Do less, better…

In this age of information abundance and overload, we need to figure out what to leave out so we can concentrate on what’s really important to us. We’re so focused on doing more stuff that we lose sight of what’s really important.

We could place some constraints on ourselves. It may seem contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations can mean freedom. We could paint a painting with only one color. We could read a short story rather than a book.

We could put only the three most important items on our to-do list for today. Most of what we do is not really essential. When we can eliminate some of it, we’ll have more peace.

We could acknowledge the fact that we have limited attention space available and focus on figuring out the two or three most important tasks of our day and devote our undivided attention to accomplishing them! Less is often more.

I find it fascinating that though Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, his editor bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words. And that Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children’s books of all time!

Maybe we could try putting Pareto’s 80/20 principle to use in our life. (The one that says 80% of our results, of our satisfaction, comes from 20% of what’s on our lists) A worthy goal might be to devote our energy to the 20% on our list that is likely to give us the highest return, the most peace, the most joy.

Worth a try?

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