Blogging: The Best Posts Are Shortcuts

Posted on Apr. 09 in Blogging, Learning with no comments

My belief is that most (not all) successful consumer web products do an excellent job of feeding your ego, saving you money, or saving you time. I was taking a look at some of my most popular posts and noticed a clear trend that is in alignment with this thesis; at a high level, the most popular blog posts are shortcuts. They save readers time.

Originally I noticed that many popular posts contained a personal anecdote as part of a non-obvious, overarching insight. Posts fashioned in this way are like cliffnotes to writers’ lives.

But even these posts can be encapsulated under the more ubiquitous theme of shortcuts:

Stories or Perscriptions that Contain a Personal Anecdote – a shortcut to wisdom forged over the seasons of life.

The Best Way How to Do X – A shortcut to determining best practices again, typically forged through experience.

The Best Examples of Y – A blogger curating the best examples of something takes less time than if I were to do it myself = shortcut.

Sprinklings of inspiration, quantified evidence, numeric prescriptions (10 things I wish…), and humor, amongst other things, all enhance a post. But for aspiring bloggers, the foundation is simple – produce content that saves people time.

In general, making information more easily accessible serves the function of saving us time. Whether that be finding a YellowPages listing through a search bar instead of thumbing through the pages or providing transparency to knowledge in a medium less exclusive than conversation like blogging, people appreciate the value created here.

Does anyone else have observations around popular content themes?

Weeklongs 5 | The Economics of Packing Lunch

Posted on Apr. 07 in Personal Development, Weeklongs with no comments

This post is part of My Weeklongs Project.

People always say its cheaper to pack your lunch. I’ve never doubted this, just always been hesitant because of the perceived time it takes to pack a healthy lunch each day.


This week I wanted to put this theory to the test. I wanted to measure how much time it really takes   as well as how much money I’d save. This framework would help me determine whether consistently packing my lunch is a significantly better move.

So last Sunday I went grocery shopping and prepared 5 lunches for the week.  They were all grilled chicken salads with walnuts and balsamic vinegar. The monotony was fine with me because my paleoesque diet is pretty limiting.

Total time to shop and prepare the lunches (grill chicken breasts, chop salad and walnuts):   1hr 15 minutes  total = 15 minutes/day

Cost itemized:

Chicken: $4.07 + $5.55 = $9.62

Single Serving Containers of Mixed Greens: $2.50 + $3.10 + $3.20 + $2.40 + $ 3.10 = $14.30

Two (7oz) Containers of Walnuts: 5.99 + 5.99 = $11.98

*I already had a big thing of balsamic vinegar

Total = $35.90 = $7.18/day

If I wanted to optimize on $$ and ditch the walnuts it’d be $4.78/day. But to be honest it’s my favorite part of the salad and without it the meal would be unsustainably bland.

Using Mint.com I was able to determine eating lunch out during a normal work week cost me $41.86 =  $8.37/day. Projecting these numbers over a really boring year of salads, packing lunch would save me $309.92. From a time standpoint, there’s no significant difference. Though I didn’t measure how long it takes for me to purchase lunch everyday, I can comfortably estimate it’s 10-20 minutes depending on where I go.

Quality of Food, Portion Size, and Other Observations

As bad as I wanted to walk away from this week saying the food was so much better when I prepared it, it really wasn’t. It tasted pretty much the same (if not worse) which could be a function of my spartan meal selection. From a portion standpoint, I actually noticed I had less overall food then when packed my lunch. The difference was there were more walnuts and slightly more chicken when I packed it myself. Those deviants at Flavors really pile on the lettuce!

One thing I realized this week** is how much I like the ritual of leaving my desk to go get lunch. There’s something rejuvenating about a 10-20 minute change of scenery. I actually think I’m more productive when integrating this ritual. On the other hand, packing a really healthy lunch eliminated the opportunity to eat unhealthily. Opting to buy a healthy lunch isn’t really a challenge for me. My willpower is strong at this time in the day so it’s challenging for me to put too much weight on this benefit. However, this could be a huge benefit for someone whose challenged by this decision.

