Daily versus dailyish
Is close enough good enough?
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.
