The Physics of Psychology: Getting Started
Fun fact.
I’m a big nerd.
And what some would consider a “rocket scientist” by profession.
I also have a tendency to make weird connections in my mind to things that are helpful to me. Sometimes others seem to find them helpful, other times people look at me like I have 6 heads. This idea of the “Physics of Psychology” is one of those ideas. The more I read about what we do as humans and how we make decisions, the more I see parallels between some basic physics concepts. Maybe others see it too, or maybe this is another one of those 6 heads things. I’m cool with both. Either way, though, I wanted to share my thoughts and some fun experiments to try out.
Psychology is a tricky topic that is hard to grasp sometimes because it’s not always visible. It’s in our heads. The awesome thing about physics is it’s here with us in the real world. We see it every day, we can try it, we can touch it, and we can make sense of it.
Rewind & Get Nerdy
As I was thinking up this concept, I had a bit of a flashback to my highschool physics professor Brother Paul (yes, I went to a catholic school). He was a great teacher. He not only made physics exciting, but he made it something that we could see and understand through some really cool demonstrations. He also had some fun sayings that always stuck with me.
One of them being;
“Physics is fun!”
Yea, I know this sounds silly, but he wasn’t trying to say fun like the word fun, but fun as in how you define
I’ll avoid a lot of the gory math and detailed physics here, but the main thing to understand is that in order to move something you need to account 2 things:
The size and weight of something (the normal)
constant multiplier (coefficient of friction) that accounts for the actual amount of friction between 2 surfaces.
I know that still feels like a lot of math and I might have lost some of you, but give me just another minute or two to get you back before you click off this and think I’m crazy.
An interesting thing about friction is that it takes on 2 forms.
static (how much to get started)
kinetic (how much to keep going)
You can even try this out for yourself to see the difference. Take an object and apply some pressure to it to move it across a desk, table, carpet, anything you have next to you. You’ll see there is some amount of force needed to move it from a static state and a different amount needed to keep it moving once its started.
In most real world applications, static friction is ALWAYS harder to overcome than kinetic. What this means is:
Getting started is hard, but once you get going it gets easier 🤯
Is the connection starting to make a little more sense now? It goes even deeper, but let’s start here. By definition, procrastination is “the action of delaying or postponing something.” What the definition doesn’t tell us is the why we put it off. The why is usually there is something we need to overcome. Some obstacle or some hurdle we need to get past. More often than not, these hurdles are ones our minds build for us.
How many times have you said something like:
“Ugh. It’s going to take so much work…”
“I have too much going on to get started with this…”
“Maybe if I wait it’ll just get easier..”
Well, news flash, it usually doesn’t get easier. More things pile up over time and life usually becomes more complex with the passing of time.
Let’s see if we can bucket thee factors in to 2 parts:
The size of the effort/task we need to do (Call the the “Normal” Force)
The constants in our life that take time & focus away from what we need to start (Call this the constant multiplier)
How Do We Apply This Science To Life?
Hopefully, by now you’re starting to see the connection and not still thinking I have 6 heads. Even if you do, stick with me. I have some fun experiments we can try to help drive this home even more.
We often see the pile of work that we have to do and are overcome with stress and anxiety. “How am I ever going to get through all this???” The longer we wait, the more things pile up. The more things pile up, the harder it is to start EVERYTHING.
Well let’s not start everything, let’s just start SOMETHING.
Experiment time!
Take a few objects you can pile on top of each other, make them fairly heavy. If you’re like me, you probably have a few empty amazon boxes laying around, grab a few of them and stuff each one with a few items. This will help give each a decent amount of weight and allow them to be easily stackable.
Once you have about 3 - 4 boxes stacked on top of each other, try to push them across your table or across the floor. Now try to do each one individually. Believe it or not, the sum of moving all the boxes individually, is still the same amount of force that is needed to move all the boxes at once. However, as you might have noticed moving each box one at a time is much more manageable.