The results of this experiment are certainly unique to my own diet. I’m sure if I packed a yogurt and banana or even a sandwich with cold cuts I might see a greater difference in savings. But what was important to me was to observe the disparity between price and time within the framework my personal diet. And at the end of the day there wasn’t really a significant difference.

I’m really happy I did this experiment. Certainly not because I uncovered a way to save a ton of money, but  because I can move forward with greater confidence that I’m making the right choice. I don’t have to feel guilty when I’m not packing lunch because the compounded difference isn’t significant enough for me to spend time or energy optimizing around.

Moving forward, I may pack lunch a little bit more than I used to, but I’m definitely not worried about making it a habit. It feels great to test something you’ve always thought about and eliminate that uncertainty. It brings peace to your life.  This is a foundation of this project and I look forward to doing this in the coming weeks in other areas where I’ve felt the same way.

* *I ate lunch out with my boss one day so had the packed lunch for dinner

10 Reasons You Should Consider Blogging

Posted on Apr. 05 in Blogging with no comments

I’ve grown to love blogging and it’s served me well, but it wasn’t always this way. I started blogging because someone in tech I respected told me “I needed to have a digital presence.”

This rationale for blogging doesn’t sound all that compelling. Maybe that’s why there’s far more cheerleaders on the sidelines than players on the field.

Here’s 10 reasons I advocate starting a blog in no particular order:

1. Crystallize Your Thoughts

Often the best way to master a skill is to try and teach it to someone else. When it comes to mastering your thoughts, I’ve found attempting to communicate them in a concise, convincing manner to be highly effective. When we write, we dwell on our thoughts. And when we dwell we really think things through, especially when we’re accountable to a public forum. Hence, the process of creating a post results in a better understanding of our thoughts, ideas, and selves.

2. Inbound Networking

By publicly displaying our thoughts we create touch points of connectivity. Opening our mental kimonos gives context for who we are, thus context to begin a dialogue or relationship.

I’ve probably met over 20 people through my blog and most have added value to my life.  In general, I think its highly effective to keep a transparent blog. You attract people who share passions and interests.

3. Inspire and Help Others

We are each others greatest teachers. By  sharing anecdotes, thoughts, and ideas we create assets that can inspire and help others.

In my deepest valleys, it was sometimes a blog post prevented me from camping there. It’s pretty cool to think you have the ability to do the same for someone else.

4. Blogging Scales

There’s 38 networking events a night and 457 people you want to keep in touch with but only 7 days in a week. It’s just physically impossible to be everywhere. It is however possible to let everyone know you’re alive and breathing by blogging. Sharing your thoughts provides a window into what’s going on in your life – it keeps you relevant.

I’ve rekindled old relationships and kept current ones warm through blogging. I believe this is a common experience amongst consistent bloggers.

5. Digital Real Estate and Continuous Returns

A blog is more than just a place to share your thoughts. It’s a piece of real estate you can leverage to compel some form of progress in your life. The larger the audience, the greater chance you have to inspire a positive outcome. Are you hiring? Selling something? Looking for a donor? Trying to get users? An audience and the digital real estate on your blog can help you with all of these things.

Regardless of what I’m doing with my life, the audience has the ability to provide value. There is potential for it to yield continuous returns no matter where my journey make take me. This makes it an excellent investment.

6. A Reference Repository

You know those linked profile descriptions that say things like action oriented, savvy marketer, results driven? In my perfect world, those would all by hyperlinks to blog posts. I want to see what you’ve done and what you’ve learned through your experiences, not empty adjectives. The proof is in the pudding.

A blog full of insights and anecdotes is an excellent library to store these things and pull them off the shelve when necessary. In the follow up email for my SinglePlatform interview I pointed to multiple blog posts that showcased characteristics I believed Kenny Herman, our EVP of BD, was looking for. I’d like to think this helped me land the gig.

 

People kept asking me how to get into BD, so I wrote 3 posts documenting my journey in detail so I could point people there instead of retell the same story repeatedly. Efficiency baby!

