THE SECRET: Measure by time, not output.

Author Jeffrey Archer flies out to Portugal each December to begin a seven-week writing marathon. Over the following few weeks, he will start writing at 6:00 am and will write throughout the day every day. At the end of those few weeks, he will have the first draft of his next book written.

Jeffrey Archer is not measuring the number of words he writes each day. He focuses on being at his desk and writing by 6:00 am. He knows that if he follows that routine for the following weeks, he will have a finished manuscript by around mid-February.

It’s a simple formula based on just turning up daily.

It is the “secret” to getting anything done consistently. Whether that is your work or getting yourself fit. You need to turn up each day and do the work to achieve anything. There is no other way.

If you measure your productivity by what you produce each day, you will set yourself up for disappointment. You are going to have good and bad days. You will also have “meh” days — days where you get stuff done, but it feels like you’re constantly pushing a large stone up a hill. The trouble is, you never know when you will have a good or bad day. You may have slept badly or fought with your partner at breakfast and are distracted all day.