If there was ever one adverse quality in myself I have grown to deeply loathe, it is INCONSISTENCY. I hate it, hate it and hate it some more. Nothing robs our time, potential and productive days as much as inconsistency. It is the number ONE reason for unfinished business.
Here are 3 reasons why INCONSISTENCY is such a productivity killer.
1. IT WASTES your time
Have you ever picked up a book and thought - ‘let me dig into this book and finish it this month’ and lo and behold, as you start to flip through the pages you are astonished to see that you actually started the book some time before and even read the first seventy pages and guess what - you dated in the book the last time you read. You then begin to calculate and realize that had you just kept reading a few pages each day, you would have finished the book eons ago.
This has happened to me. I was so shocked to see that with a little consistency, I could have finished reading the book and many others as well. As obvious as it seems, inconsistency greatly wastes our time. It robs us of completing our tasks in a timely manner and kills the time we could have used for other productive things. Every time we fail to keep going on the task we have already started, we are being robbed in one way or another.
2. It Destroys the efforts of Yesterday.
Let us stick with the above example of starting a book and not consistently reading it. When you finally resume reading the book after missing a few days, you will find that you would be better off starting over the book. You might find that you cannot remember the last thing you read and in order to get back into the material you have to go backwards in order to move forward in an understanding manner. What has happened is that the inconsistency of today destroyed the productivity of yesterday. Every time we start a task, it is so important to drive it through to completion in order to not waste the efforts we have put in so far.
3. It Breaks Momentum
Have you ever been hard at work for months and then taken a holiday? You know how it goes. You have been productive for days on end and then the thought comes to you that you need a little break. You think to yourself that you just NEED a few days at a nice resort in order to be rejuvenated and re-energized. You are firmly convinced that you deserve the break and so you take one. What’s funny is that when it’s time to return to work and pick up where you left off, you find it very hard to get back in the productive zone. You have gotten use to relaxing and now it’s like training yourself all over again to get back in the productive realm. What happened? You lost momentum.
In no way am I saying, don’t take a break and relax, but instead, be careful when you take the break. Make sure you first complete the task you have set out to accomplish, because the break actually kills your momentum. So take the break in a wise manner.
I can remember taking a break from exercising and boy, was it a chore to get back into the groove. I have learned the hard way, (more than once to be truthful) that inconsistency breaks momentum and places one right back in the starting blocks.
Consistency is absolutely necessary for living in the realm of productivity. The start and stop behavior will only lead to regret and a wasting of time and life.
I will leave you with one Bible verse that has faithfully encouraged me on countless occasions to fight for consistency:
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
(Galatians 6:9)
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