7. Real Context for Who You Are

One thing I hate about the startup scene (and most industries) is people love to pigeon-hole you to your product or job. It’s not that I don’t love what I’m working on, it’s that I consider myself so much more than “the founder of X” or “a BD guy at Y.” A blog is a great place to let people know what you’re really all about.

One thing I think is important for prospective job-seekers is to “be googleable.” Profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook provide some context, but not to the degree that blogging offers especially on a personal level.

8. Subtly Draw Attention to Things

Ever wanted someone to know about something, but you didn’t want to tell them yourself? No one likes the “hey look what I did!” guy.

A blog is a medium of communication where you can explicitly state your thoughts without overtly telling someone them. You can create the effect of someone “coincidentally stumbling on something” when you want them to. Maybe you’re applying for a job and you want to indicate your interest in a certain topic without looking overanxious. Maybe you want someone to know you’re grateful for something, but feel awkward just outright telling them. There are subtle ways you can engineer this effect which can ultimately help you arrive at a desired outcome.

9. Practice Executing/Building Something

Consistently putting out interesting content that attracts an audience is execution. There’s a zillion things to read out there and never enough time in the day to sit down and write a solid post. Churning it out week after week to create a destination where people go to learn is great practice executing something at a smaller scale.

10. Feedback = Growth in Perspective

When we share our thoughts we expose ourselves to feedback. Regardless of whether the result is confirmation bias or criticism, we put ourselves in a better position than if we kept things to ourselves. Just recently I posted about why I stopped learning to code – a guest posted a very thoughtful string of comments opposing my view. Though I still maintain my stance, I have a greater sample size of insights to formulate my opinion and am now more open to the prospect of picking it up again.

Valuable insights like this enrich my perspective and are a product of blogging.

 

Blogging has been a catalyst for many relationships, opportunities, and personal growth in my life. Above rests my case why it’s a worthy investment of your time. I’d love to see all the amazing insights and anecdotes that lay dormant in our heads made accessible in an enduring format. I think we’d all benefit because again, we are each others greatest teachers.

 “For the fields are ripe for harvest, but the laborers are few’

The Problem With To-Do Lists

Posted on Apr. 03 in Focus, Personal Development, Productivity with no comments

To Do Lists are great for making you feel productive, but they’re not always an effective way to accomplish your goals or lead your best life…at least the way that I was approaching them.


Until about 2 weeks ago, I always approached to do lists in a linear fashion. I’d prioritize my list by putting the most important and difficult tasks at the top. Few things gave me more satisfaction than drop-kicking tasks off my list one by one until I’d accomplished every single thing I set out to do. Three cheers for feeling productive!

But what I realized is that although this method is very good at helping me to get things done, it doesn’t always lend itself to getting the right things done. The linear methodology’s inherent flaw is that it doesn’t have an allocation framework…

I want to simultaneously be a good human-being, son, brother, friend, and employee amongst other things. All of these aspirations require effort. Yet it’s nearly impossible to make sure I allocate enough energy towards all of these ambitions using a linear To-Do-List. Some days I’d be a super-productive employee, but a crappy friend. I’d get everything done, but neglect crucial areas of my life.  Worst of all, most of the time I wasn’t even cognizant of the imbalance.

In short, linear to do lists are very helpful for focusing on the short term agenda. But they often fail to promote progress towards and keep you accountable to your long term goals.

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks structuring my days (to-do-lists) using Peter Bregman’s annual focus framework and the difference is ridonkulous. The premise is pretty simple: pick 5 areas of your life that you want to focus on for the next year and use them as a framework to structure each day. By making sure that the majority of your efforts are geared towards these 5 areas, you’ll make progress while maintaining balance in the areas of your life that are most important to you.

Practically this looks like the following:

Using A Google Docs Presentation, I created a template with 6 boxes: 5 reflect the areas of my life that are most important to me and the 6th is for “the other 5%.” The other 5% encompasses the odds and ends we encounter on a daily basis like laundry or putting air in your uni-cycle tire.



