Sam Gentle.com

Staying on top

I wrote previously about the "what the hell" effect, where once you slip up a bit with something you tend to think "ah, what the hell" and slip up massively. Of course, that is objectively worse than slipping up slightly, so this falls in the category of unhelpful cognitive biases. I've been thinking recently that there might be a more general effect.

What I mean is that if you're on top of things, it tends to be easy to stay on top. But a failure in one area seems to spread to others, even if they aren't dependent in any way. My theory is that there is a kind of global "what the hell" effect, where once you've lost control in any area, you stop feeling on top of things which justifies everything else going bad too.

This is interesting because it suggests an alternative solution, both to this general "what the hell" effect and the more specific one. If being in out-of-control situations makes you generally out of control, maybe the antidote is putting yourself in unrelated situations where you are in control. That is, it may be beneficial to step away from the thing you're having trouble with and focus on something more stable.

In fact, it may be worth cultivating some easy habits specifically for this purpose. Keeping a clean desk could have benefits beyond just the outcome of having a clean desk. The very process of keeping the desk clean is an easy thing to keep on top of, which should make it easier to stay organised about other things just by virtue of putting you in an on-top mood.