The other day, I was exhausted. I was too tired to knit, really. I’d been out and about in San Francisco all day with my brother (we’re here on vacation and I could not be more grateful to have a break from my regular life) and just did not want to work on my projects. And honestly, that’s okay! I don’t usually keep track of how many days I knit. I don’t need to. Pieces of our identity are solidified when we see evidential proof of them. I have plenty of evidential proof that I am a Knitter with a capital K.

But I also LOVE a streak. And sometimes, when you’re trying to solidify a habit, a streak is really good motivation. Because I work with college students (many of whom have lost motivation and are trying to find it), I spend a lot of time singing the praises of a streak calendar. I learned about the significance of this as a motivational tool from this amazing TEDTalk by the person who invented DuoLingo – check it out here if you’re interested.

I don’t need a streak calendar when it comes to knitting. I don’t need to solidify that as a habit. But I am partial to using tracking devices to meet goals, like I said in my last post. And one of my goals is to work through a sock design each month. The plan is to open my surprise sock package on the first day of the month and cast on a new design based on the color and what I’m feeling like knitting. I then have to work on the socks every day until they’re done, and then that’s it. No more sock knitting until the next month.

This might sound kind of strange. Why would I give myself so many rules for something that’s supposed to be fun? Well, because it helps me avoid burnout. I don’t have to race to the finish with each pair of socks, but I have to work on them every day until they’re done. Unless something crazy happens, it won’t take a whole month. The point is that I actually finish one whole new pattern each month. I don’t go crazy and knit two or three samples, and then get stressed the next month when one of them isn’t done and I feel like I need to cast on the next one. In fact, part of my the mental game that I’m playing with myself is that I hope I want to cast on another pair immediately. And I wait and let the suspense build up and work on other projects in the meanwhile in order to let myself get really motivated to knit the next pair. Stay tuned on whether or not that works the way I hope it does.

But the other night, I really didn’t want to work on that sock. But I’d watched a video from The Running Channel a couple of days earlier that had some good advice: when you don’t want to do your habit, it’s better to do less than to skip it altogether. Maybe you planned for a long run, but your body can’t do it. Instead of staying in and feeling sorry for yourself, go out for a recovery run or even just a walk. It’ll help solidify the habit, and, more importantly, it’ll help you prove to yourself that you’re the kind of person who doesn’t miss a workout. You can train for a marathon, but if your goal is “run a marathon,” you’ll probably stop running after it’s over. On the other hand, if your goal is “become a runner,” it’ll be more likely to stick. You’re not obsessed with sticking to a training plan, you’re trying to get in the mindset of “this is what I do, and it doesn’t matter if I don’t do as much of it today as I wanted. I still got out there.”

What I learned is that it’s not about the volume, it’s about the commitment. I don’t skip a workout, even if it doesn’t go to plan. So if I want to finish out the year with twelve new sock patterns and samples without feeling burnt out, I can knit just one round. And then I did it. I worked on the sock every day. And it’s a powerful feeling.

Another piece of advice I recently heard that I like about this, though, is that it’s not about missing one day. You can miss a day and still get back on track pretty easily. But once you miss two days, the habit tends to be toast. (I’m not saying you should go out for a run if you have the flu. Even I took a week off for that.) So if you’re trying to solidify a habit, bear that in mind if you realize you forgot a day. Just do it again tomorrow.

And when you’re feeling REALLY un-motivated and you pick something up, you might be surprised at how quickly you get into it. Sometimes you have a personal best on a day you feel like crap. Find a way to work around the obstacle, if you can, whether it’s physical or mental. Maybe just shrink that obstacle. Just knit one round, like I did the other day when I was Not Feelin’ It. Just go for a short walk. You’ll be glad you did it.