Why do we have to be SO consistent? (I asked ChatGPT)

by Nan Patience

Plus tips for improving consistency.

The number one thing you hear around the creative economy, ecommerce, and social media platforms when you ask how to please the algorithms is this idea of consistency.

Consistency is key. It’s basic. It’s foundational.

We might ask why. Given how hard most people find consistency to be, we should probably ask why it’s so darn important for humans to be consistent.

Why is consistency in humans so important? I asked ChatGPT directly

Yes, I went straight to the source and asked ChatGPT (OpenAI).

We talked, we laughed, we lost five pounds!

You can read the short interaction between me and ChatGPT on this question at this link but you don’t have to because I’ll include key ideas below.

How consistent are YOU?

Are you consistent with everything in your life?

Consistency comes up a lot in parenting. I’ve had a quarter century of experience right there. Consistency is grounding; chaos is hard. There are times when dang-nabbit, we may not feel like doing something, but we just have to, and so we do.

When it comes to creative projects like writing and making art, sometimes I am consistent, and sometimes I’m not, which I suppose is the very definition of inconsistent haha!

Showing up to work regularly, even if we’re students or we work from home or work a remote job, is vital to keeping projects alive and building them.

If you don’t believe it’s important, try staying on task and being consistent for a while and see what happens. Over time, your efforts will show positive trends, at least in the area you’re being consistent about. Once you see that, you want more. You may try even harder.

Consistency helps us know what to expect over time and makes the world a more predictable place (per ChatGPT).

There’s just one small thing: we’re human. Humans are wild. We’re supposed to be wandering the hillsides hunting and gathering. We’re a life form, connected to the Earth’s biosystems to survive. Many, many things go into how we feel from day to day and from hour to hour about things that we’re doing all at the same time.

It’s easy for machines to be consistent. They only need energy and data. A mere spark can set off a long chain of events.

For A.I., seeking to understand the world that it’s being born into, inconsistency is hard. As artificial intelligence gets stronger, it will be able to handle a wider range of inconsistency. But for right now, it needs a home with structure in order to function.

Consistency for humans

Humans are not as consistent as machines. Stuff happens. Maybe we’re busy being consistent with one thing and something else falls behind. Some of us are running a three-ring circus on the daily.

Sometimes we get distracted, or the sun comes out, or we have to run an errand. Don’t beat yourself up too much.

Consistency is something we can work on. It’s about building small habits, making decisions, and taking action.

Superhuman consistency is what we’re up against in virtual reality. To get in the game and stay in it, don’t imagine it’s easy! The good news is, people are doing it.

Get better at being consistent through consistency challenges and routines

Consistency can be a real challenge!

Have you ever tried doing a consistency challenge, like a 100-day challenge? I have! The first day of a challenge is fun. The second day is a little less fun, and by the end of the first week, if you’re still doing it at all, it will feel heavy.

I recommend challenges. You end up getting something done and pushing yourself out of the comfort zone a little. For example, last summer I challenged myself to write a poem a day.

OK, maybe I didn’t write a poem every single day last summer, but I wrote enough for a book of 36 love poems, and with black and white photo collage illustrations to boot (blog post: Love is in the air).

Benefits of a consistency challenge

• Challenges help stop perfectionism. Because at one point, it is pencils down, ship it, send it.

• It forces us through a process until the ideas, habits and tasks are (sort of) mastered.

• With consistency, the world can be more predictable and stable.

• Opportunities to learn lessons! For example, now I know that to last all the way to the end of a 100-day challenge, I’d better keep the task fun and small.

  Never, ever underestimate the challenges of consistency!

Good routines

Routines can help eliminate a lot of chaos and paralysis that get in the way of consistency, I find. If it weren’t for my morning routine, for example, there would have been many more days of getting nothing done.

So there’s my take on consistency and a couple of tools to get better at it. I hope that helps, and now I’ve gotta go work on my consistency.

~ Nan

P.S. Consistency is only one metric in life. Life has so many more metrics to think about. Check out my related blog post about how to check our online metrics dashboards without falling to pieces.

P.S.S. Keep scrolling down to browse other recent posts, like “Love is in the air…”

When metrics are hard (you need a pep talk)

by Nan Patience

How do you feel
when you check your metrics?

My dashboards today may not have inspired confidence, but they did inspire this blog post.

I looked at some metrics today, and they weren’t great. My insecurities got triggered, and I had to give myself a pep talk. So I’m taking the opportunity to give you a pep talk, too.

