I'm not positive that I haven't talked about this before, but it doesn't matter, because this probably won't be the last time I harp on the idea of reducing friction in the process of achieving a goal.
Sounds good in principle, right? But, then, so does flossing your teeth, calling your Mom regularly, brushing the cat, and so forth. So let's stick to tangible instances of that basic idea. Maybe that will covert the usual nodding and smiling into action somewhere.
Today's mail included something invoice-ish looking from the DMV. It's about the time of year that my license plate stickers would come due, so at first I thought that someone had had the brilliant idea of slipping in organ donor stickers with that invoice. It wasn't until a couple minutes later--after I'd written out a check and filled out one side of the form--that I realized that this was actually for the renewal of my drivers' license itself. Which basically means that the DMV is counting on me to remember to bring the little orange stickers along with the rest of the relatively easy-to-lose pieces of paper relevant to the transaction. Friction.
But, lest I seem like I'm dogging on the public sector, there are any number of instances in private industry. Here comes one of them.
Both the People's Food Co-op and Festival Foods North (in La Crosse) take donations for a local food pantry. In principle, it's a great idea. The Food Co-op maintains a bin for non-perishable items, whereas Festival has "stunt" grocery bags of $5 and $10 amounts (for people food), as well $5 "stunt" bags for the animal shelter. The upside of the Co-op's method is that it offers far more discretion of the part of the donor. But the problem is that the donation bin is on the "Oops--too late, you've already checked out" side of the cash registers. And, the last time I checked, tacking a "whoops--forgot again--my bad" donation onto your bill wasn't an option. There's that pesky friction again. Festival, by contrast, places the animal shelter bags in the pet supply aisle, and the food pantry bags at the register. For what it's worth, I did mention that to the Co-op employee who checked me out the last time I was there. Hopefully that will make donating easier for perennially distracted folks. Such as your faithful blogger, for instance.
