I can’t recall the exact story, but it was about determining what you want to achieve, what is stopping you, and coming up with a resolution. I’m not going to get the story exactly right, but it went something like this…
A woman with several children had a phone installed on the wall of the kitchen. It had a long cord, so when she had a call, she could walk over to the table and have a seat while she was on a call. There was a tablet of paper and a pen there, so she could jot down notes. She could also sit back and have a lengthy conversation with family or friends.
But, when she did this, the cord stretched across the path from the living room to the kitchen. When the kids were small, this wasn’t really an issue, but it had become one as they got older. They would come running around the corner and get tangled in the cord. The phone would be wrenched from the mom’s hands. Or, she would be the one hurrying around the corner getting tangled in the cord as her children started taking longer calls in the kitchen. This had become a hazard, so something had to be done. The problem was the blocking of the path, so the woman had a shorter cord put on the phone.
That definitely solved the problem. The cord was no longer long enough to reach across the path, so no one tripped over it. No one got tangled in the cord. There were never any accidents. But, the woman realized that she didn’t like standing for long periods, so she no longer had long conversations with her friends and family. She forgot things as she couldn’t reach the notepad to jot things down. Over time, she felt that her life was diminished along with the length of the cord.
What to do? She didn’t want to simply replace the cord and reintroduce the issues that shortening the cord has resolved. But, she wanted to go back to being able to linger on calls. She realized that there was actually enough room on the other side of the wall for a small desk. She had the phone moved to that side of the wall, and she added a notepad and pen to the table. The phone had moved approximately four inches, from one side of the wall to the other, but it made a world of difference.
Walk the dogs
I try to apply the principle in my own life. Most recently, I was able to apply this to walking the dogs. I have Riley, a 70 lb lab-pit mix, and my mom has Kenzie, a 13 lb shi-poo. Kenzie’s parentage might be 50-50 (her mom was 100% shih-tzu and her dad was 100% poodle) but she is definitely more “poo” than “shi”. It doesn’t matter that their morning walk is only 7 minutes long, or how much time Kenzie spent out in the backyard before our walk, or what time I take them on the walk, Kenzie will poop on our walk 9 times out of 10.
It’s not like I don’t realize that dogs are supposed to poop when on a walk, but while Riley takes care of business in the backyard, Kenzie has to potty on our walk, which really annoyed me. I would have to stop, have Riley sit – being the larger dog, Riley would carry the poop bags, I’d have to tear one out, wrestle with both leashes while I found which end of the bag actually opened, then stoop and grab the poop.
I knew it was ridiculous that I would get so annoyed, so I spent some time thinking about why I got so annoyed. I realized it was the disruption to the walk, and my frustration with the bags. So, I moved the bags from Riley’s harness to Kenzie’s, so I no longer had to have Riley sit so I could get a poop bag, which minimized the disruption. But the real game changer was that I get a bag ready before our walk, and I tuck it into Kenzie’s harness. All I have to do is grab the bag then grab the poop. My annoyance has been completely eliminated, just by making those few changes.
Sourdough starter
Another example is with my sourdough starter. I hardly ever bake bread, but I went to a sourdough class about five years ago and have been keeping starter alive ever since. Every morning, I would gather the starter, the scale, and the flour to complete the requisite feeding. Then I would have to put it all away. It was quite the production as nothing was kept together, and I would often forget to feed it for several days.
Again, I thought about moving the phone, and got a small plastic basket at Ikea which I keep in the cupboard. It has all of the items I need, and after I’ve fed the pups, I pull it down and feed the starter and then put it all away for tomorrow’s feeding. Not only has this streamlined the process, but I’ve ‘stacked’ the habit of feeding the starter with the habit of feeding the pups, so they both get done daily.
How will you ‘move the phone’
There are a lot of things we have to do each day. Many of them we do without giving them much thought. I challenge you to think through the tasks you do, or perhaps tasks you would like to do, and consider why they are difficult or why you simply don’t do them. Then, think of small steps you can take that might make them less onerous, or more likely to be done. Start small and celebrate each victory. Please leave a comment about what “phones” you had to move, and how it went.
