Micro Free Will
Lessons from the last 100 days. I went away to write and review the last 100 days, 23 August 23 to 30 November 2024. Days 601 to 700.
The most significant lesson from the last 100 days has been micro free will: "Tweaks".
Tweaks. Little changes. A little change that lubricates actions. And because it makes things better, it becomes something that I maintain. It becomes a way of doing things.
Examples of tweaks from the last 100 days.
Wearing bone conduction headphones when I work out. They fit around my glasses. Keeps me focussed during the workout, and focussed after the workout. Just play the same playlist every day. Reduces the thinking required. Choosing music is one more thing to do. So don't do it. Same playlist every day on the same headphones.
Changing my Whoop strap to my wrist strap at night, rather than making it an extra task in the morning. One less thing to do in the morning means I get into my activities faster. Change it back into my sleeve for work after my shower in the morning.
Don't wear my jumper down to the gym. Just face the cold and warm up in the gym. One less thing to carry back up stairs after a workout.
Start the day with an empty inbox. If you reply to your emails in one batch each morning, then you start "done". And no one else is up, so they don't then send you an email back! Doing it every morning means that its always done. Doing it at night means I have to overcome tiredness.
Book my lists by "surgical start time" and be there an hour before. Creates clarity and the team gets used to that target. Less confusion means fewer questions and faster lists.
Unsubscribing from all inbound email mailing lists. Less in bound, is less work, even if its "fun" newsletters. Cos even the fun takes time and brain space.
Measuring actions, even just ticking a box on a habit tracker, makes it more likely to happen. Its puts the action on my brain and makes it part of my brains ruminations.
Running a timer with a voice countdown keeps me focussed, and more likely to stick to time. "3, 2, 1, lift..... 3, 2, 1, rest". Work outs get done on time, so I have more time.
A teaspoon of chia in my green giant shake.
All of these little adjustments mean I do more of what I want. They lubricate my world towards my free will. They increase the likelihood of actions I want. They eliminate barriers. Microbarriers to action.
It is in the little incremental efforts that something great is built.
Think about it another way, using time. A "once in a lifetime event." To do something like a once in a lifetime walk to an amazing part of the world, little things like picking a date, making an enquiry, are the beginnings of that big adventure. Everything big starts with something small.
I seem to be staying alive. So I might as well live a big life. And a big life starts with small things.
The 1000 day goals I wrote two years ago seemed far away then. But they seem close now. Because of the little things I've done along the way. Lots of little actions, micro free will executions have resulted in being closer to my goals.
One of the focuses of the tweaks I've made has been to take little steps to reduce the tasks and inbound of my life. And in doing so, I can change the thoughts and ruminations of my mind. By reducing my inbound noise, and reducing my background "undone" tasks, I have even more awareness of my thoughts. They are a little hard to face, but having an awareness of my own thoughts results in more execution of my own free will. Because it is in the small ruminations and thoughts that the grooves our thoughts create actions, the actions our will choses. And this incremental, micro change of the demands on my awareness allows for focus of my thoughts.
Making small tweaks, and then holding those changes, and then making another tweak, and holding that change means that there are incremental improvements, that build layer upon layer. But they are also not just flat layers. Each one has an effect that looks like an exponential curve. Each tweak has a geometric progression. In time, small changes resulted in big changes.
So if I want to exert my free will on my life, the micro adjustments of life, the micro free will, is where it happens.
It is in the micro free will, the small thoughts, the small tweaks, the small actions that big free will exists.
