Activation Energy

Have you ever procrastinated doing something for days or weeks only to eventually get around to doing it, and realizing it wasn’t so bad after all? In fact, once you got started, perhaps it was pretty straight-forward, and not nearly as taxing as you’d anticipated. That’s because the act of starting required the most effort.

In chemistry, ‘activation energy’ refers to the minimum effort required to create a chemical reaction. For example, it takes a certain amount of energy to activate the molecules that make a chemical fizz in a test tube, but once that initial energy is exerted, it takes far less energy to sustain those same bubbles. Psychologists have adopted the term ‘activation energy’ to explain why starting is often half the battle when it comes to human decision-making and behavior.¹