Entropy: Without Deliberate Effort, Your Life Will Fall Apart

In thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of the degree of disorder in a thermodynamic system.

Entropy is a force that drives every system and object in the universe toward increased disorder. It’s a property of an object in a state of change.

A system is said to be in high entropy when there is a great deal of disorder. In a low entropy state, there is order.

In everyday life, we encounter entropy in so many ways.

Think of the kitchen. A few minutes after you finish cooking, the smell of your food has faded. The pots and pans are cleaned and put away.

All traces of your meal have vanished. Notice how the countertops and cabinets are free of crumbs, streaks, and fingerprints.

In other words, our kitchen is in a state of low entropy. We can restore order and clean up after ourselves quickly and easily.

Consider the opposite situation: after eating, the table is covered with empty dishes and silverware.

The utensils are not organized and put away but remain scattered in one place where they can be viewed, inspected, and reorganized again. In other words, everything around us is in a state of high entropy.

It’s not just things that fall apart; we are all falling apart.

“The cells and organs and systems that make you you — they came together, grew together, and so must fall apart,” says John Green.

The concept of entropy has a great impact in our everyday life; we see it everywhere and at every moment.

It explains everything from why we have to consistently clean our immediate environment to why we keep drifting from good habits.

Anyone who has ever tried to organize their home has experienced the effects of entropy on their life. Clutter and disorganization trap our focus on the small things, making it difficult to see the big picture.

Seeing the big picture and creating order in our home is an essential part of maintaining a healthy and balanced life.

The ultimate fate of everything is entropy

If you have noticed, the world around you is constantly changing. Everything is in a state of flux and change.

Disorder and malperformance evolve by themselves.

“Things inexorably get worse,” says Brian Cox, a professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester.

Change is the defining characteristic of the universe, and entropy is an essential part of that change. If a system is constantly changing, it is said to have high entropy. If a system is not changing, it is said to have low entropy.

To regain a state of order in all areas of your life, you have to intervene or make an effort actively.

Reducing entropy is keeping things as ordered and as structured as possible. It involves a conscious effort to bring order to a system and make it more orderly.

“The ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order,” says Steven Pinker, an experimental cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Harvard.

We must find ways to reduce the effects of entropy on our life if we want to maintain a well-ordered and healthy life.

We have to maintain our good habits, physical selves, and social relationships. It’s a constant balancing act to keep everything in order.

You’re probably doing something that involves at least some level of disorder. Maybe you’re getting ready for the day and throwing random stuff into your already-messy room to get it organized.

Maybe you’re just walking to your car, and you see something you forgot to put back where you found it. Or perhaps you’re organizing your desk for a productive workday.

Entropy a recurring theme throughout our lives. Every time we try and organize our life, we go against entropy. We’re making an effort to create and maintain order — a positive force.

Life is chaotic, unpredictable and filled with entropy.

Life is disorder and order at the same time. It’s a constant battle.

Your body, mind, relationships, finances, and career will fall apart until you build systems, habits, routines, and rituals to keep your life going.

People are always going through changes, growing, learning and experiencing new things. It’s unavoidable.

The challenge is keeping up with all of these changes.

How we experience these changes can make us feel stuck or optimistic for the next event or activity. The key is to focus on the things that matter most.

Entropy can make life seem chaotic, but we can change that; we can overcome entropy by taking action, building productive habits, learning new things, improving our skills, and embracing lifelong learning.

Unhealthy behaviours like physical inactivity, worrying about everything going wrong, stressing about things you can’t control, living in the past or the future, and many other unhealthy habits can be tamed if we actively intervene. Reducing entropy is possible but requires deliberate effort.

Chaos is insanely natural, and it grows. “It can be very overwhelming. It can deaden your senses to what’s important. But if we impart order on that chaos, everything changes. You can find peace,” says Joshua Edward Smith.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM

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