backing in

My neighbor growing up was a contractor.

This guy did not mess around. He built the most beautiful homes in the area.

My brother and I worked for him and quickly saw why he was the best.

He took his time, was precise, and did things proper.

For example, he always backed-in his truck...

He never parked it head-first. NEVER.

This would be a trivial detail to some. To us brothers it was not.

In fact, we turned his parking habit into a term we still use 10 years later.

It’s called, you guessed it - backing-in.

When you “back-in”, you’re setting yourself up for later.

You take the high road now so tomorrow you’re coasting.

For example, I’m writing this email from a remote cabin in northern Canada.

It still gets cold in the mornings, so I like a nice fire.

Building a fire in the morning isn’t a nice experience.

Cutting wood and cracking twigs disturb my sensitive morning palms.

This is why I back in the fire the night before, like so:

Result: I wake up, toss a match, and have instant flames to start my day.

It’s a seamless experience. This is what’s possible when you back in.

Backing in also makes hard things easier.

This is done by eliminating unnecessary friction.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to get fit.

What if you laid out your workout gear the night before?

What if you scheduled an Uber to whisk you to the gym at 6 am?

The next morning you’d have no choice but to “go with the flow” and workout.

That’s the beauty of backing in.

You engineer “the flow” to work for you, not against you.

If you want to try this out, I suggest you start small.

Find one point of resistance in your day and see if you can back it in.

If the back-in works, repeat enough times until it becomes a habit.

(Even better if you create an automated system so the habit isn’t even required.)

Once you establish your new back-in, add another one.

Stack your back-ins to make your day flow like water.

Don’t stop until your morning resembles this scene from Wallace & Gromit.

lol.

See you next week.

Graydon

Cool things I found during my weekly internet stroll.

40 mins of Elon Musk playing video games and talking about Elon Musk stuff. His little son X comes in at the end it’s pretty cute.

Over a billion fewer plastic bags in Colorado. Less microplastics. Colorado, my balls thank you.

World’s first licensed autonomous air taxi takes flight in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is heating up and I want to visit very soon.

This bottle of wine of biblical vintage was found in a Roman tomb.

Served up by Spijker & me.

100 Miles | Nico Morano, Mewhy

Melhor Se Acostumar - Tour-Maubourg Remix | Pedro Mizutani, Tour-Maurbourg

Change It - Original Mix | Touchtalk (low-key motivational and fires me up)

Kiss of Life | Sade (oldie but my goodness what a tune)