image by soapbeard

Some of you may know that for the last 3 weeks, I have been laid up with a broken ankle. I have a cast from my toes almost to my knee, and I’m not to put any weight on my foot at all, so getting around is a matter of using crutches or rolling around in my office chair. Even hobbling to the corner is a major exertion and causes stress on my ankle, so my mobility is limited to my house and my back yard, for the most part.

In trying to make productive use of this extended period of time at home, I’ve noticed something—I dick around on the internet a lot. It’s a habit now: I go to my computer, check my message boards and RSS feeds, and next thing I know hours have passed without my actually having accomplished anything.

Up until now, I’ve had enough other distractions—running around, doing errands, spending time with friends—that I didn’t really notice how much I allowed myself to indulge in this behavior. But now, spending so much time at home with as much peace and quiet as I could ever want, it stands out. How is it possible that I can look back on a day spent entirely at home by myself and have nothing to show for it?

Of course, I don’t mean to say I don’t get anything done. Just getting to the front door to let in the grocery delivery guy takes a lot of effort on crutches! And I do write and read and pursue my goals. From the outside, it looks to many people like I do accomplish a ton. But from the inside, I know I could be creating and connecting a lot more.

This is a pattern I’ve been in for years, so familiar to me that it feels like it’s not even a choice. But I’m starting to realize that, like everything else I do, it is a choice. I choose to let the habit of messing around on the internet take up my day. And now, seeing it so clearly, I’m ready to transform it.

So, for the last few weeks of my convalescence, I am taking on the task of overcoming inertia. Falling prey to it means I lose time, and I don’t have time to lose. None of us does. Solving the problems of our culture and creating a new way to live is going to take everything we’ve got—every moment, every idea, and every skill we can throw at it.

The most insidious thing about inertia is that I don’t even notice I am sliding into it! And I’m sure this is a fairly common experience. Most of us go through our days as though we’re on rails, repeating exactly what we did yesterday, whether it’s the right thing to do today or not. This is why, in Island, Pala is full of birds that walk around saying “Attention! Attention!” and “Here and now, boys!” Noticing what we are doing every moment is the first step toward living with intention.

So my task this week is going to be noticing when I am falling into inertia, and snapping out of it. There are a few tools I’m going to use to help me with this:

• A daily schedule that has built-in times for work, writing, reading, exercise, and everything else I want to do in a day, and a firm commitment to stick with this schedule.
• Practicing mindfulness as though there are mynah birds walking around my head saying “Here and now, boys! Here and now!”
• Most importantly, I have a question I will ask myself every time I think of it. “What does the life I want to live look like right now? Does it look like what I am doing?” This technique is proving to be my greatest ally in getting past inertia, as it gets me to adopt the biggest possible context. When I look back at my life from my deathbed, do I want to have lots of fuzzy memories of wasting time? Probably not.

Some other resources I may or may not use based on how far I can go with the above:

• Get Back to Work, a site that lets you put in your next goal, and the time by which you want to complete it. You can click whether you accomplished this goal, and track your progress throughout the day.
• A rubber band around my wrist. When I notice myself dicking around instead of moving towards my goals, I will snap it. By doing so, I hope to snap myself back to reality.

Steve Pavlina’s new book, Personal Development for Smart People (full review coming soon) includes a chapter on developing personal power, including self-discipline. He likens it to weightlifting—you start out with light weights and progress up to heavier ones as your strength grows. This week I will see for myself whether I am strong enough now to succeed at being aware of inertia and choosing something different.

Have you been successful with conquering inertia? Are you battling with it yourself? Do you have any suggestions for me? I have a feeling that this goal, like so many others, will go much more successfully with support from other people working on the same thing, so please share any thoughts you have in the comments.