My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.

Don’t you just hate those “easier said than done” phrases?

I’m a workhorse. I’m dedicated and diligent. I will stop at nothing. I can get more done. But I’d rather have less to do. It sounds so simple. But it’s so hard.

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.”
― Francine Jay, Miss Minimalist: Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter, and Simplify

I’ve heard that creative and entrepreneurial minds just keep churning out ideas. They just keep coming, one after the other, sometimes even more than one at a time. We don’t have a problem with content or creation or ideas. We have a problem with execution or finishing any of those fantastic ideas.

I have 4 or 5 projects I’m working on right now. Well, that’s off the top of my head. Maybe there are more I’m forgetting temporarily. I have some hierarchy and a rough idea of which projects are more important, but I have reasons to do them all and I truly want to do them all for different reasons. But which one would just be that one thing? Is there truly just a one thing? Do I really need just one thing? Can’t I have four things?

I don’t have clutter of stuff. I have a laptop. On there, I’m organized. The clutter is in my mind, but not just anywhere in my mind. Most of my mind is quite clear. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s clutter. I think it’s happily busy working away on several things. But which one is going to break free from the pack? It’s like the Tour de France and at some point, a group is going to break from the rest of the pack and just leave them behind and they often never catch up. And that’s OK. Those will be the winners.

Even in that lead pack there will be a winner. Sometimes there are even “sacrifices” where teammates will do the hard work and let the glory rider rest and when the time comes for the finish, the rested king is allowed to put it into high gear and blow past everyone else who brought him this far on their shoulders.

“Less to do” is breaking out of the pack. “Get more done” is working hard, but stuck back in the main pack.

Phew! “Break away” and “sacrifice” and “glory.” Sounds like a battle is brewing. Or at least a good race. Up for the ride? I am.

Turns out Francine has a book or two as well: “The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life.“