Airports, Islands, and the Joy of Being Constrained

This year I vacationed on Astypalea, an island in the Aegean. I find that small islands offers a special kind of calm. It is relaxing in a different way: you're there and leaving requires planning, so you don't even consider the option. Instead, you're limited to what the island offers. If it is small enough you'll probably see most of it in the course of your vacation. In a world of full of fomo this is valuable.

I find a similar sense of calm in airports. This probably seems counterintuitive, as airports usually are associated with waiting, queuing and a stressful atmosphere. It can still be relaxing for similar reasons as a small island. You are where you're supposed to This makes it easier to read, listen to music or skim that paper you've wanted to look into for months¹. At home there are always chores to do or that stain on the wall you should clean. The office is even worse. It is full of seemingly urgent tasks, pointless meetings and convenient interruptions that allow you to postpone the difficult stuff.

During a layover a few years back I had finished my book and I also didn't have easy access to internet. I had been using Emacs for a couple of years already, but I still didn't really grasp elisp. This meant that I constantly copied snippets from other people's .emacs.d and installed plug-ins for the smallest things. The moment was ripe to work through the introduction to elisp. It turned out that the intruction was well-written, and I had lots of fun customizing Emacs. Not only is it a fond memory, but it has been useful as well. The sad truth is that I would never done this at home. If that layover had happened now I would have had access to internet and I'm pretty sure I would've wasted those hours mindlessly surfing if the same thing happened today.

How can I create space for these kind of sessions more often? I like to think of it in terms of friction. If you're sitting at home with your phone next to you², a full laundry basket and internet easily available, it will be a struggle to do something that pushes you a bit, be it a challenging book or a programming puzzle. This is there is both friction to start reading, but almost no friction to stop. you should increase friction to switch and reduce friction to start.

This assumes you know what you want to do. These days, many people struggle with being faced with too many choices³. Both big choices, such as where and what to study, and small, like which TV series to watch. Many options lead to unhappier results. One reason for this is that the alternatives you didn't choose are not only more, but they are more salient in your mind. These days you will literally get a highlight reel of the choices you didn't make.

None of this is new. Overchoice and satisficing are concepts that have been around since the 1970's. The idea of analysis-paralysis dates back to at least ancient Greece, as the fable of The Fox and the Cat demonstrates, even if the term itself is more recent. Has it gotten worse since then? It sure feels like it.

I still haven't found the solution I'm looking for, but I have found some simple hacks: Put the phone away. Start that laundry. Organize your desk. Write a to-do list and put what's on your mind out of your mind. If possible, go somewhere else. Go to the park to read or go to a cafe to write or program.

Another trick to help get started is the pomodoro or just time-boxing⁴. Just writing down what I'm trying to achieve also goes a long way. If I'm writing, am I aiming for a draft, am I editing or am I just seeing where my mind takes me? If I don't know when I consider a task or step of a task done, I will procrastinate. Take all of the above and add a bit of willpower and you will be one step closer to developing some Sitzfleisch. At the same time, remove friction to start doing those things. If you want to read Ulysses, put the book somewhere it's always within reach. If you want to write, make your computer default to things that trigger the process⁵. Before you know, it is a habit.