The Surprising Thing About True Consistency

Why are we so consumed by consistency when we might actually be playing the wrong game.

Consistency can take you in a number of directions

So you might think you’re consistent but by what definition? Who says you are? And by what measure? And what are the benefits of being consistent?

The newsletter world is littered with articles extolling the virtues of

“consistently showing up”

“writing consistently”

“consistent habits”

In the workplace we are encouraged to be consistent in our work, in our messaging and our management of people.

Consistency is good. Right?

Well, its only good if you add good before the word I guess. “Consistently good” is better than “consistent bad”. I think we can all agree on that.

But there’s a whole grey area we should explore around what IS consistency and the many different facets that can make up this most mysterious of concepts.

Is it about delivering each week on the dot?

Let’s start with the world of newsletters again to begin to dissect this one.

Substack has told us from the beginning that posting at the same time and day of week every week means our readers know when to look out for your posts. They can build a habit around making a coffee at that particular time and look forward to your post landing….on the dot each week.

Over the past year I have changed the day and time I post quite a few times. What has this done to my open rate? Nothing. It has remained relatively stable at around 35%. A weekly posting schedule feels about right but it doesn’t appear to matter too much when you post.

Having said all this, if you say you’re going to deliver at certain time then you should certainly do that.

Take Away: Doing what you say you’re going to do builds trust but that’s less about consistency and more about being dependable.

Is it about getting Better?

One of the best parables about consistency comes from the book, Art & Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

“[A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

So the clear lesson here is by consistently turning up and refining through repetition you will improve. So, just start.

Take Away: Put aside perfectionism and just have a go.