Notes on doing it — Day #23: Newton’s first law applies to productivity as well

Photo by Aldebaran S on Unsplash

I could have slept better. And eaten fewer snacks. But how else would I have coped with the large amount of urgent work that landed on my desk this afternoon? Definitely not by adding a bit of procrastination to the mix of bad decisions — that’s another thing I learned today.

And as the cherry on top of this miserable cake of part unfortunate, part self-inflicted events: I have that tiny but insisting pain in my right ear where it feels like three little mice ran all the way through your ear canal and tied a fishing line to a little part of your brain only to run back out and stand on your shoulder while attempting to drag your brain out through your ear, pulling the fishing line with their tiny mouse hands. Don’t pretend you don’t know just the kind of ear pain I’m talking about. Yes, the mouse one.

What I’m saying is that I don’t feel particularly inclined to write a blog post today. But I never once thought about skipping it. That would end my streak. Which is the point of this post. When you are in motion and have gained momentum it’s so much easier to keep going. If I had planned to start my streak today, I would probably have surrendered to the couch this evening and postponed taken the first step in my endeavour.

That’s why it’s so important to get started on whatever you want to do, today. Even a small step today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will give you momentum. And the more momentum you gain, the more it takes to stop you.

I don’t know a lot about physics or what Newton’s first law really describes. But I’m going to qoute it here. Because 1: It makes me sound hella smart. And 2: It fits nicely with my point even if it’s supposed to prove something else.

“An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
- Isaac Newton (1643–1727)

(Notice how using his full name plus birth and death year makes me look like a real expert of some sorts.)