It could be.

Hi guys, and welcome back to our lovely little blogging space here! Today I have one question to pose because it’s the only thing I could get to come to mind when I realized I was (ironically) late once again in writing my weekly posts– Is consistency really key?

So, I’ve been writing pretty consistently on at least one of my new-ish books. Consistently, too, as in… daily. Actually, nightly. Okay… mid-nightly, since we’re being honest here.

But, for the past few weeks that I’ve been sticking to a scheduled routine, I’ve made some pretty major progress in this new project. Hey, you can even see the tabs I’ve kept on daily (nightly) word counts on my Twitter.

Clearly, though, with a few other, unnamed projects, I haven’t been keeping a consistent regimen in working with them. And, actually… it’s normally my nature to not stick to any sort of schedule and actually just do whatever I want, whenever I want. I mean, I have proven that I can get things done that way, too… but here’s the thing– Is it as efficient?

Consistent, efficient. Hm.

It’s true, as I’m just now pretty much noticing, that I get things done more quickly when I stick to a strict schedule. However, let’s think here– Is quick really the sole definition of efficient?

Hey, Google– What’s the definition of efficient?

adjective: efficient

achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.

–Google

Well, thinking by that standard, I guess consistency really doesn’t get me the key to efficiency at all. I mean, I use way more effort and expense when I stretch out my writing into blocked sessions where I end up staring at my feet half the time because I’m not in the mood to do any work than when I just get right down to business every once in a whipstitch and write when I want with real passion. Secondly, I don’t really think I achieve maximum productivity when I schedule writing time when I’m the most tired and lethargic from the rest of the day’s work.

But, then again… maybe efficiency isn’t what consistency is supposed to get me.

I mean, let’s consider the alternative here… if I weren’t sitting down at a consistent scheduled time every night that I’ve forced myself to adapt to, what else would I be doing? Having a life, yeah… but also not giving birth to another book, probably, at all. Or, maybe just very much more slowly. But you also know… the longer the labor, the longer the pain and suffering.

Good analogy, I know, thanks… haha…

But, when it comes down to it, maybe, sometimes, consistency is key, and sometimes, maybe, it’s not. Maybe… it just depends.

Maybe consistency is key with what I’m working on right now, but it just wasn’t before and maybe won’t be again after this. Maybe consistency is key to getting stuff done, whether it’s the efficient way or not.

Maybe you’ll find consistency in your work, or life, or maybe you won’t. Maybe consistency isn’t consistent from person to person, project to project.

Hm.

Anyone– Thoughts?

–Kari