Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most influential scientists of all time.
The story goes that Newton saw an apple fall from a tree and this was the spark that eventually led to his theory of gravity.
In 1687, he would publish his three universal laws of motion.
The first law of motion basically says that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless other forces act on it.
Even though Newton was talking about physical objects, it’s amazing how well this law of motion applies to goal setting.
Sometimes, we just don’t want to work.
We’re at rest, and we just want to stay at rest.
We know what to do. We know how to do it. We know why we should do it. We just don’t want to do it.
So we procrastinate.
- We wait until the last moment to do our homework.
- We say that will’ll start to eat healthy right after the holidays.
- We’ll be working online and find ourselves falling down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia or social media.
Inertia is a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.
Let’s turn that inertia into momentum.
SEOT is an acronym to help us get the most out of life. The E stands for Effort.
(It’s explained more in the goal setting slideshow)
SEOT Step to Success #10 is to SET A TIMER
Starting a task can be easier if you know you only have to do it for a little bit.
Set up a 10, 15 or 25 minute timer to get started and then reward yourself with a little break. You can put up with anything for 10 minutes… even work.
Here’s the thing. Once you start, you might find yourself “on a roll.” You’re moving along in your work, so you might want to keep going when the timer is up. Remember, objects in motion stay in motion unless other forces act on it.
Or, you might just take that break and start again in 10 minutes.
Remember, if you find yourself stuck trying to get things done, try starting with a short timer and see what happens.
Good luck!
(Hey, teachers! Check out this growth mindset lesson package or this 2021 New Year’s Resolution lesson plan!)