A forcing function is an external stimulus that makes you get to where you want to be. 

One of the simplest and most effective behaviours that you can try to help you level up is to keep creating forcing functions for yourself. Signing up for an event so that you are forced to get yourself in shape, offering to give a talk so that you learn your material, inviting people to a dinner party so you get your house in order, paying for a personal trainer to make you turn up every week — all useful forcing functions to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Forcing functions play, very effectively, on our fear of letting ourselves down to make ourselves do what we want us to do.

Another useful sense of forcing function is a way to help people make fewer mistakes, like putting your passport on the door handle so you can't forget it before your flight.

Forcing function

Plogging—from the Swedish plocka upp (pick up)—is the simple combo of picking up litter while out jogging.

Litter in our environment is all our responsibility, and I’m still surprised by how much impact a small effort can make on tidying up a place.

Plogging gives the multiple gratification of making your local area nicer and helping out Nature while getting a decent workout and some fresh air to boot.

Maybe combine it with these other jogging sketchplanations:

Run further, or, heck, swimrun for the adventurous

Plogging

The Doorstep Mile is a brilliant Norwegian concept that shows how the most challenging part of a journey can be just getting out of the door.

So, sometimes, as Seth Godin would say, the most important thing is just to start — start small, start now, step by step, day by day, and you can give yourself the chance to make something amazing.

Got something you’ve been meaning to start? Maybe today’s the day?

When I created this sketch, it was my 104th in consecutive weeks — 2 years of weekly sketches without missing (the power of streaks) — and sketchplanation number 583 in total. And I can tell you that it didn’t start glamorously, and they weren’t high quality or even interesting, but I did start. Sketch by sketch. Week by week.

Alistair Humphreys (see Microadventure) wrote a book about The Doorstep Mile, which you can also listen to or read for free.

More sketches about starting and getting started.

The doorstep mile

You often need to take a house key with you when you go running, yet if you pop the keys in your pockets, they often jingle as you run. I've often thought it would be nice if they were quiet.

How do you stop your keys from jingling when you run? A handy tip is to wrap your keys in cling film or Saran Wrap. This instantly stops the clinking, allowing you to run jingle-free.

Also see: Fartlek, Run further by running far away, London running kit

Wrap up your keys for running

Swimrun is basically navigating from start to finish through water and over land carrying only the gear you need. What you start with you have to finish with. You will run in your wetsuit and swim in your running shoes. The world championship courses are run by Ötillö. Ötillö means island-to-island in Swedish after the original course created from a drunken bet.

A beautiful aspect of it is that it's a team sport, both run and swum in pairs. Many choose to tether together which dramatically on the swims and keeps you both close.

In 2016 I teamed up with Rob Bell and took part in Ötillö’s UK swimrun in the Isles of Scilly. The Scilly event was a swimrun paradise. Check out the course, and the amazing event photos. The place is gorgeous, go visit sometime. And get into swimrun it’s awesome!

Swimrun

Somewhat improbable name for a simple training technique alternating fast and slower sections. Great if you’re short on time.

Fartlek

This lot will have you set: house key, Boris bike key, Oyster card, Credit card, a fiver, and a phone for maps and photos. Now you can go anywhere.

London running kit

If you stay close it’s just too tempting to cut it short. Give yourself no choice while you still feel good.

Run further by running far away

The best stuff I’ve learned from the chapter ‘Pursuing the perfect stride’ in Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald and by reading Born to Run.

Run better

Still the best way I know. Neatly takes advantage of our present bias.

Running sketches