results in a tough maintenance area is to get realistic. Remember, you’re likely not working on this habit in new ways because it’s easy for you. I’m talking about the maintenance activity you’re really challenged by, but still want to improve. To make progress on flossing (always so hard for me), I had to start by asking myself, “What’s a realistic expectation of myself in this area?

We tend to arbitrarily pick our goals for maintenance habits, usually based on how often we think we should be doing the habit. Keep in mind though, should isn’t useful. It’s usually based on emotion, on a value (sometimes not even yours), but it’s not based on evidence of what you’ve been able to do before. We want something we’ve got some evidence for. So, how to find that?

There are two ways to get this baseline expectation from the evidence. The first is to look at your past behavior over a period long enough to show your true pattern. It wouldn’t give me a very good baseline to just look at how often I flossed last week, while that flossing habit was fresh on my mind. Go over any records you have, combined with your best guess as you walk through that past time, to figure out how often you’ve been really doing this habit.

When I did that with my past flossing habit, I thought through my performance over the previous year. I had to gut feel it a bit, but I came up with an average of less than once a week. I know that’s not a very good average. (OK, I’m feeling embarrassed again, but flossing has always been so hard for me. Hopefully you can relate in some other area.) My less than once a week was all over the place. I was often skipping flossing for long periods, then rushing to try to do it before the dentist. So again, the first part is gathering evidence, looking at how often you’ve done this in the past.

Another way to gather evidence is to do a trial on the habit. This can work beautifully, but you have to do the trial long enough to get a real baseline. It’s easy to exercise more for a week, or focus on our employees for a week, or floss for a week. It’s harder to do that for a month. Based on my experience with clients, 3-4 weeks of recording how often you do it is usually a good trial for any maintenance habit, but you be the judge. Usually by week three or four, if you’ve been overstretching the habit, you’ll have a relapse. That’s good. That relapse will affect your average for that behavior, and you’ll get a truer starting baseline.

So again, the first step is either looking at our history or doing a trial. The goal is to detect a realistic level of achievement in this area for now.

Step 2 – Build the foundation of the habit, doing the habit consistently

Step two is to build the consistency of the habit. If you’re me and you’re only flossing once per week, you’re likely going to want to focus on flossing at exactly that frequency, but doing that consistently. At this point you’re focused just on getting a habit of consistency going in this area. I think this is the hardest part of the stretch for most, for some of the reasons we established in the last post. Just remember your goal at this point: to develop the habit of doing your historical average in this maintenance goal area, but doing that average consistently.

Lets’ say you find that you’re doing an average of an hour of project work a week as you look over the last three months of work. So now, you focus on doing that exact average at a consistent basis for the next few weeks. Your focus should be to build in that hour a week, to get that project work in no matter what. Just keep your focus on building the habit and remember, it’s near impossible to grow the frequency of a habit you haven’t got. It’s like trying to build a house on a foundation that’s still drying. Bad idea, but I think we often do that.

As an example, I started on my flossing habit with once a week. This was hard—to do it consistently, I couldn’t forget to do it for weeks as I had before. To help me get in the rhythm of this new consistency, I chose a day of the week and put the floss in a particular place I knew I would see it. If I missed that day, I’d do it the next day. The goal at that point was to just see if I could do flossing once per week.

Step 3 – Build on the consistency by increasing the frequency of the habit

Once you’re consistently delivering on your average, you’re ready to grow the average. Again, three to four weeks seems to be a good measure of consistency for most habits. If you can do your historical average consistently for that period, you’re probably ready to grow it. If you miss a week, perhaps add another week to the test just to make sure. You don’t need to be perfect, but when you miss, you want to ask yourself, “Did I miss, but I’ve still got that habit, or am I barely able to hold this together, and need to work on the consistency some more?”

