1% Better Every Day: What Does It Even Mean?

Improved might even be the wrong word, because a 1% change doesn't really feel like improvement.

Most of the time, when you're saying, oh, I want to improve by 1%, what you need is almost a feeling of regression, like you're going backwards all the time.

Take the illustrations that I do almost every day.

When I flip the page and start off with a new sketch, I could easily do what I had done before.

I could use the same style, same fonts, even the same layout.

That's logical because to do what you've already done speeds things up.

But let's say the goal is to be at least 1% uncomfortable.

It means that I now have to go hunting on Pinterest for a different kind of font, maybe a different kind of layout.

Often enough, I will change the entire style of drawing and copy somebody else's style.

It's possible that all of these three elements might change on a single new page, and the results, they aren't always joyful.

Sometimes I will end up delighted, and at other times it looks like a mess.

And I find the same chaotic environment entering another one of my hobbies, which happens to be cooking.

If you make a dish every day and it turns out excellent, why would you bother adding more tamarind? Why change the type of chili? Why throw in yogurt if you've never used it before? If 1% doesn't feel like going forward, why bother with the 1% anyway? It's easy to assume that 1% growth every day adds up to 365% growth over a year.

Improved might even be the wrong word, because a 1% change doesn't really feel like improvement.

Most of the time, when you're saying, oh, I want to improve by 1%, what you need is almost a feeling of regression, like you're going backwards all the time.

Take the illustrations that I do almost every day.

When I flip the page and start off with a new sketch, I could easily do what I had done before.

I could use the same style, same fonts, even the same layout.

That's logical because to do what you've already done speeds things up.

But let's say the goal is to be at least 1% uncomfortable.

It means that I now have to go hunting on Pinterest for a different kind of font, maybe a different kind of layout.

Often enough, I will change the entire style of drawing and copy somebody else's style.

It's possible that all of these three elements might change on a single new page, and the results, they aren't always joyful.

Sometimes I will end up delighted, and at other times it looks like a mess.

And I find the same chaotic environment entering another one of my hobbies, which happens to be cooking.

If you make a dish every day and it turns out excellent, why would you bother adding more tamarind? Why change the type of chili? Why throw in yogurt if you've never used it before? If 1% doesn't feel like going forward, why bother with the 1% anyway? It's easy to assume that 1% growth every day adds up to 365% growth over a year.