Create a loyalty card

THE PRINCIPLE

Working step by step towards a reward keeps you motivated

Yes, ideally the work should be its own reward. But we’ve all experienced that blah feeling in the middle of a project when it has become hard work, things aren’t falling into place in the way we’d hoped and the finish line is still a long way off.

One common recommendation for keeping yourself motivated is to reward yourself for reaching milestones along the way. The problem with this is that for little steps, the rewards tend to be so small that often we don’t bother; and for big steps the reward is so far off that it’s not very motivating.

A way around this is to adapt an idea commonly used by coffee shops and restaurants: the loyalty card. That’s a little card you carry and that gets stamped or punched every time you buy something. When you’ve purchased ten coffees, for instance, you get a free one.

You can use an index card or even the back of a business card for your own version. At the top of the card write the milestone that you want to reach. For instance, if you’re trying to write a book, maybe it’s finishing the first chapter. Or if you’re getting organised, maybe it’s finishing the filing that has piled up.

At the bottom of the card write the reward you will be giving yourself. Maybe it’s going to the cinema or out to dinner, or buying a book.

Decide how many daily steps the task might take. Ideally it would be between six and ten. If it’s fewer than six or more than ten, adjust the scope of the task. Draw a small square to represent each step.

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Every day that you accomplish a step towards this milestone, put a check mark in one of the boxes. When they have all been marked, you get the reward.

By the way, this is also a terrific tool to use with children: every ten times they have done some chore, or achieved a good score on their school tests or assignments, they get a little prize.

Using this kind of card yourself makes you ‘loyal’ to the idea of achieving your creative goals – and that’s even better than a free large cappuccino!

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