Railway switch habits: low effort, high impact
I’ve been thinking recently about a concept I’m calling railway switch habits.
You know those things on railroad tracks, where you can throw the switch one way, and the train will go down one track?
Or you can throw the switch the other way, and the train will go down a different track?
It’s interesting because the actual movement that the switch makes is very small.
Look at this diagram below — the track only moves by a few degrees.
And yet those few degrees of movement bring the train down a completely different tracks.
And I’ve been thinking about:
What are the railway switch habits in my life?
The small “only a few degrees of difference” things…
That end up putting my day on a completely different track?
I turned down free champagne at brunch this weekend (while internally crying 😭)…
Because not drinking is kind of a railway switch habit for me.
It’s not that I drink a ton when I drink — I usually have 1-2 glasses of wine.
It’s not wrecking my health. I can fit it into my calorie budget.
But drinking puts me on a different track.
As soon as I have a drink, suddenly, I’m also ordering the more indulgent entree. And saying yes to splitting apps. And eyeing the dessert menu.
Having a drink puts me on a track to make unhealthier choices.
It’s not that the drink itself is that bad — it’s only a few degrees of difference.
But it sets me down a whole track that I don’t love — the end destination is pretty far from where I want to be.
And NOT drinking is a fairly low effort choice for me to make…
And that one small choice puts me on a track that carries me to my desired destination without a ton of effort on my part.
So I want you to ask yourself: What are your railway switch habits?
The small, low effort things you can do…
That end up having quite a high impact, not because they’re super meaningful in and of themselves…
But because they put you on a track that carries you to where you want to go.
Low effort — because it’s just one small thing.
High impact — because it gets the snowball going, and you can ride the momentum from there.
Is it…
Making your bed?
Taking a shower?
Doing 10 minutes of yoga a day?
Not checking your emails until you get to your desk in the morning?
Whatever it is, it will probably feel too small to possibly have an impact.
But remember, the impact isn’t in the thing itself.
The impact is in the momentum it creates — in the snowball it kicks off.
Hit reply and tell me what yours might be :)
If you want to go a bit deeper, you can also drop by for a no-strings-attached coffee chat anytime ☕️
It’s not a sales pitch.
It’s just an opportunity for us to discuss whatever’s on your mind…
And I’ll offer some one-off coaching and brainstorming about your situation.
Or you can book a consult call, and we can map out a full coaching engagement.
So you can not only get your railway switch habit set up and get some momentum going…
But you can learn the whole rest of the toolkit that I teach my clients to help them build their careers and their lives around flow :)
What my clients have to say…
“Some weeks, I have a very specific thing that is troubling me, and I'm excited to talk about it.
And there are other times where I came in and I didn't quite know what I wanted to talk about, and those were the sessions where Pooja was able to help me unpack something that I didn't even know was there.
It surprised me that I didn't have to do all the work in advance to come in with the agenda of what I needed to talk about, and that there are nuggets and insights to get, no matter how clearly I even see the problem coming in.”
—Client | Early-Stage Tech Startup Director turned Design Consultant
I help high performers build their careers around flow.
This requires…
Internally, learning how to access your flow no matter what’s going on around you
Externally, designing a career strategy that angles your flow at a high-priority problem that someone will pay you good money to solve
Tactically, navigating the transition from the role you’re in to the role you want
Today’s article focused on #1.
For more writing on all 3 of these, check out my table of contents.
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