Limit the big.
No. 107: "A river is easiest to cross at its source."
The first principle in Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, is “Do fewer things.” Music to my ears. And also, easier said than done.
I look at my To-Do list and say to myself, “Okay, my dear, do fewer things.” But most of these things are urgent or important or both. 😳 Doing fewer things today only means doing more things tomorrow. And the last thing my mental sanity needs is to encourage backlog.
But then Newport gives us the key to implementing this principle. Of course, doing fewer things when we’re focusing on our To-Do list — “the raging river downstream” — won’t work.
Instead, Newport instructs (he’s a university professor, after all) that we start further upstream, closer to the source of it all.
"A river is easiest to cross at its source." — Publius Syrus
Limit The Big.
Newport suggests we start by looking at our missions, he calls them. Missions are the organizing activities that direct our work and personal lives.1 As an example, Newport says his work-related missions at the time he wrote the book were academic research, writing, and teaching.
Our missions create projects that then result in To-Dos. By limiting the big missions, we consequently decrease the projects and the To-Dos. Makes sense, right?
I think another way to think of missions is to consider the roles that we play. How many roles do you play in your life? Each one of those roles creates demands of time, mental energy, and physical effort. Can you decrease or redesign your roles?
These are some of the roles that I currently play: sister, aunt, researcher, writer, podcaster, podcast producer, financial analyst, friend, and business owner.2
While I don’t want to remove any of my essential roles, like being a sister or an aunt, I can apply Newport’s suggestions by looking into my roles as a researcher, writer, podcaster, and business owner. I can redesign these roles so that they are more supportive of each other and not siloed activities. Right now, they are not organized as such and can, from time to time, create work as if I have four separate missions instead of one overarching one.
My action item here is to revisit each of these self-designed roles and review my approach to each one. How can I further align these roles so that they are in service of each other, if not always, then almost always? 3
One thing I must remind myself is that my overall objective here isn’t to free up time so that I can take on more roles or missions. Rather, it’s to get deeper into the roles I’ve chosen in my life and ultimately slow down time—my current obsession.
Bottom Line:
Focusing on our missions and/or roles in life is the place to start. The goal isn’t necessarily to reduce the roles — some are non-negotiable and absolutely integral to our lives. But perhaps that actually IS the insight we need to see first: Which missions are integral to our lives, and which ones can we re-design?
Everything flows downstream, demanding more, adding more, taking up more. Being able to do fewer things means thinking about the source first, looking at where it all stems from.
How organized or disorganized are your current missions or roles? Do they result in a raging river downstream?
💭 muse
“We can move forward without racing.” — Claudia Brose
🍹 reader shout-out
A huge shout-out to WAGO reader, Yvonne Marchese, age agitator, author, and founder of The Age Agitators Club. This community brings together women committed to busting through their Midlife Funk to inspire, support, share our stories, and reimagine what’s possible as we grow older. Learn more about The Age Agitators Club.
💬 last word
Since I’ve fallen into the “slowing down time” rabbit hole, I’ve added a couple of podcasts to my listening queue: Hurry Slowly by Jocelyn K. Glei and Deep Questions by Cal Newport.
On the list of books to read after Newport’s Slow Productivity are Doing Nothing by Celeste Headlee and Mind Management, Not Time Management by David Kadavy.
Don’t you just love rabbit holes?
Here’s to an easeful week ahead.
Cool Beans,
Lou Blaser
Newport’s book is focused on the working life, so I extended this to include our personal lives. I think it works just as well.
I’ve excluded other roles that do not have consistent demands on my time.
I acknowledge that I’m in a position to redesign many of my roles and that this isn’t an easy option for many. If I were to reflect back to the period in my life when I didn't have as much flexibility, I believe I would have benefitted from setting personal boundaries and actually honoring them.
Whenever I feel my to-do list is unmanageable or when I beat myself up for doing this instead of that (more frequently the case), I return to my source and ask, "Does this ____ help you create the life you want?"
Someone else came up with that guidance but it serves me well, especially when I've frittered away a few hours on the porch, reading a book, or listening to the sounds of a too brief summer evening instead of hovering over my laptop to churn out pages. 🤔❤️
I adore Cal Newport. He makes everything look so easy, and he's such an inspiration. I definitely do less multitasking because of him.
But the challenge is, of course, everyone has their own unique lives, timetable and circumstances. For me, this is like exercise, not one size fits all, and ultimately you have to figure out what works best for you. Because I teach, there are busier moments than others and I've learned to accept this. That's the name of the game, actually, just going with the flow -- and yes, sometimes, you find things to drop from your list!