6 Steps to Beat Implementation Fatigue
““Improving by 1% isn’t particularly notable, sometimes it isn’t even noticeable...” “If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.””
Wow it has been a busy week! I spent time with so many wonderful humans over at the Happy Organized Life 2024 Summit. There were so many tips, tricks and hacks being shared by the absolutely amazing speaker line-up (of which one was yours truly) and it got me thinking.
These events are put on - sometimes free, sometimes paid.
You go along and write all of the notes, making sure that you don't forget any of the powerful gems that are shared.
Then you go back to normal life.
All too often do those notes then just sit in your notebook. You have all the best intention to make a change but just taking notes doesn't make the transformation.
You do.
You are the reason that the transformation takes place.
So how on earth do you take all of this amazing stuff and turn it into intention action for growth?
Take a look at my 6 steps to prevent implementation fatigue:
1 - Start small
Overhauling your entire routine in one swoop is not the key here. Where there are pages of golden nuggets to action it can feel like you need to do it all in one go. I want you to start small. This will help you to build momentum, create consistency and be far easier to actually maintain.
Author James Clear wrote in his book Atomic Habits:
"Improving by 1% isn't particularly notable, sometimes it isn't even noticeable. If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time you're done."
Start with one or two strategies, even picking ones that will have a big impact for a quick win. Take your time - this is a marathon not a sprint.
2 - Set Yourself Targets
When you give yourself something to work towards, you are far more likely to stay motivated. But when you set these targets I want it to be around something you are moving towards and not something you are moving away from. The language behind these targets and goals are the difference between making the change permanent or not.
When you focus on what you are moving towards, your why, you have the abundant and positive mindset that keeps you moving forward.
Take feeling organised, for example.
If your goal is to feel less overwhelmed at work, you are framing the goal to focus on the problem and not the solution. If we flip that around and instead the goal or target is to feel more calm and organised at work you have instead created a vision of what you want to create. You can make the plan and take the steps with love instead of starting off with negativity in mind.
3 - Celebrate
Many moons ago I was quite the Negative Nelly and the thought of celebrating anything made me feel like I would lose momentum.
How wrong was I!? It is actually quite the opposite.
When you take the time to celebrate the small wins, let alone the big wins, you are reinforcing your behaviour. You are showing yourself that these changes create an amazing feeling within you and often the ripple effect from this is huge too.
When people see you loving yourself, it is so much easier to replicate that behaviour both to you and to others.
So not only are you celebrating your own win, you are now creating more love in the world.
But what does celebrating look like. I used to think that this was a spa day, bottle of champagne or fancy dinner out. Of course it can be but when we want to reinforce the celebrating of small wins, we might need to think a little more financially savvy!
Instead, what is it that you love? What makes you feel like you have smashed it out of the park?
For me, it is jump in a hot bath with the special bubbles, or my favourite chocolates. More recently it is getting up before the whole family and sneaking into the hot tub at 6am to listen to the birds sing. It sounds like nothing but when I am doing that I know it is because I have absolutely smashed another step in my path to being exactly who I want to be.
6 Steps to Beat Implementation Fatigue
4 - Stay Flexible
One of my favourite things to say is that structure is freedom. Often people assume that my diary is rigid and I have manufactured my freedom. But it is actually quite the opposite.
Staying flexible is the freedom to make change while remaining prepared.
Life is unpredictable and I don't know about you but no 2 days in my life look exactly the same!
Rigid plans are the fast track to burnout, frustration and implementation fatigue. Flexibility is the permission to tweak and change things as you need.
You might have been given an amazing tip that feels like a bit too much of a stretch to implement. Change it to suit you. Take the principles of the tip or trick but tweak it to work for you.
I am a huge advocate of time blocking but for some it feels way too restrictive. So instead of blocking every single hour of the day, just put in a morning, afternoon and evening block. Allocate your time for you. Alternatively, having big blocks might be too much of a licence to faff. Instead, look at how you can better allocate your time to limit the distractions while building in time to wander.
Nothing is set in stone - even when you want it to be so embrace the flexibility.
5 - Accountability
This one has to be my most loved tip. It is so POWERFUL when you have a community behind you.
Your support system is built up of so many different layers and without realising, you have baked in accountability. You have friends who check in with you (or like mine, they might just send random but hilarious memes), you have family who show up. You might have a neighbour who waves whenever you see them.
One of my most beloved levels of accountability is actually YouTube! Sometimes, when the motivation is lacking, I search a video of someone working on the thing I need to do. Cleaning or gardening, decluttering or editing. Body doubling is a powerful motivator.
I don't tend to do this with work though as it can be quite distracting. Instead, I have co-working sessions. I am joined by wonderful ladies in my community, we take an hour together on Zoom. At the top of the call we commit to the tasks we will be working on and then we hit mute and get cracking. At the end of the call we go around the room and see how we all got on. It is such a productive time! Just knowing that I have those sessions in the diary is a guaranteed slot of productivity time.
Regular check-ins will keep you on track. Especially if you are a people pleaser like me!
6 - Put Yourself First
This one might feel obvious or rather unnecessary but it is probably the one that will have the biggest impact.
Implementing new routines, boundaries or change takes physical and mental energy. You need to take care of you to ensure that you stay committed. If you make a change and all it does is leaves you feeling exhausted, you will go back to that comfortable old way of doing things that doesn't serve you.
And this is also why we don't make big dramatic changes too. You need the energy to keep the momentum. So first and foremost, you need to up that self-care. Self-care to me is extra gratitude, a warm drink when I feel tired or snuggling on the sofa for an extra 20 minutes with a book. All of these things help my nervous system relax and while I may not feel energised enough to run a marathon, I am in a much better place to make decisions from a place of calm.
Go back to basics. Sleep, drink water, eat and move your body. Some of these might actually be the new habits you want to bring in. These are the habits that will have the biggest impact.
Self care isn't a luxury. It is an essential part of basic human needs. So when you are planning in time to do all of the things, make sure you plan this in too. You are your most important client.
Following these 6 tips to stay energised and kick that implementation fatigue to the side for good. Start small, stay flexible and prioritise you.
I would love to know what change you are going to make now you have all the tools for making things happen. Drop me an DM and let me know.
