There’s a moment in childhood when even the cracks in the sidewalk feel fascinating. A shadow on the wall becomes a story. A weirdly shaped cloud is enough to interrupt your whole day.
But over time, that kind of attention fades. We stop noticing. Not because the world got less interesting—but because it got familiar.
This essay explores a simple, curious practice to undo that familiarity: adding one small rule to your day that helps you see the ordinary world as if it were new.
The goal? Not to create challenge, but to generate curious friction. A tiny perceptual bump that helps you wake up to your surroundings again.
Contents
The Problem with Familiarity
Familiarity is efficient. It saves brainpower. It lets you drive to the store without thinking about each turn.
But it also dulls wonder. The more predictable something becomes, the less it demands attention.
This is why people walk past the same mural for years without ever really seeing it. Or talk to the same colleague daily but never notice the pitch of their voice. Or eat the same meal every morning without recalling a single bite.
In short: the mundane becomes invisible.
Reversing That with One Daily Rule
Here’s the practice:
Each day, choose one small, playful “rule” that slightly changes how you interact with your environment. Stick to it for the day—or even just an hour—and observe what happens.
The rule should be:
- Simple
- Safe
- Short-term
- Disruptive in a gentle, curious way
Examples:
- “Today, I will only turn left when entering a building.”
- “Today, I will try to notice all the colors blue in my environment.”
- “Today, I will speak 10% slower than usual.”
- “Today, I will eat everything with my non-dominant hand.”
- “Today, I will find one thing that doesn’t belong where it is.”
- “Today, I will treat every doorway as a portal.”
These “rules” are constraints. But they’re also invitations—to pause, to reframe, to see what usually hides behind habit.
Why One Rule Works
- 🎯 It focuses attention — With a rule in mind, your brain starts scanning for rule-relevant input.
- 🌀 It disrupts autopilot — You re-engage with behaviors you normally breeze through.
- 🌱 It sparks new associations — A strange rule might connect disparate ideas in novel ways.
- 😄 It makes weirdness feel welcome — You give yourself permission to play with reality.
One rule is enough. It’s a small lever with big effects.
What You Might Notice
After a few days of this practice, people often report things like:
- Noticing patterns in architecture they’d never seen before
- Finding themselves oddly energized by an otherwise dull commute
- Realizing how many decisions they make unconsciously throughout the day
- Laughing more—because the rules make the world feel slightly surreal
- Inventing their own follow-up rules, turning it into a creative game
The key shift is this: you become the designer of your perception, not just a passive recipient of it.
How to Choose Your Daily Rule
- Decide how much disruption you want — Are you looking for subtle observation or playful weirdness?
- Pick a domain — Movement, speech, color, attention, touch, sequence, decision-making.
- Write the rule down — Make it clear, short, and doable.
- Do it for a set amount of time — A full day is ideal, but even one hour works.
- Reflect briefly afterward — What changed in how you moved, felt, noticed?
Some Favorite Starter Rules
- “Today, I will look up more than I look down.”
- “Today, I will ask one person an unusual question.”
- “Today, I will pause for 3 seconds before entering any room.”
- “Today, I will name the shape of things instead of their purpose.”
- “Today, I will imagine I’m visiting this city for the first time.”
You don’t need to explain your rule to anyone. It’s your private lens. A subtle distortion that reveals what daily life usually hides.
What This Practice Builds
Done regularly—even a few times a week—this practice strengthens:
- 🧠 Cognitive flexibility
- 👀 Sensory awareness
- 🎨 Imaginative thinking
- 🌍 Environmental curiosity
- 😌 Present-moment engagement
In short: it helps you live like a child again—alert to detail, open to surprise, capable of finding wonder in the ordinary.
Make It a Game (Optional)
If you want to go deeper, turn the practice into a game:
- Write 30 rules on index cards and pull one each morning.
- Invent a rule based on the first thing you notice after waking up.
- Invite a friend to create rules for each other.
- Keep a “Rule Log” — tracking what each rule revealed or changed.
Over time, you might notice that even without a rule, you start seeing differently. The muscle strengthens. The world reopens.
Conclusion: Welcome the Slightly Strange
You don’t need to take a trip or change your job to see the world anew. Sometimes, all it takes is one tiny tweak to the rules of your attention.
So tomorrow, give yourself a rule. Make it silly. Make it curious. Make it yours.
And let that one rule turn the mundane into a surprise party for your perception.
This article is part of our Curious Practices trail — essays for minds finding new ways to see the familiar differently.