Now that you’ve got consistency, your next step is to build in small increments. Even though I call this process of building up your maintenance goals the “5% Idea,” I don’t mean 5% increments literally. That being said, 5% can often work as a starting point for your incremental change, but again, you be the judge. In general, I counsel you to start doing less of an increase than you think you can. As an example, in working on building up my flossing frequency, I thought I’d build to twice a week. But I remembered my own advice: less than you think you should. So I chose to follow the following build:

• Once a week for a month, twice a week for the last week.
• Once a week for two weeks, twice a week for two weeks
• Twice a week for a month…

Remember to be patient and stay focused on the cumulative benefits of doing more of this habit over many years of your future, as opposed to the impatience that drives you to build the entire habit now. If you slip for a month, consider going back to your last level and working on doing that more consistently before you build again. As you prove to yourself you can do the habit consistently at each level, increase it slightly for the next period. Keep growing it until you reach the level in that area that’s right for you.

I still am working to floss more than my current level, but I’m enjoying the fact that I now do it consistently and 2-3 times as often as before. That’s an improvement! I’ve had a lot of fun and some rewarding results with the 5% Idea. I’ll talk in the future about other ways I’ve used this idea. I’d love to share how I built up my current exercise habits using this approach.

Here’s your assignment: apply the 5% Idea

For now, here’s your assignment. Choose an area you’d like to patiently build up as a solid maintenance habit. Remember, it could be anything. Time spent writing, jogging, talking to the spouse, on yourself and your hobbies, in front of clients, in educational pursuits, whatever. But choose something that’s been hard for you and deserves some patience.

Work this through the 5% Idea. Remember to 1) find your past average based on evidence, 2) consistently perform at that average until you’ve got the habit, then 3) slowly grow the average in smaller increments than you think you should. Pretty soon you’ll see the results. Let me know about the results, good and bad. Perhaps we can post a frequently asked questions to help fill in areas that are still unclear.

Good luck!

Frequently Asked Questions about the 5% Idea

(This is part of a series on the 5% Idea. You may want to start with the first post.)

What are some helpful tools to support me in doing to 5% idea?

One critical tool is to track what you’re doing and your progress. I mentioned earlier how critical it is for us to measure or to estimate our past behavior when determining how much to stretch. From that we can determine a realistic future goal.

For my exercise goal, as an example, I have a spreadsheet that I use to track my goals for the week and my actuals for the week. I additionally track how I’m doing over time. If the week is under goal then I’ll need to push myself the next week to correct it. Tracking allows us to really look at our performance and see where we need to build, as well as see the growth we’re making.

Another useful tool can be reminders. Most habits take faster if we build them into other structures we’ve created. For example, if you have a calendar that you look at consistently every day, putting reminders on the days you like to get your habit done will make it more likely that you get it done.

Be careful with reminders, however. Most of us over-remind ourselves. Have you ever had (maybe you do now) Post-It Notes littered throughout your office? Pasted around your monitor border, on your desktop? If we overuse reminders it’s like they don’t even exist.

I advocate that if you’re going to put reminders around you, it’s better to put them where you’ll be at the time you really need to act—what I call the “drop dead point.” Many of us put reminders to ourselves at the point in time we think we should be doing this thing. Instead, put your reminder at the point in time you must do it in order to keep the habit on track for that week. (You can put this kind of reminder on your task list for that day, your calendar, or some other tool with days on it.)

So, if I were trying to make sure I flossed twice a week, I might put my first reminder on the second-to-last day of the week, or maybe the day before, so that I had one day to “miss.” (You definitely don’t need to be perfect to get the benefits of the 5% rule—just consistent over periods of time.) I’ve found that over time, you’ll come to need the reminders less and less as the habit builds up.

You can also hook your habit to structure that’s already in your life. My wife and I don’t have kids (yet?), so we’ll often watch TV together a couple of nights a week. I hide my floss among the magazines on the coffee table and that way the floss is always there and available to me at the commercial breaks. This is an example of a good, simple way to hook into the existing structure of things, to hook your habit into where you know you’re going to be. All these little changes make consistency more likely.

