Is Ease better than Effort?

Well, is it?!

Hi there.

Some side updates from me, as well as an observation I made around a fallacy bias of equating “ease” as good and “effort” as bad.

p.s. If you’re interested in doing side finance / project management work, to tune of “hey can you make this excel model for XYZ contract”, let me know because an outsource CFO I know can use more executing hands. Comes with very minimum meetings. For the Big 4 people who only know Big 4 life, just know that this is less than formal in just about every way possible.

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What I’m Up To

1. Had dinner with Peter W. at Bestia. Might I add, what sage wisdom can be bestowed while eating chestnut pasta.

2. I participated in Halloween festivities as a pizza. I’m still looking for that photo.

3. It turns out, Chicken Karaage is incredibly easy to make as the only “Breading” you are applying is corn-starch. That’s it. The only thing to be mindful of is the double frying that happens.

4. Accidentally let my PO Box expire. Oops.

5. I LOVE TANDOORI BOLOGNESE AND I NEED TO FIND INDIAN ITALIAN PLACES. (Send recs to me).

6. I am the proud owner of a brand new unboxed UCS Venator.

   

7. I found the Sun Noodle Tenomi Kaedama No. 18 Thick Noodles (available at a Japanese Grocer, check frozen) is nearly the same thickness as the Tsujita Artisan Noodle / Killer Noodles / Mogu Mogu Mazemen thickness.

7. My new PC that isn’t a Ship of Theseus paradox is finally done. It doesn’t heat up my office, and none of the active cooling fans turn on.

It turns out, Chicken Karaage is incredibly easy to make as the only “Breading” you are applying is corn-starch. That’s it. The only thing to be mindful of is the double frying that happens.

Here’s the quick recipe:

1. Cut up Chicken Thighs (6 pounds of boneless-skinless chicken thighs will create enough fried chicken to fill 4 24 oz containers).

2. Marinade in a Mirin / Sake / Soysauce for at least 20 minutes.

3. Pat dry and apply an overtly generous amount of corn starch (empty the container)

4. Fry in batches in a high-smoking point oil at 300 degrees for 3 minutes and let cool on rack.

5. Fry in batches at 350-400 degree for 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

6. Enjoy. (Link to actual recipe)

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Is Ease better than Effort?

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

The Effort

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the balance of my activities and hours and how many things were “ease” and how many of it were “Effort”.

The other day during a workday, I had to do an extreme amount of context switching for a few hours there as I was engaging, teaching, onboarding, offboarding, negotiating, and positioning a myriad of people over a myriad of things.

I enjoyed it.

I recognized it was a lot of effort.

Initially, I didn’t look “forward” to the workday. But as my energy in the day slowly woke up, I found momentum, and energy, in taking on the day.

A sense of accomplishment of pulling off challenges is in itself reinvigorating. It’s own runner’s high, so to speak.

Out of the those things, I found myself thinking “what’s something that requires effort that I look forward to, and why?”

The Ease

On the opposite end I sometimes find myself on sitting down and on my phone doing whatever it is people my age with an iphone in this digital age do as a break between things.

• Cat memes.

• Reddit.

• Shortform content.

It’s incredibly easy for me to get into the momentum of scrolling through content across the web and mindlessly going about it.

But as it turns out, this action is inherently not a regenerative action. While it’s easy, it does not cater to me mental resting. If anything, it’s me passing time until the next activity as I go and seek distractions to cure boredom.

This has been labeled revenge procrastination and the truth is, it’s so easy to build a habit of constantly distracting yourself with your phone that you associate this “me time” as rest.

I wasn’t getting rest, that’s for sure. My mental state is not improving in the same manner as a taking deep breaths and meditating does.

If you’re a knowledge worker, it’s important to be aware of how you are letting your mind recharge. Not necessarily “rest”, but refuel itself.

The big question coming out of this is “What’s something you can ease into that isn’t necessarily good for you?”

As I go about my days, I find that a healthy day is a day filled with things that bring ease as well as effort, albeit at different times and energy levels.

Here’s some questions to consider throughout your day:

1. What’s something that requires effort that you look forward to?

2. What’s something that you can ease into that you don’t look forward to?

3. Do you “ease” into the day, or do you go “full effort”?

4. When does ease become effort, or effort becomes ease?

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Previous Pieces

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