THE SPEED OF LESS
HOW CUTTING BACK FUELS IMPACT
4-Minute Read
“I quit something every Thursday.” This wasn’t a quip; it was a profound strategy we received from the great Bob Goff when he spoke to our gathering of leaders. He went on to explain that many of us have a habit of saying yes to new commitments without first making room for them in our lives, or that we don’t pursue what truly matters to us because we’ve already allocated our time to all the other things we think we “should” do. At a certain point, Bob decided he would remedy this for himself by proactively quitting something every week.
And the result? A life with less stress and more clarity, energy and impact. In today’s issue of The Grip, we’re illuminating this paradox of slowing down to speed up; how pruning back produces more. Discover how to utilize this paradox to create more than enough of what really matters to you.
Let’s dive in!
ruthlessly eliminate too much
Is your current schedule unworkable? One of the biggest reasons for this is you’re not clear on your true commitments. Every minute spent on activities misaligned with your actual commitments will drain you of precious resources.
When you’re not clear on your commitments, you end up saying “yes” too often and “no” not nearly enough. You fill your calendar with obligations that don’t actually matter to you and expend tons of energy going nowhere. It’s exhausting.
Getting clear on your commitments and turning them into your schedule will powerfully upgrade the quality of your life.
Most people can rightly handle five to seven genuine commitments at any given time; beyond that our capacity to deliver diminishes. There’s no magic set of commitments, but here are some examples to spark ideas for identifying your own commitments (in no particular order):
Personal Relationships
Career & Professional Development
Optimized Mental & Physical Wellbeing
Spiritual Vitality & Maturity
Financial Independence
Community Contribution
Creative Expression & Exploration
Business Growth
Service & Impact
Networking & Connecting
Identify up to five or seven commitments to give your full attention right now, and decide how much time you will allot to each one daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Include every activity you will engage in to fulfill each commitment. That’s your new schedule. That’s it.
Everything else? Delegate it, outsource it, file it away for a later date, or cut it out completely. If it’s not a commitment right now, it’s too much; get it off your calendar.
When I took on the commitment to write my book, Intentional, I scaled back the number of clients I coached that year, as well as certain responsibilities at home, to make room for the creative work I would need to do. Rather than it being a year of stress and overwhelm, it was a year of energy, productivity, and peace.
By making room for a new commitment, I created the experience of always having enough time. Being intentional with how you organize commitments is a lever for life mastery; it flips the script from “life happening to you” to “you co-creating with life.”
Focus your time on fulfilling genuine commitments and your momentum, satisfaction and impact will increase like never before.
“I quit something every Thursday.”
architect your schedule
Life shows up in the space created for it…and if there is no space available, it will create its own with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. The #1 Reason people are constantly “behind” is they schedule every minute of every day and leave no room in their calendar for the unexpected. To have enough time to fulfill commitments, you must schedule MORE THAN ENOUGH time to fulfill commitments.
Do yourself a favor and get to know your new best friend: MARGIN. Margin is space built into your calendar between activities—at work AND home. Notice I’m not saying, “Give yourself more time to complete each task.” No, margin is the breathing room between tasks; it’s intentional nothingness. This could be small 10 or 15-minute breaks in between meetings or larger blocks of hours surrounding deep creative work or projects.
Utilize margin by scheduling the first half of each day and week heavier (less margin) than the last half (more margin). For example, schedule your morning with one hour of margin (divided or whole) and the afternoon with two hours of margin. Likewise schedule Monday-Wednesday with three hours of margin each day and Thursday-Friday with four hours of margin each day.
Then when a task takes longer than the time you allocated for it or something unexpected happens, you already have availability later in your day or week to accommodate it.
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This next statement may surprise you, but it’s practiced by the most effective leaders in the world: aim to make 25%-50% of your calendar MARGIN. If you do the work to get clear on your five to seven commitments and ruthlessly eliminate anything that isn’t a true commitment from your schedule, you’ll have no problem making at least 25% of your calendar margin.
Margin empowers you to more easily keep your word with yourself and others; it’s the secret to eliminating the constant rescheduling, showing up late, or falling behind when the unexpected strikes. Notice how simple and painless it is to slide a task from the morning to the afternoon, or from Monday to Thursday when there is dedicated space available for it.
Your life will not magically take on a sustainable pace for you to create margin in your schedule. It’s only by creating margin in your schedule that your life will take on a sustainable pace.
With margin, you become master of your schedule, rather than your schedule mastering you.
Remember, no and yes go together. Saying no to non-essentials is saying yes to your commitments—so don’t ever apologize for it.
A schedule of genuine commitments, with more than enough time allotted to fulfill them, will have you excited to get out of bed every morning. And we need more of you living like that every day.
Keep creating!
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team