There is so much good advice online.
There’s advice about books to read and when to schedule your reading time…
Advice about morning routines, end-of-day routines, and nighttime routines…
Suggestions about how often to take breaks and what to do during them…
Recommendations for all the things you can do to move better, sleep better, eat better…
I’ve even given you some of that advice over the years.
But here’s the thing. You can only have so many habits… so many parts of your daily routine… so many “should-dos.” If you’re always adding more, eventually you’ll feel overextended.
So my advice to you today is about subtracting things.
It’s a good idea to periodically review all the things you do — especially the things you do as a matter of habit — and ask yourself if those things are still serving you.
If they are, great!
If they’re not, or if you feel like you have too much time committed to habits — even positive habits — then it might be time to let a few things go.
But subtracting things is tough… at least it is for me. So here are some thoughts to help you take that step.
Measure the Trade-Offs
If there’s a habit or routine you think you might be ready to let go off, but you find yourself hesitating, review the trade-offs of both decisions.
For example, let’s say you built a habit of spending 15 minutes in the morning doing a stretching routine. And then, sometime after that habit and routine were well in place, you started doing yoga three times a week at a local studio. Now you’re considering dropping your morning stretching routine.
What do you gain and what do you lose from that decision?
You’d gain 15 extra minutes every morning to try something else or just to take your mornings at a slower pace. You might lose some structure in your mornings, but you wouldn’t lose much in terms of flexibility because of your yoga at the studio.
You might decide that’s a decent trade off — more time in exchange for a little less structure.
Once you see the trade-offs clearly, it’s often easier to let things go.
Acknowledge What You Gained
Sometimes all it takes to let go of a habit is pausing for a moment and feeling grateful for how it served you when it was working for you.
I’m not sure why this works, but acknowledging what you gained from the time you put into a habit can make it easier to move on.
Revisit Your Priorities
Often when something has stopped working for you, it’s because your priorities have changed.
And recognizing you’ve had a shift in your priorities can help you let go of a habit that’s not serving you anymore. In fact, it can make it much, much easier to drop that habit because it becomes so clear why you no longer need it.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, too busy, or like your routines are a bit stale, it might be time to prune away those old habits to make room for something new… even if that something new is simply more free time to just breathe.
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That’s all for now. Have a great weekend!
