Picking your moments

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You’ve probably noticed that this month has lined up fantastically with the weekdays.

Monday 1st September

Tuesday 2nd September

And so on —>

By itself, not anything particularly special, but the Fresh Start effect of it being 1st September really did make me want to fire up the old email again. Who cares I haven’t sent one for half a year?

Temporal Landmarks

The Fresh Start effect will be nothing new to you, I’m sure. It’s the feeling we all tend to get at the start of September (likely a holdover from school for most adults) or January (’new diet’), or even the start of Spring. A new start, a clean slate, a chance to start again.

The effect goes further than this to include ‘temporal landmarks’ such as the start of your 30s or the start of a new decade. Plenty of research has shown - and you can check Google Trends to see for yourself - that people are much more likely to start new habits around these moments.

As many fantastic writers have written before (like me), it’s often said that motivation is a pretty unreliable starting motor for doing the stuff we know we should be doing. But when the 1st September rolled around, it gave me a push to do some of the things I’ve been putting off for a while (like writing this email).

I think this is a decent lesson on motivation.

Who needs motivation

The funny thing about the calendar is that it’s completely made up by homo sapiens. It might tell us that it’s Monday 1st September, but there’s nothing in physics or within the molecular structure of an atom that says so.

We count time based on how long it takes to do a full trip around our local star - but there’s 100-400 billion stars in our galaxy alone. And there’s as many as 20 trillion galaxies in the universe! So who’s to say our version of telling the time is the way to tell time?

The point? The ‘day’, the ‘month’, the ‘year’ - all made up. And yet - these moments naturally do give us a push to do the thing.

• The 1st of September or 1st of January

• The day you turn 20 / 21 / 25 / 30 / 40 / 50

• The first day of Spring

• The start and end of BST (clocks go forwards/backwards)

• Summer / Winter solstice

Motivation, on the other hand, is meant to be there when we need it the most. Those times when we need that extra push to pick something up, to try something again. But - motivation never really strikes when you need it. It comes out of nowhere, unplanned, badly timed.

Where were you yesterday morning when I snoozed my alarm instead of going for a run?

I’d go as far - as bold, some may say - as to agree with Jeff Haden’s description of it. Motivation is a myth. We think that motivation precedes action, but it’s the opposite. Doing something makes us more motivated.

This book falls into a genre I like to call ‘could’ve been an article’

The point I’m making is that these moments in the year are to be taken advantage of. They’re like free motivation. And they’re everywhere - the start of a month, the start of a new season, even the start of a new week. Perhaps they are easier to rely on than a wave of motivation that never seems to strike when you need it. Planning to do things around these moments might make it a bit easier to get going - like never missing a Monday.

What are you picking back up?

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This week I'm: ⬇️

📖 Rereading Bill Bryson - I’ve always felt a built guilty at the fact that I can read a book and remember nothing more than the name and a general idea of the contents after about a month. But, if it means I get to enjoy some of my favourite books again, then so be it. I’ve also recently re read the Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones (and to think I was worried I wouldn’t finish before the new one was released…), various Bill Bryson, and Sapiens. All excellent, would recommend.

🎧 Listening to a Bad Actors (Slow Horses #8) - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many audiobooks, this one isn’t going to well. I’ll happily switch to the Kindle version if needs be.

📅 Looking forward to both the new Slow Horses book - Clown Town (#9) - and the new Slow Horses series on Apple TV (trailer). If we’re getting technical, Slough House is the book series, Slow Horses is the TV series.

🧹 Watching a release video for a new hi-tech Dyson vacuum. It’s very cool. Trust me.

🎥 Also watching and thoroughly enjoying the return of Vsauce - hopefully it’s not a fleeting visit.

🚙 Sharing a great series of travel guides (Robbie Roams) - we used the NC500 one for, well, the NC500, and it was the trip of a lifetime. I’ve bought the South West version - will we ever make it?

💤 Also sharing The Sleeping Forecast - a mixture of ambient music and the shipping forecast from the BBC to help you nod off at night.

🔮 Checking in on Future Timeline to see what the hell is coming next…

🎮 Finally finishing the GTA 5 story (again)

🎲 Reminding myself I don’t need to spend £60 on the newest version of Catan - Catan: New Energies. Or do I? It is going to get pretty dark soon…

📧 Newsletter of the week: Installer by The Verge - if you like tech, this is for you. The Verge are the best in the business and they also have a section where people send cool stuff in. A great way to learn about new tech / tech news.

💬 And finally, a quote

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📸 BONUS: Photo of the Week