Why Less is More

Dial down on productivity for a balanced, happier life

Photo by Your Lifestyle Business on Unsplash

As a culture, we’ve hit our mid-September stride.

Lazy summer days are a swiftly fading memory. Everyone has a to-do list a mile long. Social media channels and news outlets are awash with advice on how to hit the ground running. A veritable Mount Everest of paperwork is de rigueur, a red tape expressway to shake off the cobwebs and get back at it.

I’m a doer. I’m great with lists and plans. I love a packed schedule. An avalanche of tips land in my inbox with alarming alacrity. How to successfully micromanage the hours of the day, ramp up productivity, step more steps. I’ve signed up for every ounce of it.

And yet.

Is it all just a tad unrealistic for one human being to contemplate? I mean, come ON. My twenty-three-year-old is doing less than I am.

If, like me, you’re feeling *slightly* overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

The Do-Less List

I absolutely loved

Emma Gannon

‘anti to-do’ list this week. It’s a hilarious and refreshing roundup of what she didn’t accomplish last year.

Emma’s a heavy hitter on Substack. It’s a nice reminder that doing (far) less can sometimes be the absolute best way to spend your time.

I’ve had to remind myself lately that my most inspired ideas came when I wasn’t at my desk striving to be productive. Indeed, my biggest ‘aha!’ moments came when I was: having a nap, walking my dogs, swimming in a lake, meditating, cooking, gardening, fill-in-the-blank-here.

Anything but running through my laundry list of life at warp speed, bent on accomplishing a herculean and self-made list of tasks that must get done.

Whether or not you ‘do’ desks, they’re an analogy for what we define as productivity. An office, a desk, your work of choice, these are necessary components of bringing inspiration to fruition, a means to an end. Work, in the right setting and in the right quantity, can be fulfilling and powerful. The larger issue is how much we pile on our plate - work, personal, and otherwise - and consider normal.

The reality is that we can’t do it all.

Perhaps the shrine of productivity was always a mirage. We assume others can grind out and maximize the hours in a day, but how many people can you name who truly do this successfully?

Is there another way? Of course there is.

Make Time for Doing Nothing

Photo by Nagara Oyodo on Unsplash

Much as busy-ness remains a badge of honour in North America, a subtle resistance is forming.

• Meditation is becoming normalized in the boardroom and in the classroom.

• Breathwork is popping up at your local gym.

• Mindfulness, the act of being present, rather than planning future escapades, outings, and projects, is moving from the fringes, on its way to becoming a respected concept.

• There’s even a Master Class on managing one’s energy rather than time.

In theory, inroads are being made, though societal pushback remains a force to be reckoned with.

The reality is that a little advance planning is in order. Counterintuitive though it may be to schedule your downtime, it makes these do-nothing interludes much more likely (and guilt free).

It is just as valuable to your bottom line to unapologetically carve out time to nap, daydream, and smell the flowers. Strive for every day to include a tech-free opportunity to simply BE.

We’re human beings, not human doings, after all. Life is beautiful, messy, unpredictable, and most of all, it’s a gift.

Yes, there is a time to roll up our sleeves and get ‘er done. A time to zoom through our lists, busy as a bee. The fall was made for this.

But let’s take a collective breath for a moment. Let’s strive for balance rather than perfection. 

The emerging science and ageless wisdom agree: less is often so much more.

“And so it is that most people have no idea how beautiful the world is and how much magnificence is revealed in the tiniest things, in some flower, in a stone, in tree bark, or in a birch leaf. 

The grown-ups, going about their business and worries, and tormenting themselves with all kinds of details, gradually lose the perspective for these riches that children soon notice and love with their whole heart. And yet the greatest beauty would be achieved if everyone remained in this regard always like children, and if people did not lose the capacity for taking pleasure as intensely in a birch leaf or a peacock’s feather or the wing of a hooded crow as in a mighty mountain or a splendid palace. 

What is small is not small, just as that which is great is not great. A great and eternal beauty passes through the whole world, and it is distributed fairly over that which is small and that which is large; for in such important and essential matters, no injustice is to be found on earth.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash