Make exercises and activities easier by combining complementing ones

January 12, 2020 by Joshua
in Habits, Tips

Pairing hot with cold

Cold showers are hard to start, even in the middle of the summer, though rewarding, so I you want the benefit of taking them.

cold shower

Getting sweaty from running, rowing, or other vigorous exercise feels good in some sense, but who wants to stay sweaty? When you’re hot you want to cool off, even in the middle of winter.

Joshua Spodek rowing

Pairing getting hot and sweaty with a cold shower makes them both easier, even adding some pleasure.

Pairing easy and clean with hard and earthy

Likewise, who likes mopping? It’s not fun, but it’s easy.

On the other hand, if you’re going to lift weights and part of the routine puts you on the ground, don’t you prefer a clean floor? It’s easy to procrastinate before lifting since it’s hard.

Pairing mopping the floor, which is easy to start, with lifting, which is easier to continue from mopping than starting from scratch and cleaner on a mopped floor makes both easier.

Others?

Those pairings make my hardest but most rewarding activities easier—in particular, easier to start.

I’ve found other combinations that make both activities easier, but those two are my most effective. Doing sidchas long and consistently enough leads to finding tricks and patterns to make them easier and more effective.

Can you find complicated activities that complement each other to combine to make the combination easier?

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