šÆ The Factor of Delight
Sunday Scoop #22 - As I was revising for my SAT II, I came across a concept that I think relates quite nicely to environment design, which can help us clock in a few extra hours of #productive work.
Hey friends,
For the past week or so, I've been intensively revising for my upcoming SAT II tests as they are taking place next Saturday and I've been preoccupied with University Applications for the better part of the past few months.
That is when I came across a fairly foundational concept in Physics - friction. Inevitably, I tie it back to my absolute favorite topic in the entire world - productivity.
š Friction in Productivity
In the realms of productivity, friction is defined as such:-
The dread associated with doing the work that is required of you because there is a more enjoyable (or at least, preferable) way to spend your time.
If thereās any friction to doing the thing that you need to get done, itās basically not going to happen.
To give you a very recent example, I was feeling a bit of resistance to write this weekās newsletter issue. There are quite a lot of things on my plate now and drafting out this issue would mean an extra 2-3 hours of my time.
However, I recognized, using the principle of friction, that I need to do my best to design my environment in such a way thatās as close to friction free as possible. In other words, something that would make writing this newsletter issue more enjoyable (i.e. increasing the factor of delight).
Hence, I busted out my trustee Chemex and brewed a nice cold cup of Japanese Ice Filter Coffee. Itās the absolute best, trust me on this.
I then put on my playlist of Hogwarts Ambience Noise (which you can also find below) in the background and got to work.
TheĀ simple act of brewing a cup of coffee and putting on background ambience noise to get me into the writing mood took less than 20 minutes to complete, but allowed to me clock in 2 extra hours or so of productive work. In fact, once I've started writing, the whole process just flows much easier and doesn't feel that grim after all!
The principle of environment design is useful because it helps us to increase the factor of delight of doing our work, which reduces the friction associated with it. This then further reduces the activation energy that we need to put in to get started at doing something. Getting started is the tricky part, maintaining momentum once you've started is a far less challenging task in comparison.
P.S. - That last sentence is another Physics concept - Inertia. Iāve definitely been studying Physics way too much.
With that said, I hope that this fun little productivity concept that is I find very amusing and am hence sharing with you today adds value to your life in some shape, way, or form.
Have a great week ahead and see you in the next issue of Sunday Scoop!
Jia Shing.
Links
š§ Ambience White Noise - Iāve been absolutely loving theseĀ ambience soundtrack to accompany me as I am doing my writing. I've always used instrumentals but these ambience soundtracks come as a much welcomed change for myself and makes me feel like a legit character in my favorite series. Here is my playlist that you can use if you'd like to give this a try.
Challenge
Try different ways to increase your factor of delight before you get to work.
A common tip would be to see if you can merge one of your favorite things in the world (for me, coffee) into your workflow.
When doing input studying (covering new topics) , I usually play instrumentals in the background and have some snacks at hand just to keep me engaged.
When doing output studying (doing past papers), I am almost always listening to a podcast or an audiobook.
These work for me personally, at least for now. Experiment different ways and see what works for you.
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