Tag: one percent

Posted in productivity

One percent

Posted on by William Douthwaite

This is a response to the WordPress daily writing prompt, “What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?”

I love the one percent goal. If you become 1 percent better at something each day, you will be 37 times better at that in a year. Those small incremental increases pay off in a big way.

What does that one percent look like? Read one more sentence in a book than yesterday. Or increase the weight you lift in a workout by one percent. Write one more sentence in your journal than yesterday. Run or walk one percent further than yesterday. Drink one percent more water each day. Practice your instrument one percent longer.

It doesn’t have to be a daily goal. Save one percent more money than last month. Run one percent further than last month. Read one percent more than last month. Whatever. Before you know it, you’ve leveled up your life through small, insignificant improvements.

I’ll often ask myself, “What’s my one percent today?” I don’t have to improve everything every day. But there is always something I can strive to improve by one percent.

Posted in Life

I can do anything differently. But I probably won’t.

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Daily writing prompt
What could you do differently?
View all responses
Photo by Mulyadi on Unsplash

For a whole year, people have asked me the opposite question: “What can you do the same?” In other words, what habits and systems will you establish to relieve stress, increase productivity, and make incremental improvements? This comes from successful folks who share their morning rituals with me so that I can have a better life. They discipline themselves to wake up at the same time, dress the same way, eat the same meals, and take the same route to work in order to clear their minds for more important tasks. Those folks would advocate that the one thing I could do differently is to do the same thing every day.

But Jerry Seinfeld challenged George Costanza, “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” George tries it and immediately connects with a woman who had been looking in his direction. Doing things differently changes his life, at least for one episode.

So I can do anything and everything differently. The possibilities are endless. Multiple options are within my grasp. However, I know I’m probably not going to do much differently. I am a creature of habit.

But what I can do differently isn’t actually different. It’s just “one more” or “one percent more” of what I’ve been doing. It’s reading one more page or running one more minute. It’s writing one more paragraph or practicing a line of music one more time. It’s saying one more prayer or drinking one more sip of water. Over time, I run faster, feel healthier, and sound better. And I didn’t do anything differently.

Posted in fitness, Life

Little additions, big gains

Posted on by William Douthwaite

One and one quarter pounds. That’s all it was. I know, it doesn’t seem like much. But what a difference!

I was pretty excited when I spied these little bitty plates at the gym. They were bright yellow; impossible to miss. Yet, dwarfed by racks fulled with forty-five pound plates and fifty pound dumbbells, they were easy to overlook.

Before this, the smallest plates were two and a half pounds. That meant you had to go up at least five pounds in weight if you want to lift more. Maybe it’s all in my head, or maybe it really is a physical thing, but it’s hard to add another five pounds onto a bar that already feels like all you can push or pull. But two pounds? That doesn’t seem like much at all. Of course I can lift another two pounds!

They make even smaller plates, so you can go up as little as a half-pound if you want. Those small, incremental gains will add up to big results over time.

This is only one application of the 1% rule that someone wrote about somewhere. If you do just 1% more each day, then you will be thirty-seven times better at something in a year. I think it’s called the art of continual improvement.

Let’s say you have time to read one page of a book per day. Tomorrow, read one page plus one more line. The day after, read two extra lines. Before you know it, you’ll be reading four or five pages a day.

Add one-hundredth of a mile to your mile walk each day. Get up (opr go to bed) one-half minute earlier each day. Write five more words in your journal than you did yesterday. Eat one more bite of something green.

What’s your one percent?