From out of your way, to on your way

The key to doing things you don’t want to do is finding ways to integrate them into your natural rhythms.

Aligning them with existing patterns. Now you’re not going out of your way to do something, you’re simply doing it on the way to something else.

This distinction cannot be overstated. From out of your way, to on your way.

With this strategy, I call it flow tasking, things aren’t viewed as separate, burdensome activities. They’re not interruptions to your schedule. Because there’s no planning or allocating time and energy specifically for the task. You simply weave it into your routine.

Think of it like this.

Why wait until the weekend when your sink looks like a neglected landfill? That’s only going to require you to ramp up, allocate time and steel yourself to confront the chore.

I understand you don’t want to do it. But remember, nobody wants to do anything. And if you don’t want to do it now, then you’re really not going to want to do it four days from now, when your sink starts smelling like rotting garbage, and there’s a colony of fruit flies feasting on food scraps on your dishes and breeding in the drain.

To avoid that outcome, work as you go. Flow tasking trains your brain to frame tasks as things you’re naturally doing. This removes the mental block of having to divert your energy. Making the task less of a chore and more of a smooth extension of your day.

This is one reason working from home was an instant quality of life improvement. Because now I didn’t have to wait until I commuted home after an exhausting day at the office to do things that needed to be done. Now I work as I go.

Meeting starting in ten minutes? Great, take out the trash on the way to your office.

Finished your work quicker than you thought? Well done, now pick up the baby’s toys en route to the bathroom.

Dentist visit finished early? Woo hoo! Grab a quart of milk and some trash bags on the way home.

Notice the distinction. Going out of your way to do something, versus doing it on the way to something else.

Flow tasking means tricking your brain into thinking it never even diverted its energy in the first place.

Aristotle might call this strategy the golden mean. By making proactive habits feel natural, not forced, you balance excess and deficiency.

Taoists would view flow tasking as wu wei, or doing without forcing. Aligning with the current for effortless action.

Nietzsche might see it as the personification of ubermensch, one who bends the world to his will, not through grand gestures, but conquering the mundane.

He would say doing things on the way to something else is yet another way you take control of life’s petty difficulties without allowing them to rule you.