Your Edge Is Subtraction

Before you add another step, look at the steps you already have.

You may not need to get better at doing all of this.

Some of it may need to go.

More can look impressive

Another meeting. Another check-in. Another report with the same numbers in a different order.

At home, another habit. Another reminder. Another thing you agreed to because it would only take a minute.

Now you need a system to keep track of all the little things that would only take a minute.

Busy enough to need help staying busy.

More steps are not always progress. More obligations are not always ambition.

Take one thing out

If two people can settle the question in a message, the meeting can go.

If nobody uses the report, ask whether it needs to exist.

If the reminder is for another adult’s responsibility, maybe they can set their own.

Keep what does something useful. Remove what you keep doing because you keep doing it.

You don’t need to replace every canceled obligation with a better one. An empty half hour is allowed to stay empty.

The Antiwhelm Move

Look at something you do repeatedly.

What would actually happen if you stopped?

Check the real consequence. If it doesn’t need to stay, delete it, cancel it, or let it be.

You don’t have to organize what no longer exists.

ANTIWHELM