Activation energy: the guitar under the bed

The guitar was bought with great excitement. Rohan, 29, in Indore, carried it home on his scooter and played for a week. Then it went into its case, the case went under the bed, and a suitcase went on top of the case.

That was three years ago. He still says he wants to play. He means it.

What activation energy is

In chemistry, activation energy is the push a reaction needs before it can begin. Even a reaction that will run happily on its own needs that first push. The idea comes from the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius. Here we borrow it loosely, as a picture and not as science: every habit has a push at the start, and the push can be big or small.

Motivation does not change the size of that push. What you can change is how much of it the start asks for.

Count the steps

Take Rohan's guitar and count what it takes to play for ten minutes on a weeknight.

Move the suitcase. Pull the case from under the bed. Unzip it. Take out the guitar. Find the tuner and tune it, because the strings have drifted. Then find a place to sit. That is six steps before the first chord, and he is tired from work at step one.

None of those steps is hard. Together they are a wall, and the wish never died. The wall did the damage.

Now change one thing only. On a Saturday, Rohan puts the guitar on a stand in the corner of the room, tuned, next to the chair where he drinks his evening chai. The next Tuesday, while the water boils, he picks it up and plays for four minutes. Nobody motivated him. The six steps became one.

Where it stops

Lowering the start cost gets you to the first minute. It does not keep you playing for the second hour, and it does not make you good. Once you are moving, other things matter more: a little practice most days, a song you want to learn, someone to play it for.

It also works the other way. If you want to stop doing something, add a step, such as keeping your phone charger in another room at night.

And do not use it as a reason to buy a lot of gear. A stand is enough. The aim is fewer steps, not a nicer setup.

Try this tonight

Pick one thing you keep meaning to start: the guitar, the gym shoes in their box, the book on the shelf. Write down the steps between you and doing it for five minutes. Then remove one before you sleep. Put the shoes by the door, or the book on your pillow. Just one.

There are more models like this one in /models. Each Sunday: one mental model and one real decision to try it on.