Inertia is the Problem

I spent some time with an old friend who was in town recently. While at dinner we talked about how difficult it is to get yourself to do things.

Considering where I live and the amount of free time I have, not doing things is positively criminal. Here in SF alone, there are a million opportunities, and many of them are cheap or free. Yet here I am, sitting on my butt doing a blog post and getting distracted by surfing the internet.

It's not that bad. I do get a lot of stuff done but I could be doing more. My friend says not to worry about it but I know my life would be way more fulfilling if I put a little more effort into it. Here's a random list:

• Cooking for myself. I'm not a bad cook and I get so much pleasure from making my own food. Plus, if I cooked a little more I might try some interesting dishes or different ingredients since I like to experiment.
• Getting out into the City and attending free fairs, museum nights, walking around in different neighborhoods, taking short day trips here and there.
• Bringing my camera with me or using my phone camera more.
• Keeping a Spark File of impressions and hunches to review regularly.
• Reading.  For the love of GOD I need to read more!

I've tried many techniques to get myself to do things such as scheduling, making lists, dangling rewards in front of myself but I've only had some success. One thing that's been working for me is I tell myself I can do anything I want before 8:00 pm but after that I have to write for at least an hour. This means I can be distracted by the internet, worry about all the emails I'm not replying to, go for a nice walk, things like that. Of course, it didn't work this past week because work was so crazy and I was worn out most nights.

Oh well. Doesn't mean I can't keep trying. I suppose that's the key to this inertia thing, I just have to keep trying.