What if we treated life like this? Say you come back home after a long day of school or work and you look around your house. What a mess. Dishes piled high, dirty laundry that needs to be washed, clean laundry that needs to be put away, vacuuming that needs to be done…ugh. IT’S JUST TOO MUCH!
or is it?
Let’s Break It Down
Just as in the example with the stacked boxes, we know it is going to take the same amount of work in the end, but if we move each individually it becomes easier to get a single box going. It’s no different with life. Instead of boxes, replace them with the tasks you need to get done.
I can hear the groaning now…
“OH BUT AJ YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HARD THESE THINGS IN MY LIFE ARE!!!”
Don’t worry, I set this experiment up in a way just for you people. Re-read the way I asked you to find your boxes and get them up to weight.
“grab a few of them and stuff each one with a few items”
I know, you’re probably thinking, “AJ you sneaky bastard.” But it wasn’t sneaky, it was purposeful. Reason being is that even the biggest tasks that seem absolutely insurmountable can be broken down in to smaller parts.
Vacuuming for instance doesn’t have to all be done in a day. Start with a single room. Even better, start with the patch of carpet where you spilled your Doritos the other day. Start small and simple. There’s Elegance in Simplicity.
How To See The Objects inside the box
I will admit, sometimes we can get so wrapped up in the big task in front of us that it’s hard to see ho we can break things down. We’ve all been there and it sucks. There’s a few things we can look at to help:
Can a task or job be done in batches vs. all at once?
Laundry is a great example here. I’ve had times where literally all my clothes are dirty and if I didn’t do something fast, I’d be going commando to work in gym shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. No one wants that. Good thing about laundry is you can split in to loads. Maybe underwear and dress shirts are the things you REALLY need to do. The rest can wait.
Does a task have multiple steps that don’t HAVE to all be done at the same time?
Ever buy and build anything from IKEA? Great example of this step. I’ve built some of their bigger shelves, dressers, etc. And for me, one of the biggest steps was just unboxing everything and getting the pieces organized so you can begin step one in the assembly manual! Maybe that’s all you do today and then with a clean slate, start assembly tomorrow. That can wait
Phone a friend
If you really get stuck on something don’t be afraid to find someone to talk to. They can be someone who was done the thing you want to do before and has insight. Sometimes, though, the best people to ask are the ones who have no idea what you’re doing. They see things through such a different lens that they need to understand the most basic level of what you’re even talking about first. In the process of talking through it the steps often reveal themselves and you have a clearer path forward
Let’s Redefine FUN
Let’s look at that friction equation again and redefine the terms one more time…
“Friction Force” is how much effort we need to go do something
This is directly proportional to the constant friction in our lives and the amount of stuff we need to get done. The sum of all the force you need to put in to something may never change unless you decide to give up on something. That’s why at any given time we need to look at the magnitude of what we’re doing and manage the “normal force”
“Normal force” - The size, weight, and magnitude of something we need to go do.
Often times we don’t view this as a single task, but the mountain of junk we need to go do. This is the one area we have some control over. Not that we can change what needs to be done, but we can change our approach. We can break things down and tackle things as small tasks and not just one mountain. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
“Coefficient of Friction” - This is the constant. Both in the equation & in our lives
The things that occur every day to slow us down or take focus away from what we’re doing. We find that these things manage to slow us down more as we’re starting something new, but once that thing is going the friction becomes less and we just need to maintain
Now You’re Moving, Maintain
I hope by now, my babble about physics is starting to make more sense. We now have a way to emulate the difficult tasks in our lives with something as simple as pushing a box full of stuff across the floor.
The big thing to take away from this is that you can get through it. No matter how big of a task, don’t put it off. Get started on SOMETHING TODAY. No matter how small you start, you need to start moving. Get yourself some momentum. Just like the coefficient of friction the world of physics, getting started is the hardest part. Once you’re moving and making stuff happen, life becomes much easier.
Don’t give up. Get moving!
Until next time nerds!
- AJ Zampella