Hello the 17H10 club !

As explained in our last newsletter, our ambition is to analyze in more detail various topics dealing with women's entrepreneurship, the world of work, daily life, and of course looks in suits. ❤️

If our last article was aimed at those who have difficulty in taking a break, this one is for those who have chosen to develop projects this summer.

We all have plans in mind, some pretty crazy, some more pragmatic, whether it's starting another business outside of work, getting back into sports, learning a new language, starting a new career, or all at once for the overachievers. If you too need to have 45 projects and 610 windows open in your browser to stay stimulated, but can't always stay focused on your plans... 🥶 This article is for you. 😎

Based on an episode of one of our favorite entrepreneurship podcasts, "J'peux pas j'ai business", by Aline from TheBBoost, as well as our own research, we've put together a recap of tips to follow to stay motivated and consistent in your personal projects or on your business launched outside of work.

AMBITION FOR THE WIN !

As described by Aline in her podcast episode "How to stay consistent and disciplined in your business",self-discipline is crucial to the achievement of our projects. The entrepreneur gives us her advice on how to stay consistent in what we want to accomplish.

Indeed, it is difficult to rely solely on motivation, since it fluctuates with time, context, and our energy.

The first step according to Aline is to remember why we undertook this project. Is this part of a larger goal that will benefit us in the long run?

Knowing why we do a task by putting it in context makes it more plausible to accomplish our goals.

So, here are a few tips we noted while listening to this episode of TheBBoost podcast in order to stay consistent in our projects and achieve our goals successfully.

1. Set simple goals at the beginning, then increase the difficulty gradually. Setting unattainable goals and writing long to-do lists is more likely to lead us to abandon the project and procrastinate than if we take it one step at a time, breaking down a big goal into several steps.
2. Block a time slot in the agenda right away. Nowadays, everyone is always short of time, unless you decide to block a special time to take care of it. The best thing to do is to block out your schedule in advance to force yourself to follow up on the project, on the same day or at the same time every time if possible, in order to make it a habit. For example, I set up 2 slots per week to go to the gym, and I try not to deviate from this habit. As time goes on, I won't even question the possibility of not going to the gym (yes, I do!)
3. Give yourself a start date and an end date. Indeed, we are more likely to give up if we do not see the end of our projects. It is important to know when we will take stock, in order to give our brain a framework, and to make it want to continue. To give another example, I want to start learning Italian this summer, and from July to the end of August, I need to be able to know the conjugations of the basic verbs, as well as a simple vocabulary on the topic of my choice.
4. Have a tracker, a way to follow the project, whether it's a journal or the calendar app on your phone to check off what's been done, keep track of its progress, and create reminders if needed. For example, if I want to launch my business on the side, I create a Google calendar or I buy a paper calendar specifically for this project, in order to keep track of my progress, and I integrate it concretely in my daily organization.
5. Having an accountability partner who will call us to order if we don't keep our commitments. Making a public commitment to someone outside of ourselves helps us to be consistent, as we tend to want to honor our reputation.
6. Give ourselves positive rewards at each step to motivate our brain to continue, based on the principle of positive and negative reinforcement. Each time we reach our goals, or each major milestone, think about rewarding ourselves, even if it is not obvious to everyone. However, the promise of a gift to ourselves pushes us to work just as hard to achieve our next successes without losing motivation.
7. Pride and personal challenge: If we've come this far, why give up now when we've already put in so much effort? Challenges lead us to push our limits, to learn more about ourselves, and especially to be proud of our personal and professional achievements.

In addition to these 7 points, we have found through our research a few tips that will help you stay focused on your projects.

• Deep work vs. shallow work: Much used in America, these terms designate two different states and ways of working, to be fitted into our agenda according to our mood or energy level. Deep work is work that requires a lot of concentration, for example doing research or making important decisions. We therefore need to be in a state of flow and focus, at the peak of our energy. Depending on how you organize yourself, it is better to book a time at the beginning or middle of the day to accomplish these tasks. On the contrary, shallow work is work that does not require much concentration. We will book moments in our day, especially in the evening, for automatic activities that do not require much effort. 

• Try to multitask less: It's well known that many of us seem to multi-task, leaving 45 windows open and jumping from one task to another, yet our brains are not programmed to handle too much information and too many tasks at once, at the risk of saturating too quickly and no longer moving efficiently on each individual task.

• Have visual reminders on a daily basis: Put your sneakers in front of the door to remind you to go for a run every morning, stick post-its on the wall to remind you to work on your side business every time you come home from work... Or put colored cards with vocabulary on the living room table so that we can see them every day, all in order not toprocrastinate on our progress.

And of course, don't forget to take breaks, so as not to get discouraged in the long run.

We hope you enjoy this second article of the magazine format, and that you will accomplish all your ambitious projects with success!