Newton’s First Law of Motion is the Law of Inertia. Most of us know it by its colloquial definition: A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and its correlate: A body at rest tends to stay at rest. I, for instance, haven’t left the house in a week.
I’m fond of saying that environments drive behaviors. And I think this environment of quarantine tends to create bodies at rest… not just physical rest, but a more generalized stagnation in work, play, exercise, and self-improvement.
This isn’t a condemnation of character or a statement about will power (which I honestly don’t believe exists, at least not in the format it’s typically advertised). This is simply what tends to happen when we as humans are thrust in such environments. Which is to say, it’s not your fault, but also that if you’re aware that the environment is driving your actions (or lack of action… which, yes, is an action) then you can take up arms against that environment.
So, without any further ado, we’d like to share with you one of the weapons we use to shift the inertia in our environment:
(Yes, we’ve weaponized the Apoca-list)
Previously I mentioned the power in making a hypothetical Regrets Apoca-list — a roadmap to way-off-in-the-future-you. By contrast, this Apoca-list is about the the very near future: it’s a plan for today/tomorrow.
Consider the top three things you’d like to accomplish today or tomorrow (I prefer to make plans for the next day so that I’m less inclined to fall prey to my baser instincts: drinking and eating until I’m too drunk and lethargic to do anything meaningful. Realizing your pitfalls is an integral part of environment modification).
Once you know what those three are (and you may come up with more than three, but I encourage you to stick to the top three) write them down. Yes, the writing part is a requirement — we’re looking to modify the environment, so you need to make something that lives in your environment, not in your gray matter.
This written memo to yourself will serve as a driver of action the next day. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.
And I should say: It doesn’t matter what’s on that list. It’s your top three, no one else’s. So what will you accomplish tomorrow?
