It’s a holiday, it’s a birthday, it’s the office party.
You want to contribute to this and you decided you want to make a batch of cookies. The situation may seem trivial but it teaches us a bit about going from point a to b. You screenshot the recipe from pinterest, you block off time from tomorrow afternoon so you can go over to the grocery store to buy the ingredients and head back home to make these cookies.
You drive over to the grocery store, you have been here hundreds of times and so you are pretty efficient going through the aisles to get the ingredients. You are now back home, you turn on the oven, you mix in the dried ingredients and top off with the wet ones. You lay down some parchment paper on a baking sheet and wait for the oven to alert you that it’s ready.
You place the pan in the oven, wait for 30 minutes to get it out and you follow it with a second batch. At no point during this time do you think of battering up some chicken with almond crust to slap on that baking sheet next to the cookies.
The reason is you know you are making a batch of cookies. You have the ingredients, the instructions and you have a goal. These cookies are for the occassion. You are not thinking about chicken, that can wait.
We can batch activities for a particular goal the same way.
You want to get fitter while learning about fitness?
Treadmill and a book. Treadmilll and a podcast. Treadmill and an audiobook.
You want inspiration for your next blog post?
Observing and mental-noting while driving. Observing and mental-noting while walking the dog. Observing and noting on a pad throughout the day.
Practice, practice, practice.