Do You Wish You Had More Time In Your Day? Try This.
Like many others, I came into 2024 bursting with energy. It was finally time to get some proper habits into place. Three days (minimum) per week in the gym: check. Read one chapter each evening of that book that had done nothing but collect dust on my nightstand: check. Reconnect with at least one old friend per week: check. But as January became February, I noticed I was struggling. Three days in the gym per week seemed impossible; I had more than once fallen asleep with the book on my chest; the friend I hadn’t talked to for five months had now become the friend I hadn't talked to for six months. Something wasn’t working. But then I noticed a pattern. All of my goals for the new year was adding things to my already very busy “to-do list,” a list I was already struggling to get through each week well before 2023 had become 2024. Rather than adding new things to do, however beneficial they might be, perhaps I, in fact, would be better served by looking to remove certain things from my life.
Most of us have “to-do lists.” Some of us even make them very elaborate, from choosing the right colors and fonts to ensuring it is structured and formatted in a meticulous manner. Yet how many of us carefully cultivate a “not to-do list,” things we ought to stop doing? Like a car with the handbrake partially in operation, you don’t try to go faster by hitting the accelerator harder—you simply release the brake. Perhaps there was something similar going on in my life; rather than hitting the accelerator harder, I simply needed to release the brake. I needed a “NOT to-do list.”
Did I really need to watch another episode—or two!—of Sex and the City for the umpteenth time before bed, thereby forgoing a desperately needed hour of sleep? Or was the habit of opening my phone “just to check my email” immediately upon waking up, finding myself thirty minutes later scrolling through Instagram, really conducive to starting the day with a sense of purpose, energy and clarity?
By identifying habits that were outright harmful or simply didn’t serve me anymore, and committing to cease doing them, I instantly saw progress, allowing me to do the things I did want to do more effectively and with more energy. The morning working session became a breeze, as I had not already exhausted my mind through the excessive dopamine release that was Instagram and Tiktok; once I was getting another crucial hour of sleep every night, hitting the gym after work became far easier to master, and the book on my nightstand was no longer a mere dust collector. My friend and I had finally been able to reconnect to gossip about everything that was going on in our respective lives after too many months apart.
Now, I still have my “to-do list” which helps me get through the week and stay focused. But next to it, I now also have my “NOT to-do list,” and I have come to realize that sometimes what we don’t do can be more powerful than what we do do. Even if, yes, an episode of Sex and the City is indeed what you need after a long and busy day. This one is still on both lists.
Thank you for reading.
