Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is that how often can matter more than how much.

Committing to doing things frequently

may ultimately lead to more success

than committing a lot of time.

We've all heard the advice that goals need to be smart, specific, measurable, achievable, all that good stuff.

And I agree. What we measure is generally what we get done.

So when we start thinking of goals, we often try to attach numbers to them.

But numbers can take different forms, and you might be better off focusing on how often you do something, rather than the extent of any given engagement.

For instance, you commit to meditating daily rather than meditating for 10 minutes

at a time. There's a simple reason for this. Emphasizing how often we engage in a desired behavior helps us form

the habit of actually doing it. We might be able to stick with a frequency more

easily than with a set duration or target, so we're more likely to continue

the habit, even when life is challenging.

Running streaks provide a great example of this.

A streak is more about how often, namely daily, than how much.

Streakers almost universally set a low threshold amount, such as one mile, to count as that

daily run.

And for a regular runner, a mile is really not that much.

...