Should I celebrate my progress along the way as I work the 5% idea?

Most definitely! You should celebrate your 5% progress. Celebration is one of my favorite parts of life, but it’s also a great way to anchor habits.

There are several places I often celebrate, but invent and celebrate any time you want to. The first celebration point is often as you're starting to measure your past progress and establishing your baseline performance level. Remind yourself of the power of getting out of the rut and deciding to just start something new in this area, to get off the train of overstretch. Congratulate yourself for that.

You can celebrate the point of consistency, after you’ve gone for a period (usually three to four weeks for me) consistently at the level of your historical average. That’s probably the first time you’ve done this habit with so much consistency, so why not celebrate?

Finally you can celebrate along the way. As you make your 5% increase, do that consistently and then add the next increase, find ways to reward yourself. Talk up this habit with others so they can enjoy your results. Maybe they’ll want to work on something, too, and you’ll inspire them with your progress.

Can I stretch for more than 5% improvements?

Sure you can. As I mentioned, sometimes we need more than 5% or something terrible might happen to something we deeply value, like our health, job or marriage.

Just be careful about deciding to go above 5%. Remember, I chose 5% (the idea being small, realistic stretches) because we tend to overstretch. Five percent, when added consistently over time, is a significant increase to a lifelong habit. Yet, it’s usually small enough an incremental change that most we can figure out how to build our way to that next level of behavior—just a little bit more.

If you’re going more than 5%, keep in mind doing that might stretch other areas of the system called “you.” When you’re progressing at 5%, my belief is that these other areas get a slow stretch and have time to recover. It’s like building a muscle very slowly. Nothing gets overdone and the rest of the “body” of your habits gets stronger and you slowly accommodate the slightly new behavior. Stretch too fast and it messes with some other part of the system.

So, if you’re going to go for the 10 or 20% stretch, you’ll need to account for the strain that could cause to other parts of your system. You’ll want to examine other affected habits, time commitments, quirks, etc. about you.

For example, if you’re going to put more time into project work each week, you’ll need to look at some other commitments of your time (other priorities, time wasters, or whatever) that you’re going to consciously reduce. Or, you may have to look at how you’re going to produce more time for the stretch itself. Maybe you’re going to work slightly more each week. Or you’re going to get off some other project. But you’ll need to adjust where your time is going in order to make that larger stretch.

You’ll also need to build the new stretch into your environment. You’re going to need more reminders. You’re going to need to think about the structure you could add to support you. Do you start scheduling appointments with yourself for this habit so that you can ensure the time is available? You’ll likely need to think about support.

Many of us perform better when we’re supported by others or accountable to them. To make this larger stretch, you may want to sign up with someone else for the result. If you’re going to be exercising 20% more over the next month, you may want to buddy up with someone and support each other. Larger stretches usually require you to adjust the overall system more if you’d like to be successful. Five percent stretches usually don’t require the extra support or system changes—they stretch more slowly, so can sneak their way in.

What is the hardest part of applying the 5% idea?

I’d say the first big block for most people in applying the 5% idea is inflexibility. We often get stuck in our ways of approaching things. The “should” trap I mentioned earlier is a pretty big one and so often the idea of doing anything other than what you believe you should be doing is met with resistance.

Einstein said it best when he said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.” But remember, the great part of the Einstein quote is this: if you’ve been feeling stuck or “insane” in a certain area, just by trying something new you’ve got a pretty good chance to get some new results.

The other common block, as I mentioned, is being impatient. We expect results to happen faster than they do. We think a certain level of results (usually a large incremental jump) must happen, or we believe we couldn’t possibly get real results from our efforts. Maybe on a certain level it’s that we’re just not confident that if the results don’t happen quickly enough we’ll have enough incentive to keep up the new changes. Managing our own impatience can be hard.

