Hi Reader,

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A few years ago, I co-wrote a book with the brilliant Colette Heneghan, called How to Have The Energy. Colette is a nutritionist who has worked with some of the UK's leading companies and sports teams. She's a voracious reader, constantly on top of the latest science around food and nutrition.

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When I first met Colette, I asked her to become my nutrition coach. I sent her every meal I ate on Whatsapp, and over time, she built up a great picture of what I was doing well and less well in my diet. I slowly transformed my diet, often with small changes. My mental health improved, and I felt like I had so much more energy for work and life. Working with Colette made us both realise how good eating is just like good productivity - it's all about developing the right habits. It's a book I'm really proud of - it's full of practicality and insight, and some of my favourite Colette-isms, like:

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• "you eat good food when you've got good food in your fridge" - if you have a busy lifestyle, the quality of your energy comes from the quality of your diet, comes from the quality of your shopping and preparation.
• "eat the rainbow" - going beyond just 'eat your greens' - for example by adding beetroot, or yellow peppers, or tomatoes, or all of the above - helps you to get a broader range of nutrients.
• "don't eat food with its' own jingle" - carrots and cucumbers don't need cartoon characters to sell them to us: we just know they're good foods.

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And one of my favourite phrases from the book is "consistency beats intensity". If you want to develop a new habit, starting with a bang can feel like a good way to make a change. It's easy to go on a 'detox diet' for a few days, and throw everything into it. But then what happens when you go back to work, and your new detox diet isn't served up in the work canteen, or when you've forgotten to prep things at home? Then you fall back into your old ways, and maybe even give up on it completely.

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But just like with good productivity, exercise or anything else, the key isn't in making a big dramatic change - it's in doing the simple things consistently and well. Intense changes are often unsustainable - they take up a lot of willpower and headspace to maintain. Consistent action, on the other hand, is the slow and steady that wins the race:

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• Tidying up one thing when you leave a room and doing that whenever you can is much easier than trying to find two hours for a 'blitz' when you're busy.
• Keeping on top of emails or admin means you don't let it all pile up to the point that you miss things.
• Eating reasonably well all week is much easier than strict dieting.
• Tiny habits, multiplied every day, produce massive results by the end of the year.

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The other thing I love about the idea of "consistency beats intensity" is that it leaves room for imperfection. Consistent doesn't mean always. You can have the cake, or the friday takeaway. You don't need to be strict or deny yourself things. Consistency just means 'most of the time'. When you're consistent, you have the benefits of that consistency already behind you, and you can relax a bit. You can screw up sometimes, and it's OK. And ironically, a thousand tiny habitual choices ends up taking up much less of your mental energy than harsh, headline-grabbing changes.

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So this week I invite you to think about who you want to be. You might be thinking about that in terms of work success, but equally it could be about how you live, the relationships that matter to you, or anything else that you want to change:

• How can you amplify or build upon your existing consistency?
• What small things can you quietly change to make a big difference?
• How can you embed quiet consistency into your existing routines and actions, so that the changes feel effortless and stick?

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Have a great week,

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Graham

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PS - I found out this week that KIND has been nominated and shortlisted for Business Book of the Year! Yay! I'm really proud to be shortlisted alongside so many great authors in these awards. Thanks to Amy at Bloomsbury for nominating it, and fingers crossed it gets the book to a whole new audience. If you haven't got your copy yet, you can find it here.

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