Why I weighed 366 objects (and 3 things it taught me)

2019 seems like a foggy memory. A time when, in the U.K and U.S at least, social distancing didn’t exist, weddings weren’t considered a health risk, and spending a whole year avoiding social engagements seemed like an introverts dream rather than a government mandate. If you compared 2019 and 2020 it would feel like you were comparing two completely different eras.
Wind the clock back just over a year and two days before the start of 2020 I was sat planning what lab work I was going to do in the New Year. During the last week of work, before we shut the lab down for Christmas, I was responsible for unpacking and setting up a new balance that we just bought (side note: for those who don’t work in a lab getting a new piece of lab equipment is more exciting than any Christmas or birthday, especially when it’s a new balance). One piece of work I was going to in the New Year involved weighing lots of chemicals out in very small quantities. While planning this work I wondered if I would be forced to weigh chemicals everyday I was in the lab. Then I had a thought – could I weigh something every day for a whole year? And thus began How Much Does it Weigh?
Naïvely I asked myself  “how hard could it be to weigh something every day?” When the 1st of January 2020 rolled around I sent out a tweet declaring that for the whole of 2020 I would weigh one object every day and post a picture of it.
I would like to say I set this challenge in the name of scientific curiosity. In truth it was more personal than that. I suffer from severe procrastination. In trying to write this blog I have managed to clean the kitchen, watch Mad Max: Fury Road and take my dog out for a walk. My hope was that setting myself a public challenge would help me overcome my procrastination problem.  One year later, 366 days thanks to the leap year, I finished my task and despite weekends, trips away and, more importantly, a global pandemic I am proud to say that I didn’t miss a single day.
I am going to use another blog post to list the weight of every item, as well as some interesting statistics about the objects I weighed. In this post I want to highlight what weighing one object every day taught me, and hopefully what it can teach you.

 Always double check a “good idea”
This realisation came 2 weeks into 2020. When I set out on this year long challenge I thought it would be easy; I worked in the lab 5 days a week for 50 weeks of the year – how hard would it be to weigh one object every day and a few extra for holidays and weekends? It turns out that I massively underestimated the amount of time and work involved. Firstly, I had to come up with a list of 366 objects, find them, take them to work, weigh them and take a picture of the item. It doesn’t sound like much, but the time really adds up. After that I then had to write a tweet about that object (even if it was just listing the day, item and the weight) then send the tweet or schedule it for the correct day. What I thought would be a two minute per day job ended up occupying at least an hour a week if not more. It doesn’t sound like much, but scheduling that around lab work, meetings and a global pandemic became a real challenge. This experience taught me that the next time I have a “good idea” that I think is easy I should stop and think before I rush in. Just because I think an idea will be easy to execute doesn’t mean it necessarily will be.

Public commitments hold you to account
Once I realised how hard this task was going to be there was a part of me that wanted to quit, give up and accept that I didn’t have the determination. But there was one problem: I had made a public announcement about my goal. Only 10 people liked that tweet but still – I was accountable to those 10 people. I’d thrown down the gauntlet and couldn’t turn back. This kind of public commitment is a great motivator. I guess it’s why they say when losing weight, exercising or trying to develop any new habit you need to get an accountability buddy to surprise, surprise: keep you accountable. Not all commitments can be made publicly but moving forward any new habit or challenge I set out on will have some accountability. It helped me weigh one object every day for a whole year without fail. Who knows maybe a similar system can help me stop eating so much pizza (I doubt it though; because pizza is the best food).

Your systems determine your success
As I mentioned at the start of this post one of the main reasons I set out on this task was to overcome my procrastination. While it might not have helped me rid myself entirely of my procrastination, the challenge did teach me one important thing: if you want to consistently do something then you need to make time for it. At the start of 2020 I read Atomic Habits by James Clear who illustrates the point perfectly “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” When I started I would try and weigh one object every day and post in real-time, but fitting that in around meetings and other lab work became impossible. I needed a system that would stream line the process. So at the start of each week I would bring in the items I needed then dedicate an hour every Monday afternoon to writing and scheduling the tweets for that week. This taught me that I can try and do something every day and hope I have the motivation and energy to do it, or I can set up a system that will lower the barrier to achieving that goal.

When I set out on this challenge I wanted to prove that I could maintain a year long level of commitment. And when asked about why I was doing something so ridiculous that was the answer I would give. But, in all honesty I also wanted to teach others that sometimes doing something ridiculous can be fun. Not everything needs a reason or a justification. The only real purpose of this year long challenge was to answer the question is someone mad enough to weigh one object every day for a whole year? Now I am proud to answer that question - yes they can, and that person was me.
For me that represents the core of science, trying to find the answer to a question. It’s something we’ve been doing for thousands of years and will hopefully keep doing for thousands more. If there is one thing I learned from 2020 it’s that the world is a more interesting place if you ask questions. So if you only take one piece of wisdom away let it be this: don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. No matter how stupid you feel, f you think someone might have already asked it or if you have no idea where to start. Gather your courage and go out there and ask questions. Because the world is a better place when you do.