Continuous Improvement: Why It Works and How To Do It

Continuous improvement means making small and consistent improvement in order to achieve big results in life. Often times, we have heard self-help people talk about to think bigger goals and then work your ass off to achieve them. Well, it may work for some people but the truth is there is failure, frustration and fatigue when we go for it. There is certain amount of boredom and demotivation that you feel when you start working on it and because you don’t see immediate results or you don’t see the results at all for days to come, you procrastinate.

But on the contrary what we can do is we can go for continuous improvement. This means the goal is the same but we need to figure out a way to break it down to smaller steps. And then be consistent on our approach.

We often overlook the gains of tiny improvements in the long term. This means getting better 1% every day.

Getting 1% better every day works like a compound interest. It isn’t noticeable right now but you can see the results in the long term. If we get better 1% everyday then that is 37% improvement in one year. Likewise when you don’t do 1% everyday, your improvement goes to 0%.

The benefits of continuous improvement

Small improvements are doable
It’s easier to start and follow through
Completing daily goals will give a sense of accomplishment

How can we do tiny continuous improvement?

There are few ways that might help us to improve.

1. Measure backwards not forward

Rather than focusing on how much is left to be done to achieve your goal in the future, you should focus what you can do right now based on your past performance. This means doing 1% better than you did yesterday or last week. You need to look at your past performance and up your game a little bit.

This means if you squat 40 pounds last week go for 50 pounds this week or whatever number is good for you. But make sure it is easy enough to follow through. Remember we are in this game for the long run.

2. Avoid tiny losses to make big gains

This means eliminating whatever is inessential to your craft or work.

For example, if you work out then you need to eliminate unhealthy foods, miss fewer workouts, etc.

3. Being consistent

You need to dedicate a certain time for doing a task and then follow through. But remember that the task shouldn’t be something very bold and overwhelming that you burnout in the process and won’t even want to work the next day neither should it be something very tiny that won’t even make a difference. It should be something that will improve your work and challenge you at the same time.

For example: I write 500 words a day and I don’t just mindlessly practice writing 500 words a day, I do deliberate practice of writing 500 words a day. This means reading my favorite blogger and then writing why I like that article and then writing that article in my own words. And then comparing where I am falling short. This comparison gives me an insight whether I am making progress.

This is about deliberate practice.

4. Focus on your Process

Continuous improvement demands to focus on your process rather than your goals. Rather than focusing on how big your goal is, you should focus on your daily effort. This is a great way to improve because small daily tasks are easier to complete and it won’t even overwhelm you. Daily goals leads to weekly results, weekly results lead to monthly and monthly leads to yearly and then comes your big goal. This is Domino’s effect.

So, start small and put one foot in front of the other every single day and one day you might scale a mountain.

Conclusion

Daily small improvement aren’t visible in the moment or in the few days but it leads to big changes in the long run. Continuous improvement works like compound interest if we invest our time and effort over long run.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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