How to be disciplined even when you don’t have discipline

To accomplish your creative dreams, you need to do the work. But it’s hard to keep up the discipline day in and day out.

This is why I arrange my work according to how much discipline I have. If you take advantage of discipline when you have discipline, and protect your goals when you don’t have discipline, you can be disciplined even when you don’t have discipline.

Discipline takes mental energy. Sometimes you have the energy to have discipline, and sometimes you don’t.

For many people, this energy follows a predictable pattern. This is what my discipline looks like throughout the day.

I don’t have discipline in the morning. I have more discipline in the afternoon. I once again have less discipline in the evening.

Here’s what I do in the mornings, to protect myself from a lack of discipline:

• I design my environment to avoid distractions. If I get distracted in the morning, it will be a disaster. With poor discipline, I can easily throw my whole day off track. I face a blank wall for the first couple of hours of the day. I wear earplugs. Also, my phone is kept far away from my work space. These ways of shaping my environment keep me from getting distracted.
• I rely upon habits to get work done. With little mental energy in the morning, I don’t have much energy for thinking about my priorities. So, I rely on daily work habits first thing in the morning. A habit like working for an hour on my most important project, or writing a blog post makes sure I get off to a good start, which keeps me more disciplined throughout the day.
• I follow rules to maintain my focus. When you don’t have discipline, it’s easy to make excuses for yourself that ruin your focus. I have “rules” in the morning, so my poor discipline won’t cause me to get distracted. For example, I don’t check my email until I’ve worked on my most important project. I don’t touch my phone until lunch time.
• I do work that benefits from “wide” thinking. When you have poor discipline, you happen to also be more creative. Your mind is thinking “wide” — taking in every bit of stimulus around you. This is why I spend my mornings doing creative work. I do more creative work, and the safeguards I put in place make that work even better.

Here’s what I do in the afternoons to take advantage of my higher level of discipline:

• I give myself more leeway in my environment. In the afternoon, I have the discipline to handle distractions. In fact, I find that busy environments even enhance some types of work that I do in the afternoon. If I forced myself to face a blank wall all day, I wouldn’t be able to keep it up. So I “treat” myself in the afternoons with a more stimulating environment, such as a coworking space or a cafe.
• I do work that benefits from “narrow” thinking. Since I’m more disciplined in the afternoons, I do better at tasks that require “narrow” thinking. If I need to edit an article or crunch some numbers in a spreadsheet, I’m better off doing it in the afternoon.

Here’s what I do in the evenings to protect myself from a lack of discipline (and to ensure I have more discipline the next day):

• I follow rules to prevent unhealthy sleep hygiene. Having discipline starts with healthy sleep habits. I have three “rules” that I follow that ensure I get a good night’s sleep: 1) no social media or work after 10pm 2) wear blue-blocker goggles after 10pm 3) go to bed no later than midnight.
• I use rituals to motivate healthy behavior. It’s hard to follow rules if doing so is unpleasant. If I can’t follow the rules, I won’t sleep well. Rituals are “triggers” that help me enjoy following the rules. After I turn off social media at 10pm, I put some essential oil in a diffuser, I dim the lights, and I read. I love performing these rituals, so it makes it easy to follow the rules.

My discipline doesn’t only fluctuate throughout the day. It also fluctuates throughout the week. Here’s how my discipline changes throughout the week:

I have lots of discipline early in the week — peaking slightly on Tuesdays. I have very little discipline later in the week.

Here’s what I do early in the week to take advantage of my higher level of discipline:

• I work on bigger creative projects. Big creative projects take a lot of discipline. There are lots of unknowns, and progress is slow. So, it takes discipline to execute these projects. I spend Mondays and Tuesdays focused on bigger projects, such as books.
• I spend time planning and prioritizing. Being a creative entrepreneur requires you to regularly put on your executive hat. When you have discipline, you can think more clearly about priorities, deciding what is important, and what is not important. I’ll often spend a Monday thinking only about higher-level things and planning what I’ll do in coming weeks.
• I follow rules to make the most of my energy. You want to use your best energy for your most important work. I have rules that keep unimportant things from taking away from my best energy: 1) I don’t work on my podcast on Mondays and 2) I don’t take meetings on Mondays or Tuesdays. My podcast uses repeatable processes, so doesn’t require as much discipline. I rarely have a meeting that is worth missing out on my most-disciplined energy. If it’s really important, I’ll make an exception.

Here’s what I do late in the week to make the most of my low level of discipline:

• I work on repeatable processes. I’ve been running my podcast long enough that the processes are repeatable. It doesn’t take much discipline for me to follow a checklist.
• I do my less-important work. Some work needs to get done, but isn’t my most important work. Later in the week is reserved for administrative things like compiling reports or paying bills.
• I have meetings. I rarely have a meeting that is critical to my most important work. Yes, podcast interviews are important, but they are more exploratory and I have somewhat of a system for them. I also find doing interviews to be stimulating and recharging, so they help replenish my waning discipline later in the week.

Pay attention to when you have little discipline, and to when you have more discipline. If you arrange your work accordingly, you can be disciplined even when you don’t have discipline.

What do you do to take advantage of high discipline? And to protect yourself from low discipline?

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