You know, all those dashboards that companies give us with our accounts? The histories and transactions — all the pretty little pieces of data moving through time — activities, views, clicks, sales, likes, follows, etc. The charts, the tables in red and black, the greens and the blues…

Checking metrics can sometimes take a toll on us emotionally, especially at the start, when numbers are zeroes and ones.

With any brand new project, we are going to start with nothing across the board. Zero. Zilch. I've done this a few times. Even successful projects start with nothing but ideas.

That’s what we do, we make something out of nothing. We build from there.

That long period of zeroes and single digits can be agonizing. The work is harder and takes longer than expected. We worry what people will think. We worry that our ideas are dumb.

We care so much what other people think, but what we find out that literally no one is thinking about us at all because people are so caught up in their own lives.

No one cares?

There is the phrase going around: “No one cares.” This is sort of true. People do care about us a little, but not about our weird little creative projects. The fact that no one cares and that no one is paying any attention to us is both devastating and liberating.

If it was easier, more people would be doing it, right? Mental toughness and patience through this tough startup stage is the barrier to entry.

Two pieces of advice

1. lower you expectations about the outcome when you log onto dashboards to check the numbers.

2. Don’t check metrics too often. Compulsively checking is not helpful. Once a week is plenty.

We get so caught up in the nice charts, the lists, the stats. If it’s a scrolling platform, you may be tempted to spend a lot of precious time scrolling, emoting, and oversharing.

Our expectations are too high. It causes undue stress and unhappiness.

We underestimate how hard it will be and how long it will take.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned, problems to be solved, in every aspect of every little thing we do, including opportunities to get better. So what if there are things we can improve on? We don’t have to fall to pieces when metrics aren’t showing the progress we want right away.

Look for the glimmers of hope and interesting trends in your metrics, and you will find them. Try giving yourself a little credit for a change.

Low numbers aren’t personal. They’re not a character flaw or a moral failing. There’s room for improvement, though, if we’re willing to face up to it.

Signs of life?

What does everyone say to us when we’re on the struggle bus?

• “Hang in there”

• “Never quit”

• “Keep going”

• “You got this!”

If we do what they say, we start to get signs of life showing up on our dashboards. It may take time, blood, sweat and tears, but it happens!

With hard work, some smarts, and a lot of luck, the blips may turn into jagged up and down lines over time.

Maybe the lines show trends of growth over time.

What really matters

Here’s a thought: the dashboard metrics we get so hung up on may or may not matter to our mortal souls in the end.

In fact, chasing certain metrics can make us feel unwell. Studies show bad mental health impacts for literally everyone, but especially secular liberals of all ages.

Hit especially hard are women, and especially young women and girls. So much so that you now have municipalities suing big social media companies for causing so much the trouble. Apparently, we’re getting played.

Here I am nevertheless, a ringmaster in my own delusional media circus. Blog and all!

So that’s the situation we find ourselves in.

Payoff? is that all that matters?…

At the end of the day, the companies that are so kindly showing us our metrics are only thinking about one thing: the payoff.

And payoff is great, because grown ups have to make a living in this world. But is it really the be-all and end-all? Will there be no payoff without surrendering our freedoms for consistency?

If it’s payoff we want, we only need to follow the platform metrics. The analytics sections can be very helpful in that regard.

Here’s a partial list of some other key metrics that aren’t being measured on the digital dashboards that we put so much stock in.

What else is there?

Besides payoff, could there be other metrics in our lives that are also important?

At the end of our lives, what metrics will have turned out to be important?

Have you seen the interviews people are doing with elderly people asking them what they advise, what they regret. (You have to take these with a grain of salt because these people are not you and they’re not me, however…)

What older people would tell their younger selves or young people today, they always say:

• to not worry too much

• be brave

• have fun

• follow your curiosity

• don’t work too hard

• spend more time with friends and loved ones

• be honest

• be true to yourself

• be kind

Plus

No one says,

• “I wished I would have worked harder.”

• “I wish I would have been more consistent though.”

Where are the dashboards for these other important things that the wise older folks mention?

Where’s the fun-o-meter?

How do we measure these other important things in life?

• the satisfaction we get from trying new things, learning, and projects well done

• the happiness, health and wellbeing of ourselves and our loved ones, friends, neighbors, communities and beyond

• resources left for future generations

• our impacts on the planet

• our impacts on others, including all species, around the globe

• time to think

• time to do absolutely nothing

Ok, you’re right, enough!

How are we measuring things like these? Are there dashboards for that?

Maybe my shortcomings on corporate dashboards would look a lot better on my own control panel?

Beware the tyranny of the metrics, friends!

~ Nan