The value of doing a little | Hacker News Reader

The value of doing a little

trms.me

197 pointstrms47 comments

I loved "Atomic Habits" but the most useful framework I found for "doing a little" is from the "Elastic Habits" book https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48905847

Basic Idea --

1. Have 3 options as well as 3 levels for each habit/task/project

2. The lowest (Mini) level should be something you can do on practically any day, no matter how bad things are.

3. Do the level you are comfortable with on any given day

Example (For a health habit)

Mini level: 1 pushup OR 10 steps walking OR One glass of water

Second level (forgot what he called it) : 5 pushups OR 500 steps walking OR 3 glasses of water

Pro level : 20 pushups OR 2000 steps OR 8 glasses of water.

Set the numbers that seem like no-brainers to you. This tends to work extremely well in my experience and accounts for varying environmental, psychological and physiological conditions.

The book has a points system etc which I did not find useful but is otherwise a very good complement to "Atomic Habits"

Never heard of Elastic Habits until now. Thanks for pointing it out

That's a great model and one that I found particularly useful in weight lifting. Rather than stick to a strict linear program I would instead work up to whatever felt good for the day, then work at that level. Probably not the best strategy for young people or actual atheletes, but for an old guy who can barely prioritize excersize, choosing to adjust the effort relative to where I physically am on a given day is huge for keeping up consistancy.

As the body ages, time spent active trumps the volume of work on many levels. Chasing bigger volumes, bigger weights, more time under tension etc is a great way to stroke your ego, but also a great way to get an injury. Keeping yourself healthy and able to stay active will do you well, regardless of age. Props to you for finding this out the right way (that is, without getting an injury).

It sounds like RPE training https://youtu.be/WXQaEq4_2lY

That's a great system, thanks a lot. I inadvertently have a few "Mini" things that are ingrained as habits by now: Learning flash cards about math and electronics every morning. It's spaced repetition, so by now it's usually on around 3-5, which is quickly done. And, if I think about it, brushing teeth is a long standing one. Going to bed without brushing my teeth just feels all kinds of wrong.

Anyway, what a great idea to introduce levels.

It's basically the same concept as in the "Habinator" habinator.com coaching app or habit tracker.

why does one need to gulp so much water?

A similar concept that works for me is to trick myself into thinking I'm only going to do a little. Once in motion, I capitalize on the sunk cost fallacy :P

Let's say if I don't want to take a walk, I'll say to myself, "let me just walk until the corner and come back". Once I get to the corner, I'll say "since I'm already here, let me keep walking until the next corner before returning home" and so on.

There is a hadith in Islam : "Which deeds are better accepted by Allah? The continuous ones, even it is small."

I am ignorant about Islam. But would the hadith have a name? Or something like Christians citing the Bible.

Here is the reference of the hadith (Prophet’s sayings) -

https://sunnah.com/bukhari:6464

Reminds of this post that was HN 9 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27833064. Both had some pretty useful tips for someone like myself who doesn't have a systematic approach for productivity.

This article really got me back on track with my side project. I haven't managed to work on it regularly for a couple of months - always seemed a bit daunting on top of work. Now I turn up every day (think I've skipped one day since reading the article) and my only goal for the day is to review my todo list and give some thought to how I might tackle one item. I always feel like I can find the energy to do this and of course once I've actually got my mind on the task I generally end up spending an hour+ on it.

Keep in mind that a person who do 100 push up a day is still doing 100x the pushup.

That said, it's a good idea to get started, no matter how little or tiny your progress is.

Definitely. In no world is 1 better than 100. In my personal experience, though, when I tried to set myself a goal of doing "100 pushups a day", I'd end up doing none since the effort seemed insurmountable. Telling myself that I'd only do 10 would make sure I'd keep doing that in the long run.

Tony Horton of P90x fame insists, "just press play"

Basically, just get it started and see what happens. Even on the days I really don't feel like working out, just doing the bare minimum to get started will usually get me doing the full thing.

And if I'm really not feeling it a few exercises in, I tell myself, alright, just go really hard on this next one and you can end early. Usually, I don't even end up quitting. Just take it in little steps.

That's a brilliant analogy. It reminds me of something I've read in Scott Adams' book on habits. [0] In the days he was supposed to work out, he'd just put his shoes on and see what happened. That would lead him to the next action, until 99% of the times, he'd end up exercising.

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-...

I also enjoyed that book. I have a friend who has never been taught a lot of basic life skills and this is the book I would recommend to them, because it covers a bit of everything. It explains that eating well is important for our mental health, it explains that one should pay attention to how much of the talking they do in a conversation and make sure others have a chance to talk, etc. It hit on a wide range of good topics and I found it helpful.

I'm a bit surprised how politically charged some people seem to be about this book though. You can see it in the Goodreads reviews, a lot of people giving it one star because it said something they don't like politically. This is not a political book. I don't remember any political commentary from my reading of it, but apparently people have found a sentence here or there that seems to maybe suggest support for a political view they disagree with, so they give it one star. But, it's only a few people doing this and overall this is one of the highest rated books I've ever seen across several sites.

This is extremely on point. I was almost not going to post my comment including that book precisely because of the public's feelings towards the author.

When you decouple the ideas in the book from the author though, and weigh them on their own merits, they hold up, at least for me, and that's all that matters.

I have absolutely found this too. On days I don't want to lift after a run, I just make myself start one set. And then I usually get going and do my whole routine. Of course, that fails on days I don't run at the gym (like today...)

I do a slight take on that which I found worked for me quite well during these pretty tiring times.

