Don’t worry, I haven’t started a new career in household electrical reviews even though I now have reached an age where vacuum cleaner conversations are not only common, but sadly quite interesting. Next month’s article will be on pensions so look forward to that…
Corded VS Cordless
We used to have a Henry vacuum and “he” would be taken out once a week to give the carpets a good clean so that if the Queen were to visit, she would be happy to walk on the shag-pile, barefoot. Taking the vacuum out of the understairs cupboard was a faff. Henry was safely nestled at the back, and in his comfort he didn’t want to get out. He would throw dumbbells on your foot, pegs all over the floor and the long metal part of the vacuum hose would inevitably hit you in the head (not even a UFC fighter could dodge the understairs tsunami of accumulated household items coming your way).
This may be the most boring stock photo of all time.
Enter the Dyson/Shark/Etc cordless vacuum. It’s light, small, powerful and almost a pleasure to use. Our vacuuming frequency has increased 700% (I got an E in Maths, and Mrs. Mashford was being generous). Both the King and Queen could visit any day of the week and we would not be embarrassed to invite them into our humble abode. “Here your Majesty, please enjoy our exquisite range of broken biscuits”.
Friction
I want clean carpets. In scenario one (Henry standing his ground in the cupboard), there was a lot of friction and the goal I had in mind was possible to achieve, but mentally and logistically, it was harder. In scenario two (cordless freedom), there was very little friction and so my goal was very easy to achieve.
Think about the habits you want to change. How can you reduce the friction for the healthy habits, and increase the friction for the unhealthy habits? For example, if takeaways are something you want to cut down on then you can uninstall the food delivery app and delete your account. You can still order take-away, but now there’s more friction and it’s now not a streamlined process.
In the opposite direction, how could we reduce the friction to have healthier meals so we’re less likely to be in a situation where a take-away is an option? We could have meals prepared and put in the fridge/freezer, use food prep services like Prepkitchen, and cook simple meals like stews.
This image represents friction in case you were unfamiliar.
I always put out my gym clothes and gym bag the night before, so when I wake for my early training session, it’s easy. The nights where I have forgotten to get them out, I find the mornings more of a challenge. I still go to the gym of course, but I feel less friction and it’s rather pleasing.
Most unhealthy habits, when you look at them more closely you’ll notice there’s very little friction. The same is true for healthy habits but flipped, which is why people are less likely to do them. If getting healthier is important to you, think about how you can adjust the friction accordingly.
I hope you found the article useful, and if you think someone could benefit from reading it, please share it.