I’ve found the hardest part of the 5% idea is just keeping your impatience in check. As I feel the urge to do more or get started faster, I try to remind myself it’s not about what I do this month, or even this year. With maintenance habits, it’s really more about where I am five years or ten years from now in this area. Another thing I’ve found helps with the impatience is trying the 5% idea on several small habits simultaneously. That way you can feel the cumulative effect of tracking and starting to move on several small things. This usually feels like more of a benefit immediately, which is I think what our brain craves—we want the shorter term gratification!

What if I’m inconsistent as I get things started? What if I have periods of up and down?

I have had these periods every time I’ve used the 5% idea, and it still works for me. I remind myself the idea isn’t to eliminate inconsistency around my habits--it’s just to reduce it to smaller intervals. So rather than: I exercise for a month, then I don’t for a month, then I do, then I don’t, I try to be more consistent each week, even if each day isn’t perfect.

I work out regularly now and have for a couple of years. But by saying I work out regularly, I don’t mean I work out exactly the same amount each week. I do have a goal for the week, though, and when I miss it, I try to catch it up as fast as I can. I’m inconsistent, but I guess I’ve developed, through the 5% idea, the habits and the mental muscle to keep small inconsistencies around exercise from building to larger ones.

Building maintenance habits is more about building your internal confidence than anything. Your success in the habit is more a product of: overall do you feel confident that you are getting consistent? When you start to feel that way, you see that this week in the habit area may be slightly different from last week, but it’s not wildly different from last week. You’re no longer pitching between working out like a madman (or woman) and not working out at all.

The key part of building a habit is to watch for the wild swings, and learn to taper them. One behavior I highly recommend is to check in weekly with the habit, to learn from your performance. Each week, I look at my performance and say, “How can I make this even more consistent next week? What small corrections can I make?”

As an example, when I find that I haven’t been exercising consistently and I ask myself why, it may be that I’ve been traveling and the travel is interfering with the exercise. OK, good, so I ask myself, how I can improve that inconsistency by just a little bit the next time I travel? The answer might be I’m going to start looking a couple weeks ahead each month at my travel schedule and plan when I’m going to exercise. It may be that I’ll work out more in weeks when I’m not traveling as a way to keep my exercise consistent. Or I might think about the usual travel exercise obstacles and think of one change I’ll make that will shrink one obstacle.

In my next post I will talk about how I handle my diet, an area where I’ve chosen not to be perfect, where I’ve chosen to be just good and do that consistently.

More 5% Idea – How It Helps Us to Get Out of the Overstretch Cycle and Get Results

(This is part of a series on the 5% Idea. You may want to start with the first post.)

In my previous post about the 5% Idea, I mentioned that we sometimes have difficulty making and keeping maintenance habits (an example for me is flossing my teeth regularly). With habits like exercise, we have a tendency to get lost in what we should do, rather than work on getting the consistency of the habit established. So we tend to bounce back and forth between forcing ourselves to work on the habit and forgetting it entirely. Let’s talk a bit about why we do this, and how the 5% Idea can help us to get out of the inconsistency trap.

With maintenance activities, it’s all about the habit. Because we’re going to need to do this thing, whether it be exercise, reading and keeping up on our career, time spent with each child, developing new business ideas, or whatever—because we need to do this consistently, week-in and week out, we’ve got to have a habit. Otherwise the energy involved in doing it routinely is just too much for the benefits received, and we’re sure to stop doing it.

It’s common to overstretch when we try to work on exercise. Do you know anyone who makes a pact to get in shape each New Years, joins a gym, works really hard at it for a few weeks, and then lets exercise go for the year? It’s so easy to get stuck in cycles like these, where we forget about the activity (at least we forget to put time into it), then we feel the pain (weight gain, lethargy, guilt, in the case of exercise) and frantically reinvest.

