Start at One Degree

I fought it. And I won. It is a small victory but a victory none the less.

I have cultivated this beautiful habit of coming home from the office, sitting down with the iPad, launching YouTube and doing nothing more till I start winding down at 9:30 PM. I have honed this habit to perfection.

The iPad was heavy on my lap this evening and I really wanted to tap on that other video. It was almost 7 PM and I had been home for 2 hours, most of which was spent on the iPad. I swung my leg over the bed onto the wood floor, pushed against my quads and stood up. I walked to the dishwasher and unloaded it -- picked up some momentum by doing that. Then I cleaned out not one but three tubs of cat litter (we have many cats). Took the litter to the trash can on the far side of the back yard, then took the kitchen trash out as well.

I just finished dinner and I haven't touched the iPad yet.

The key to overcoming the inertia of lazyness is not to do something 180 degrees opposite (lazyness being the 0 degree mark). The trick is to do something 1 degree different. Then gain momentum. Then 3 degrees, 10...

At 7 PM this evening, 180 degree different would have to be going to the shop and chopping that mortise for my workbench build. I didn't really get there but my iPad is no where in sight and I am closer to going to the shop than I am to inhaling YouTube.

Like DHH said today, I did less than I wanted to do but it was a more meaningful outcome.

I am Lazy

It has been two months since I did any woodworking. The whole detached garage was painstakingly converted into my woodworking studio. I have not visited it once to do any work. I have been busy though, but not this busy.

I took a break from the channel a week before my wedding. I made a video about it.

My parents visited a week before our wedding and stayed with us for six weeks. I see my parents once every other year, so we have a lot to cook and a lot to chat. This obviously took priority over woodworking, or even any youtubing.

My parents left us mid-May which means, technically, I had half a month to start woodworking again, and youtubing. But I haven't.

My channel has doubled in subscribers in the last two months when I did not upload a single video. I went from 145 subscribers to 295 as of this minute. Sometimes, youtubing tends to focus on getting more subscribers and I am surely guilty of that mindset. Maybe somewhere I felt complacent that I did not need to upload videos (and therefore do woodworking) to get more subscribers. This is the wrong way to look at the youtube community. The focus should be on content. Always.

So, the last two months, I have been hiding behind my iPad, watching youtube and Amazon videos just to occupy time. I have been hiding because of where I am in the workbench build process. I am at a point where I will have to fit a tenon into a mortise hole. Actually, eight of those. And I am anxious about it. I am afraid it will be a loose fit, or worse, out of square, or both! So much that I would rather not do it. I have also been tired of posting two videos a week. Recording and editing two videos is a lot of work and it takes time away form building the workbench. The second videos will have to wait for a while till the bench is complete. One video a week will have to do for now.

I need to show some grit. I show grit well in some cases but I also hide in other cases.

So here is my promise. To myself. Not to my subscribers who I love, or to anyone else. Me! I will spend at least two hours in the workshop this week. I have an unfinished mortise that needs chopping. I need to overcome the inertia of not doing. I need to get my momentum back.

Wish me luck.