April 30-day Challenge: Less But Better

Over-commitment feels like a death by a thousand cuts. While it can be challenging to watch TODOs pile up and urgent issues burn, I'm focusing on doing less but better this month.

Last month's challenge on grief was powerful. The book The Wild Edge of Sorrow was surprising in one key regard. I went into each daily reading thinking the topic would be about death. However, the most profound sections were about the grief we experience about lost aspects of ourselves. I found myself re-reading passages many times to internalize the lessons. While I'm still not finished with the book, the new insights I've gained inspire me to keep up with these 30-day challenges.

This month, I turn towards the idea of completion.

I am ambitious. This sounds like a positive quality, but it's not when taken to the extreme. I often find myself trying to juggle dozens of things at once, and unfortunately, I don't manage to complete many of them satisfactorily.

The source of this symptom is the adage: if everything is important, nothing is important. To take on too many things is consciously or subconsciously admitting that everything has equal weight. But that's not true. Quality time with my kid or landing a deal at work is far more important than responding to a random Tweet by a random stranger.

It's not that I don't understand the value of less but better. It's just that (in the heat of the moment when life is crazy) it is easy to capitulate and add one more thing to the plate.

This month, I'm trying to do less but better by focusing on completion. I want to see my top 1-3 things move forward each day, and I have to be willing to sacrifice the next 10-20 wants and wishes. I know this will be a challenging habit for me to break, but I know it will be worth it.

Just yesterday at work, I spent a full three hours getting a document ready for our next hire. That feels like an absurd amount of time in a go-go-go startup. However, if I rushed through this process, I would hamstring the new hire's ability to contribute to the team right out of the gate.

So here's to the next challenge. I look forward to reporting on my progress and results next month.