We have this annoying tendency to overstretch

Why do we tend to overstretch, rather than build up some consistent engagement we can keep up? It can be hard to get these consistent habits going. We don’t feel the pain of them every day when they’re not being done. Or, if we feel the pain, it’s below threshold. It’s easy to tune out soft background noise after a while, and it’s easy to tune out the annoying hum of guilt that says I need to invest more time in my projects each week. There’s pain there, but it’s less pain than the pain of not handling that latest crisis, email, or request.

We don’t feel the pain of not developing our employees until that employee mentally checks out or actually physically checks out and heads for another employer. We don’t think of the stress of becoming obsolete in our career on a daily basis, so we forget to invest in reading or developing ourselves. Because it can go a while before the pain or impact builds up, we tend to miss it or ignore it for a while. Then, one day we see the pain or lack of investment as a problem, and we overstretch to try to correct it. That overstretching reaction is a problem in itself.

Overstretching is not the only way we could approach the situation, but it’s the common way. We could decide to invest in the long-haul, in developing a lifetime habit in that area, and to work in small bits until we get it. But we often don’t. Why? Perhaps we overstretch because, as people, we are not always terrific with the application of patience and flexibility to the hardest parts of our lives.

These virtues of patience and flexibility are so important to human effectiveness, but they are hard to develop. We tend to get impatient for results, especially when we’re feeling the pain. Or we tend to get stuck in our cycles of how things must be done, should be done, and so we don’t alter our behavior enough to get new results, like a consistent habit. “I must do my exercise in the morning” cuts off options like lunch break, walk with kids after work, weekend yoga clinic, etc.

We want the results right away, and we are inflexible with ourselves. You might catch yourself saying things like “I should be flossing seven times a week.” (That’s what I used to say to myself.) But those “shoulds,” that want of results, can get in the way of getting to those results. I might try to floss every day, but if I haven’t been flossing at all, that’s probably too much. That flossing habit won’t have time to take, and my result will likely be: flossing like a madman for a week or two and then I don’t do it anymore. I’ll be upset with myself and won’t believe in my ability to get results in this area, which will make it harder to get them the next time. What a vicious cycle this can become. Can you relate? There’s got to be another way.

It all works better when we stop overstretching and start respecting the system

This cycle of overstretching and then giving up, repeat, gives us terrible results over time. Yet getting stuck in this is our tendency, especially with the harder habits of our lives.

Here’s what the 5% Idea is really about. If you can get out of this cycle, and improve at all, you’re going to be doing better than you did before. If you can be patient with yourself and focus on improvement over time, rather than instant overstretch, you will benefit.

Here’s the thing we don’t get: the bumpy ride of overstretch and then do nothing produces terrible results. If we can grow that in small, patient increments, we can grow your results in any area. If we focus on your historical average (how much time do you actually spend on projects, not time you should spend on projects), we can use that as a starting point. We can then work to build a habit where you learn to do that average, horrible as you think it may be, consistently. Consistency (not robotic perfection, but more consistent execution than before) always helps with maintenance habits—I think it’s required for them to “take.”

Why does the overstretching cycle perform so badly? You are a system. A system of habits, responsibilities, things you’re invested in, strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits. As an engineer, I studied and worked on systems. I have a lot of respect for them, and realize that too much change in one area of a system can throw the whole system off. Systems need to maintain some kind of balance, or they break down, they react.

Stretch a habit too far in one area without accounting for it in some other way, and the system called you may not be able to handle it, at least long term. Let’s say you run for seven days straight and you’ve never done that before. That’s quite a stretch. You may be able to keep it up in the short term, but there are just too many things in your life that will be ready to come in and stop that habit from taking root. There are many, many different ways the system could react, and throw you back to where you started. Here are a few of the blocks that could come up with the exercise:

• The pain of exercise on your body, which isn’t conditioned for that much.
• You haven’t yet changed your lifestyle in other areas to free up the time.
• Others may question why you’re running so much.

