End each Day by Parking Downhill

We live on a hill, one of the steepest (if not the steepest) hill in our city. It's got a 27% gradient which is very steep!

Now, we live near the bottom of the hill, and not on the steepest part, which is better in the winter, when people can't even drive up the hill... but living near the bottom is not so good for my morning walk.

Walk Uphill or Downhill?

When I walk out the door... I am faced with two choices... go uphill or go downhill. Going straight, and level, is not an option. Many days, I face a mental block on my morning walk. I really, really don't want to have to grunt uphill right off the bat. I can do the slog to the top in 8 minutes but... those 8 minutes are a grueling, wheezing realization that I have turned into a winter slug!

So, sometimes what I do is... I'll just head downhill... it's easier, it gets the juices flowing and my muscles get limbered up. I may then circle around the block and start slogging up the road one street over (longer but with a gentler gradient). But first... a bit of downhill is much appreciated and makes the morning walk less of a chore... and more likely to actually happen.

Parking Downhill in the Woods

When I worked in the bush, we'd drive down these long logging roads into the wilderness. At the end, where we parked, we would always, always, always, get the truck turned around so it was parked facing in the direction of home.

Maybe it's a bear chasing you... or a forest fire... or a wounded companion... or it snows while you're out in the bush. The last thing you want to struggle with is a 5 point turn as you go back and forth, back and forth, trying to get turned around in the right direction.

Plus... if you go a bit too far and get stuck in the ditch... at the start of the day, you have waaayyy more time to get that figured out than at the end of the day when you're tired and it's getting dark. Oh... and if the battery died while you were out in the bush... it's a lot easier to push the truck forwards down the hill to get it started than to push it backwards down the hill (does that even work?).

Just another example of... park downhill... make it easy on yourself!

Parking Downhill for Productivity

I came across a productivity hack (which you know I love) the other day. The idea is to "park downhill" every evening. Not just the car either.. this works with projects or your desk or... whatever.

We aren't always at our most alert in the morning... so gathering up everything that we need the night before is just smart. The documents... the office bag... make a lunch... make sure your keys are on the key rack... get your exercise gear together. A little preparation the night before means that in the morning... you'll be parked downhill and everything will go much more smoothly.

With projects... it's a good idea to end the day in a "fun" spot. With something that you will find engaging and interesting and... dare I say it... easy.

I've been struggling with proofing a document that was translated from Polish to English using Google Translate... It's a bit of a slog but I can park downhill by telling myself the night before that I'll just start with the headings... and then the photo captions. That is easy. I can do that no problem. And once I've done that... then I'm already on a roll (having parked downhill) and can tackle the actual text.

Another idea... for those of us who work from home... is to have the document that we are going to be working on the next morning, open on the desktop. And nothing else. It's so easy to get distracted by all of the open tabs... so eliminate the distraction and make it easy.

Part of why parking downhill makes everything so much easier is that it eliminates decision points which are often energy draining. Decision fatigue is real... even in the morning... there is nothing worse than waking up in the morning and not being clear on what project is going to be tackled next. At least... there's nothing worse for me. I usually end up frittering the day away... so parking downhill just makes sense.

Even with this blog... if I can have a topic picked out in my own head the night before, then I am set for sitting down in the morning and writing. I'm parked downhill.

If... on the other hand, I don't have a topic picked out... it is a struggle in the morning because "I don't know what to write".... and it's pure gruelling uphill grunt work. No fun.

These might all seem like small things... but it's the small steps that make things easier.