CEO’s Corner: Inertia in the Workplace
Have you ever felt like you just can’t muster the will to do the task in front of you?
Let’s say there is a set of tasks you know would meaningfully change the trajectory of your business. Let’s also say those tasks are reasonable and achievable. In fact… you could be doing them right now!
Instead, however, you attend to one of the many other less impactful things on your plate. There’s just so much… and that impactful project we spoke of… “well it’s just… well… I’ll do it tomorrow,” you say.
Today comes and goes… and so does tomorrow. Day after day, these important projects forever go on “Tomorrow’s To-Do List.” A never ending list of want-to’s and meant-to’s.
But what’s stopping you? What’s keeping you from changing your outlook, creating new opportunities and learning something meaningful?
I’m here to say that, most likely, it’s not something unusual or unconquerable. It’s usually not a lack of resources or ineptitude. No. It’s inertia: Workplace Inertia.
Workplace inertia is that feeling where you “just haven’t done that thing in a while” and so it’s hard.
Did you used to code, but you can’t convince yourself to open up your IDE to just get started on a new project? Were you an avid writer, who just can’t bring herself to pick up the pen to begin a new story? Have you missed out on communicating with your team or your friends for so long that it just seems like it would be too much effort to have that first conversation in order to rekindle what you had before? These are all examples of workplace inertia.
For a startup owner or gaming broadcaster, workplace inertia can put a damper on progress for longer than you would like. It sneaks up on you through preying on your busyness or on your distractedness. It invades your mind and heart when you least expect it.
I encourage you to be vigilant, and to look inward to find places where you are being held back by the perceived burden of beginning again on something you once did excellently. You must overcome! You must start!
Because here’s the secret of inertia: as much as it can keep you still if you are stopped, once you gain momentum from starting… inertia makes it easier to keep moving.
Inertia, in an instant, will switch from a foe to a friend.
Pick something today that you have been meaning to do. Begin again to work towards accomplishing it. Write that code, compose that email, reach out to those people you’ve been meaning to reach out to.
Get moving, and stay moving.
