Adventures in Minimalism: Do One Thing
Does the following scenario ring a bell?
On my day off:
Wake up.
Take a vow of silence before coffee.
Break the vow of silence after coffee.
Do all of my social media.
Look at the list of things I want to accomplish.
Do none, one, or two of those things.
Feel like a failure.
I am over it.
I have given up the idea that I have to accomplish everything on my list every single day. A big list of things to do does not paralyze me like it does some. However, it’s a lot of pressure to put on oneself. Why would any of us want to cause that kind of undue stress?
My new approach to my to-do list?
Do one thing.
This doesn’t sound like the greatest productivity hack, does it? And it certainly doesn’t make us sound very ambitious.
However, I ask myself one simple question: “what is one thing I would like to accomplish today?”
Sometimes the answer is very narrow. “I want to vacuum the living room.” That’s great. If I don’t accomplish anything else today, I will consider the day a success if I get the living room swept.
Sometimes the answer is too broad. “I want to clean my bedroom.” Unless you have Marie Kondo-ed your room already, chances are cleaning your bedroom includes putting clothes away, organizing stacks of accumulated things, thinning out the clothes in your closet, dusting, vacuuming, and so on.
I don’t know about you, but just writing that sentence overwhelms me. It’s easier just to avoid it and get nothing accomplished.
Instead, the secret sauce is to drill it down into one actionable item that can be accomplished. If you say, “ I want to clean my house,” that’s a good goal, albeit too broad. Narrow it down.
Which room? My bedroom.
What is in your bedroom? Clean up the clutter.
What clutter? My clothes.
Your clothes in the dresser or closet? Dresser.
What do you want to do with them? Go through them and toss what I don’t need or want anymore.
Boom. There you have it. If you accomplish that one task today, you can rest easy knowing you have made progress.
The simple practice of doing one thing alleviates the pressure that comes with trying to accomplish too much at one time and paralyzing ourselves to the point that nothing gets done.
I confessed the other day that I think I may be a minimalist. What that means, I do not yet know. What I do know is that I am taking small steps towards minimizing my physical possessions as well as discovering what the philosophies of minimalism mean to a man who shares his house with 7 other people and has a phone full of apps.
This principle of “do one thing” will be one that guides me through this journey. I have a wife, and children, a job, and the bad habit of running long races. My journey towards minimalism is going to take a few minutes.
Instead of pressuring myself to spend every waking free moment thinning out my piles of crap, I am planning to do one thing each day.
The other day, my one thing was to fill one bag with trash.
The day after that, my one thing was to thin out my medicine cabinet.
Yesterday, my one thing was to go through and reduce my t-shirts.
That’s it. I accomplished each of those things and felt as though I had taken a step forward. Nothing more was needed to feel accomplished or to declare the day successful.
Let’s make things harder for ourselves, shall we? Let’s not add any pressure or any undue guilt to our already heavy-laden lives.
Today…what is your one thing?
