“A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped”
– Henri Frederic Amiel
If you could only work 2 hours a week, what tasks and projects would you focus on? Which would you let go of?
If your bookshelves could only hold 5 books, which 5 would you choose to read over and over?
If you could only spend time with 10 people, the people that bring you most joy and energy, who would they be?
So many of us complain about not having time. About being busy.
Yet, we all get the same number of hours in our days. Some of us have just lost sight of what matters most to us by letting too much other stuff in. Or more simply, we have not aligned our lives to our truest priorities.
This leads us to overwhelm. Chasing too many priorities is a fast track to nowhere. We struggle. We fail. In a prison, of our own making.
How do we fix this cycle?
One way is to leverage self-imposed constraints, like the ones above. Constraints simplify choice. No more decision fatigue. The signal cuts right through the noise.
Constraints are powerful. They can be used in positive and healthy ways to help us zero in on what matters most. The rest, we may need to find a way to let go of.
We can simplify where others complicate. We can subtract where many add. Finding our way back to a baseline that works for us. Emptying our cup, so we are free to fill it again. Recharging. Resetting. Re-engaging.