Dailyish

17 Feb, 2025

Rather than a rigid commitment to doing something every single day without fail - a commitment that is destined to fail at some point - "dailyish" adds the light pressure of intending to do create a daily habit whilst acknowledging the reality that there will be times when this isn't possible. The focus is then not on getting an unbroken streak, but on doing the thing.

I'm aim to write Morning Pages and work in my Sketchbooks dailyish, and try to not beat myself up too much about missing days here and there.

References

'Dailyish' | Oliver Burkeman

an every-single-day rule is so rigid, so intolerant of the vagaries of life, that you'll inevitably soon fall off the wagon. And once that's happened, you lose all motivation to continue – so you end up doing less, in aggregate, than if you hadn't been quite so exacting in your demands

something about "dailyish" shifts the focus away from your particular smorgasbord of psychological problems back to the thing itself – to the creation you're seeking to bring into existence, whether that's a piece of writing or work of art, a happy family, healthier body, meditation habit, or anything else. It's a reminder that in some fundamental way, real productivity – provided you're working on something worth producing to begin with – isn't about you. It's about what's being produced. What matters, in the end, is what gets created, not whether the person doing the creating has an impeccable record of red Xs.

Meditation Advice for Beginners from Dan Harris

“dailyish”, provides enough elasticity so that you if you fall off the wagon for a day or two or three, you can still start up again, and that’s totally fine.