If you can get unstuck from the overstretching and start to work on consistency, you experience success on several levels. First, you’ll probably be getting more of the habit in. Second, you’re being more consistent, which usually improves results with maintenance habits, as opposed to “crunching.” Third, you know that this is all toward a bigger picture, which is that every year you’re going to be doing this successful maintenance habit more and more. You’re going to enjoy these results for a lifetime. Every year the habit will grow in results, and getting those results will get easier. You won’t have to think about it so much.

Much as I love the 5% idea, it’s not for everything

I’m not advocating the 5% Idea for every habit or change. There are areas where we need to move faster. Luckily, though, we generally feel more pain in the moment in those situations, so it’s easier to set a habit, even if it’s a bit of a stretch.

If you had just had coronary bypass surgery and been told by your doctor that you needed to drastically modify your health habits or you would probably die, the 5% Idea would not be enough. You would need more drastic measures--although you might not take them. According to Dr. Edward D. Miller at John Hopkins, only 10% of patients change their lifestyles when measured two years following bypass surgery. Perhaps the 5% Idea could help that 90% that don’t change, although I’d probably advocate a faster rate of change, like the 10% Idea. You get the idea.

So the 5% Idea isn’t for everything, but I believe it can help with most of our habits. If you’re willing to invest a bit, and be patient in the smaller areas, I am convinced you will build a habit that will last a lifetime and get you better results than we get through the overstretch cycle.

In my next post, I’ll give you a walkthrough of how to apply the 5% Idea in detail. Until then, here’s some fieldwork for you. Ask yourself these questions around one area where you’d like to develop a more consistent habit. For this habit:

• How could lack of patience or unwillingness to try different approaches be getting in the way?
• What other things in the system called my life tend to react or get in the way when I try to invest in this habit?

The 5% Idea – A Simple Way to Build and Keep Maintenance Habits

I’m proud to say that I have flossed my teeth a lot more this year than I did the previous year. Though my average this year is only flossing two to three times per week, that average is by far higher than last year. Also, there wasn’t a week (well, perhaps one or two) over the last year where I didn’t floss my teeth! Very different than what I’ve done in the past. Flossing might seem like no big deal to someone else, but it is a big deal to me. Here I’ve taken a small thing that’s challenged me all my life, and I’ve made a big change in it that I fully believe I’ll keep for a lifetime. That’s an exciting start.

My reason for choosing flossing as an example is not to embarrass myself or to make you ill. (Rest assured -- I do brush my teeth regularly, and always have.) I chose flossing because this is an example of a persistent little habit that I tell myself I should really be doing, and yet I’m not, or at least I wasn’t. It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve ever attempted to do with any consistency—for me, at least. It’s a habit where not doing it costs me something. Not flossing might likely mean gum disease in my future. Both my mother and grandmother have had gum surgeries due to an inherited issue with their gums that is prevented by routine flossing.

What gets in the way of flossing or whatever habit you’re working on

I know flossing is an area I need to be cautious about and doing something about, but like so many things, it’s a small blip on the radar. The costs of not flossing are just not on my mind. What’s usually on my mind is that I’m tired at the end of the day and I want to go to bed. In the past, the act of flossing was usually not on my mind at all, and I would just forget to do it. Also, flossing is one of those maintenance habits where the cost of not doing it are so small on a near-term basis, so I just don’t think about it unless it’s a habit. Even though flossing might have long-term consequences, the lack of near-term ones makes it hard to focus and build a habit.

Another problem for me with flossing is that I think I should do it. I think that everyone else is doing it, just not me. So I tend to be impatient with myself. That impatience makes it again very hard to get a habit going. Most lifelong habits require some patience to set up. In doing a little online research, I uncovered some fun facts about flossing and other dental care issues. For example, 73% of Americans would rather go grocery shopping rather than floss. Only about a quarter of us (at best) floss daily. So I’m not alone. I may not be the only person who for most of his life has only flossed before the dentist appointment to avoid the embarrassment of bleeding gums and getting chastised for not taking care of my teeth.

