The Consistency Gap: Why You Struggle to Stick With Your Brand (and How to Fix It

Brand consistency sounds like the easiest part of branding. Pick your fonts, pick your colors, show up online every week, repeat. Right?

Not even close.

Most people I talk to know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. You’ve got a brand book, or at least a rough idea. You’ve listened to all the podcasts. You’ve read all the “how to brand your business” posts. And yet… you still can’t seem to keep it together week to week.

That’s not because you’re lazy. It’s because of something I call the Consistency Gap.

Skip to the bits you care about! There are chapters!

What’s the Consistency Gap?

The Consistency Gap is the space between the version of you your brand plan expects—and the version of you who wakes up with a migraine, has a crying toddler, gets distracted by a leaky sink, or can’t focus because of anxiety.

Brand consistency is built for ideal conditions. Real life doesn’t have those.

We’re not consistent creatures. Energy levels shift. Focus evaporates. Life throws things at you. You can’t plan your brand the same way a corporate team of 15 does—and expect it to work.

Why This Matters

Your brand is supposed to be consistent across time, platforms, and touchpoints. But that model doesn’t work when you’re a one-person show, or even a small team where everything depends on your brain working properly that day.

If you keep trying to run a high-capacity brand on low-capacity energy, you’re going to burn out. That’s the core of the Consistency Gap.

So instead of building a brand plan for your best self, we’re going to plan around your worst.

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The Fix: A 4-Step Walkthrough Using My Notion Template

This isn’t theoretical. I made a free Notion template that walks you through this exact process, and here’s what each step looks like:

Step 1: Identify Your Consistency Gap

In the template, you’ll see two columns.

• Left column: List everything your brand expects from you consistently. Regular Instagram posts, newsletters, YouTube, client outreach, etc.

• Right column: List everything that regularly gets in your way. This is where you’re allowed to whine. Be honest. Hormonal fluctuations, bad sleep, depression, screaming kids, no motivation, you name it.

Why it matters: Looking at these two lists side by side makes it clear why your brand plan isn’t working. It’s not aligned with your reality.

Bonus: I sometimes color-code the right column:

• Red = things I beat myself up for

• Blue = things I don’t

• Purple = circumstantial things out of my control

This can help you spot where you’re being unfair to yourself—and what might actually be solvable.

Step 2: Capacity Buckets

Now take that left column of brand tasks and break each one down by type and capacity required.

For example:

• Don’t just write “Instagram post.” Break it down into types: quote graphics, talking head reels, carousels, etc.

• Don’t just write “email.” Break it into “quick tip email” vs. “long-form sales email.”

Then ask yourself: can I do this task on a low-capacity day? Or does it require a high-capacity version of me?

The goal here is to sort all tasks into low capacity and high capacity buckets.

Step 3: Evaluate What Stays

From here, go down the list and be brutally honest:

• Does this task give me energy or drain me?

• Is it worth the effort?

• Is it crucial or optional?

• Can I batch it or delegate it?

Anything that’s high capacity and draining and not pulling its weight? It’s either getting cut or radically adjusted.

Step 4: Prioritize & Make a Plan

The last part of the template helps you turn this into a usable plan:

• Keep only the tasks that are realistic and essential

• Decide which ones can be batched, delegated, or postponed

• Write out what batching or delegating actually looks like (what time of day it’ll happen, what systems or SOPs are needed, etc.)

• Create action steps to make each task feel easier or more automated

Don’t overthink this part. It’s better to solve one problem well than write out a master plan you’ll never execute.

Final Thoughts

This process isn’t magic. You’ll still have days where things don’t go as planned. But what it does is lower the friction. You’ll start building a brand that functions on your worst day—not just your best.

That’s what WorkShy is about. Low-maintenance, high-impact branding for the inconsistent human behind the brand.

Download the free Notion template below. Walk through it. Don’t overachieve—just be honest. That’s the real work.

👉 Grab the free Consistency Gap Notion template here