Coming from an Industrial Engineering background and an excellent experience in Six Sigma projects, I like to catch defects in processes and improve them. Likewise, I enjoy noticing friction points in my day-day life and solving them. Studying and teaching Atomic Habits, in my podcast and videos lately, helped me hone this skill even better.
Here are some examples of solutions I implemented to friction points I had personally faced:
| Friction Point | Solution |
| I want to walk during working hours, but I wear heels. | Bring running shoes with me and use them in breaks. |
| Nobody wears running shoes at work; it will be weird. | Get comfortable all-black shoes suitable for walking and work like this one, keep them at work, and put them on for walks (my accountability partner’s suggestion). Or get over myself and the discomfort, maybe soon. |
| Not listening to podcasts on my new Airpods while taking a walk because I’m used to Bluetooth neckband headsets and fear Airpods would fall out. | Use a cheap Bluetooth headset for walks. |
| Getting hungry at work, eating unhealthy food, and the hassle of ordering the food. If I’m ordering food from a small place nearby, I don’t like thinking about what to eat, making the call to order it, or paying cash on delivery. If I’m ordering from an app, I don’t enjoy browsing to decide my meal, verifying my credit card using a one-time password, getting contacted by the delivery man to double-check the address, or receiving my meal at varying times. | Bring a lunch box of fruits and veggies to feel less hungry. Automate the food ordering process by subscribing to a healthy meals delivery service where I pay monthly, order weekly, and get contacted by the driver daily at about the same time to receive my meal. |
| Forgetting my phone charger at home or office. | Buy a second one. |
| Noise outside my office disrupts my focus. | Invest in a noise-cancellation headset and music. |
| Feeling sleepy and craving coffee after lunch, ordering coffee hassle, my favorite coffee not nearby. | I magically found this instant drip coffee option from one of my favorite coffee places. I buy a box of 10 packets every two weeks. |
| A 90-minute weekend class for my daughter, and the location is not near enough to return home. | Prepare a list of errands to cross off during the class or take a walk in the nearby area. |
| Looking for stuff around the house, losing stuff, getting late asking about stuff. | Have less stuff, less clothes, less socks, less toys and less paper. To do that, I need to turn decluttering into a habit, not a yearly project, which is my current focus. |
Did this list remind you of solutions you too can take action on?
Many times, the reason you are not committing to your habits is not that you’re not disciplined enough or too lazy. Instead, the habit is not easy enough, and that’s perfectly okay.
Embrace this simple law of habit change; make it easy. You are not too high-maintenance if you remove friction points. On the contrary, you are re-engineering your environment to improve your life.
As James Clear says:
The less friction you face, the easier it is for your stronger self to emerge. The idea behind make it easy is not to only do easy things. The idea is to make it as easy as possible in the moment to do things that payoff in the long run.
Find the friction points then solve them.