Usually my normal workout would be 30-45 minutes of a guided class (peloton, etc). But in days where I'm just not feeling it, I select a bite sized class (~10 minutes). If after that short class I'm still feeling lethargic, then I call it a day, still being quite satisfied that I completed a "full" class. But usually I find that after "pressing play" my energy levels are restored and I end up adding another 20 minutes class on top.

I feel this adds the benefit of knowing that there's a clear early "exit path" in which there is no act of quitting, since you do something till completion.

As a former coach, I would recommend avoiding absolute takes such as this since they can easily sound right but be wrong. Just as you exemplified yourself, it is often better to start out small and then work your way up. Much more so for people with no athletic history, joint and/or weight problems, etc, doing just a few reps of easier exercises regularly rather than going all-in-and-bust on day one is the healthy way to go.

Getting that start is really hard. My goal was one perfect push-up, and my method was to just do the best I could with the phone photographing, every morning. At first I couldn’t even get off the ground. Within a month I could do one and get partway through a second. Now (a few months in) I can do 9, sometimes 10 perfect ones.

I read this on some blog. Since i was a 100 push-up guy 15 years ago, my approach was to try to maintain perfect form, even if I barely got off the ground. I forwarded the blog post to a friend who took the opposite tack: just get off the ground and then focus on perfecting one thing (back position, then arms…) until it was perfect before moving on. We ended up in the same place after a month. This is why the camera helps.

(My then 14 yo decided to learn chin-ups...within a couple of weeks he could do 30 and carry on a conversation

With regard to your friend's approach, that's how I became a competent swimmer. I took 4 weeks of lessons a few years back (I could swim, but I wanted to be better). Each week we focused on a part of the form for the freestyle stroke. By the end I was able to swim decent distances (about 1/2 mile, later a shoulder issue ended my swimming for fitness goals) without totally exhausting myself before the end because of bad form forcing extra work.

There is at least one world where 1 is better than 100: The one where you actually stick with it. Getting out and walking (when I was fat and out of shape from a decade of being a programmer and video gamer) was better than getting out and running because I couldn't maintain running. Even a slow jog at that point was unmaintainable because it was more frustrating than anything. Walking was just walking, boring at times, but I was moving. Running came later.

If you equate world with a person ... because I believe each person is a separate world/universe.

You should only compare world where you do your amount of pushups with your world. Doing 1 pushup a day consistently is a lot better than world where you don't do any. Take into account that "metaphysics" of your world might never allow 100 pushups in a day ... well metaphysics of someones else world allows 100 pushups a day easily but that is different world with different metaphysics. Where I would say "metaphysics" equate to "physics" in terms of well "single person universe".

I work out 3h/d, 365d/y — As soon as I go just a few minutes shorter, it invokes a slippery slope of contemplating to do even less the next day. In some way, doing more feels easier than less once you hit a certain plateau.

3 hours a day, everyday? Are you an athlete?

No, just ambitions.

3h every day sounds like you either have incredible genetics, your workouts are low effort or you're "chemically assisted".

Or you're a pro athlete

1h weights, 1h spinning bike, 1h recovery run.

I used to run a half-marathon every day for ~two years but eventually got injured. Weights was the best decision to switch gears.

Do you think more strength work (i.e. weights) at the time would have helped you keep that up without injury?

Absolutely — I ended up with multiple fractures. Weights, but most importantly simply working on your core & stability will help a lot to prevent something like that. I used to hate any non-cardio activities but once you make visible progress it's much easier to keep it up.

Or young. I did stuff like that in HS and then college. Lift then surf then whatever sport was in season happened almost daily.

Now that I'm older, if I have my workouts (lift, cardio, and jiu-jitsu) all line up on the same day like what happened this week, it usually means a day or 2 of easy cardio and yoga after.

Good for you! I'm jelly and wish I had more time.

What are you even doing in the gym for 3 hours?

that’s true although doing some regularly might add up to more than you’d think. i use to struggle doing more than about five or six pull-ups. then i bought a pull-up bar and hung it in my office. i would occasionally do one when i walked by, but never more than a few. then one day i just tried to do as many as i could… and i did 18. i eventually gave up the habit but did start lifting weights again many years later. yet no matter how many sets i did at the gym or go hard i pushed myself, going 3x a week, i never got above 6 or 7. not even half what i’d done before and i’d never pushed myself hard before. It’s not an absolute but it seems consistency was the trick, even above pushing myself. i’d since learned a few different skills and always been amazed at how far pretty small amounts of time can take you if you replace effort with consistency. And likewise how maximum effort and long sessions weren’t as important as i thought. consistency is really hard but knowing that it does add up, even when small, makes it much easier.

Make Your Bed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzLzbd-zT4

If you can, make it easier to do a little. Friction is a big cause of procrastination.

My computer has a "project" command that will cd to the project's directory, start docker and build the project. This lets me jump right back in with a single command.

There's another command that fetches the production data, and gives me a local environment that's exactly like the production one. I have it in most of my projects.

This also applies to other hobbies. I keep my workshop and kitchen clean. I can get to work without cleaning up the workspace first.

That's why I like the Habinator app. It's a habit tracker that gives you little steps how to reach your goals.

https://habinator.com

Floss one tooth.

I wish the author had said what fitness app they were using (or did I miss it?)

It's Freeletics. I now added it as a footnote, thank you.

This all good and fine however some of us have an abyss behind us pushing forward to doing exercise lest be rest of the day be wasted in a fog of adhd or likewise malaise. no zero days is only option for some of us.

No one said the advice applies to every soul who orbits the sun

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