I am LOVING Atomic Habits by James Clear. Today, I am excited to share one big, fantastic nugget from the book - the idea of friction.

You remember friction from physics class, right?

If there's too much friction, that ball won't roll for very long. If there is little to none, that ball will keep rolling, and rolling, and rolling.

When it comes to having more ease and flow in our days, understanding the role of friction is KEY.

Here's how it works:

Do you want to make something easier? REDUCE friction. That is, "decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits."
Do you want to STOP doing something? ADD friction. That is, "increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits."

“The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. ”

— James Clear

Reducing friction

Let's look at a few quick examples for how you might REDUCE friction to make things run more smoothly or to encourage a good habit:

putting your keys in the same place every day (to reduce the time getting out of the house)
putting bills on auto-pay (to reduce the influx of paper and stress of paying bills)
setting things on auto-delivery, like your toilet paper! (to reduce the mental load of re-stocking essential household items)
having groceries delivered (to avoid dragging three kids to the store)
putting your dish soap in a pump (to make a daily chore a little easier and faster)
getting a treadmill at home instead of going to the gym (to eliminate the extra time going back and forth)
enrolling in TSA Pre-Check (to decrease travel frustrations)

Adding friction

Now, some examples of ADDING friction to deter bad habits or behaviors:

deleting social media apps off of your phone (to decrease time on social media)
removing junk food from the pantry (to make eating junk food much harder)
wrapping your credit card with questions to ask before you buy something (to curb impulse buys at the store)
removing your phone or computer's auto-fill feature for your credit card (to add one more step to completing that next online purchase)

I am ALL about removing (and adding!) friction to create smoother routines, improve habits and meet those big goals.

What are some ways that YOU add or remove friction to make your days more efficient and easy?