Daily versus dailyish

Is close enough good enough?

Photo by Alonso Reyes on Unsplash

Today’s meditation in the book Daily Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman was on the concept of dailyish. That is to do a task or activity most days but with the understanding that skipping a day here and there might be necessary. This concept works better for me than every day without fail.

I understand the consistency principle. I know that for other people, this is their secret sauce. But for me, it can become an overwhelming responsibility when it’s more about the streak than the activity.

I came across the concept of most days or dailyish a few years ago and think it has the necessary flexibility I need. But the tricky thing is to remain consistent even as you allow for some blips.

I signed up for Duolingo more than a year ago, and it works very much on the principle of a daily habit—microlearning. I have a streak of four hundred and twenty-three days, but that’s not an unbroken streak. I’ve used several freezes in that time.

A freeze means you missed a day but can keep the streak going, and to be honest, if they didn’t exist, I’d have quit a long time ago. The pressure would have just gotten too much, and once it’s broken, why bother?

And that’s why dailyish can both help and become a reason to give up.