So, a few questions for you (feel free to post in the comments):

• Where do you find it difficult to set up maintenance habits, both personally and professionally?
• What have you tried to set up these habits, and what usually happens?

The 5% Idea – How we can improve in any maintenance area

I want to tell you about a fundamental principle of building success in any area, but I think it’s especially useful in successfully building maintenance habits. I call it the 5% Idea. The idea is to build the consistency of the habit first and then build on top of that consistency small improvements (hence the 5%) until you are doing the habit at the level you want. I am firmly convinced based on many trials on my own habits and over the years with clients that in order to get great long term results around a maintenance area, you need to build in the habit’s consistency first, and the amplitude later. We tend not to approach those habits this way.

Why does following the 5% Idea work so well? Most of us have a few habits that we’re convinced are very important to our results, but around which we’re horribly inconsistent in our delivery. You might be very inconsistent in getting your project-related work done, as the day is filled with urgencies. You’re then confronted by being behind on your projects and having to crunch to catch up. Investing in relationships can often be inconsistent: we may be reacting to our customers rather than really staying ahead of them and engendering great relationships. We may be inconsistent in investments like our relationship with our partner, our children or ourselves. Self-maintenance activities like diet, exercise, and others can be especially problematic.

Why crunching doesn’t work on our maintenance habits

So most of us have these areas that are extremely important to our results, and we know we should be doing them, but we’re not, or more likely, when we do them we do it inconsistently. Can you relate? Instead of your exercise being a consistent habit, maybe it’s an “if time” habit that’s all over the map from week to week. These habits can get so bad that we may swing wildly between no time spent on the activity and crunch times where we try to “get back in shape” in that area and make up for lost time. Usually, though, you can’t “crunch” on a maintenance habit.

As an example, you can’t do crunch time on flossing to make it up. I can’t floss only one month a year, no matter how consistently during that month, and expect my gums not to know the difference. They will know! Time with employees is another great example of this. You can’t ignore them during your busy times and expect them to be receptive when you have the time. When the labor market is tight, you can’t expect them to even still be there if you haven’t been investing in them. To get results, we’ve got to invest in these habits consistently over time.

More on the 5% Idea to come and some fieldwork for you in the interim

Flossing my teeth is not the only success I’ve had with the 5% Idea. I’ve had a number of others. For example, I’ve been exercising at a consistent level for the last two years. Previous to that I’d fade in and out, depending on what was going on in my life. I spent a year applying the 5% idea to exercise, slowly building up my consistency and the volume of exercise. And now, for the last two years, I’ve consistently kept my exercise goal of two hours of running and one hour of walking per week. Even during the holidays, and that’s not easy! The best part is that I’m 100% confident I’ve got a habit strong enough to last a lifetime. I’d be happy to post about how I used the 5% idea on exercise if you’re interested. (Just let me know in the comments.)

My next post will explain more of why the 5% Idea works so well, and how it deals with some of our makeup as people. I’ll also get into the exact details of how you can apply it yourself. At a high level, though, here’s how you apply it:

• Examine your past, either by measurement or logging a period of time.
• Ask yourself, how am I really doing on this habit? What’s my current average?
• Work to build the habit at that level, focusing on delivering those results continually.
• Grow the level of the habit (e.g. how much you exercise each week) in 5% increments, until you’ve built up the habit to the right level for you.

Here’s some fieldwork for you. I’d suggest asking yourself these questions soon, perhaps on your way home from work today.

• What are a few habits where I’m not consistent in my efforts, but want to be?
• What are the excuses or blocks that get in the way of me putting in time and effort consistently? What are these excuses costing me?
• How much do I think I should be doing these things? As I start to think about my past performance, on average how often do I think I actually do these things?