Each morning, I spend 5 minutes filling in these boxes with all the things I want to accomplish that day. Within each box, I prioritize the tasks using the difficulty/importance measure I used in medieval times (2 weeks ago). The result is a clear picture of not only what I want to accomplish, but where I am spending my time. This visual representation acts as an accountability measure to promote balance within each focus area. If I’m neglecting a certain part of my life I’ve deemed important, it’s glaringly obvious.

I use this daily planner to guide each day. Once I accomplish a task, I emulate the essential task cross off by highlighting the text in blue. At the end of the day, I highlight all of the unfinished tasks in red and move them into tomorrow’s planner. Coloring the text provides  an excellent visual representation of where I’m making progress as well as where I need to pick it up.

Maintaing Consistency:

Sound a bit laborious? Well that’s because it is. But running a hundred miles an hour doesn’t mean much if you’re going to wrong direction. So I’ve given myself permission to spend time doing this every day in order to make sure my labors are focused on what’s important.

I use my trusty ol Alarm Clock Pro to prompt a reminder to do my daily planner at 6am each morning so it’s the first thing I see when I open my computer. It’s much harder to forget when it’s staring at me in the face.

I also use a stopwatch to make sure I give the planning period a full 5 minutes. This helps me avoid the trap of rushing through it as quickly as possible just to say I did it instead of giving this practice the diligence it requires to be effective and meaningful. I’m smiling right now because it makes me think of a long period in my life where I  said prayers at a Usain Bolt pace each night just to say I said a prayer. Over time all practices run the risk of becoming a checkbox. The stopwatch helps me maintain the integrity of the practice.

In sum – Checklists are only as effective as your ability to prioritize and allocate your efforts towards things that are important to you. It may seem a bit simple, but defining and drawing 6 boxes has moved mountains for my focus. I suggest you give it a try as well as pick up Peter’s book 18 minutes which I must credit for this practice.

Why I Stopped Learning To Code

Posted on Mar. 25 in Learning with 1 comment

Frequently I’ve felt my inability to code has hampered my ability to do many things. I’ve had so many ideas I’d love to test. IF ONLY I COULD CODE.

                             

Fueled by frustration, 8 months ago I started teach myself PHP. I wanted to be able to rapidly prototype ideas and have a better grasp of what was going on underneath the hood of my project Sfter.

Bogged down by other obligations, I stopped after 2 months. Albeit short, my quest was not a total failure. I left with a better understanding of technology and high level development concepts. Still, I was bummed I never reached the level I wanted to.

Fast forward to my thoughts today:

I still am looking to start a company enabled by technology someday, but I don’t think I’ll ever try to teach myself to code again. I feel pretty comfortable with that stance. Here’s why:

Payoff

I like spending my time doing things that excite or energize me. Having my head in code was about as far from excitement as I’ve ever been. All that’s required to become a novice developer is diligence and repetition. But as a realist who values their time more than anything else, I know I’m never going to spend hundreds of hours doing something I dislike unless the payoff is incredibly high. Sup bankers.

The ability to build a crappy prototype is not a high enough payoff for me. But why stop developing your skills there? Simple: the process of getting good at coding does not energize or excite me. I’ve tried it and know I’d want to relieve myself from this duty as fast as I could within any company I’m involved in.

Once I offloaded my technical duties, my rudimentary skills would definitely make the product management process less opaque. But assuming things became more sophisticated, I’d probably return to a similar dependent state.

In essence, learning to code would be a means to an initial end and a skill I’d realistically call upon infrequently. This payoff is not enough for me to justify the time investment.

Starting A Company vs. Building A Successful Company

The ability to code definitely makes it easier to get a product out there. But I don’t think it will ever give me significantly greater chances of building a successful company.

In my mind the most valuable asset to any company is the team. Thus, attracting the best team gives you the greatest odds of building a successful company.

During the next few years of my professional development I could approach attracting the best counterpart/team to eventually start a company in two ways:

  1. Spend time learning how to code on the side in order to be able to build prototype(s). Then assuming there was traction, leverage this to attract a counterpart(s) or the resources to hire them.
  2. Spend my time focusing on becoming extremely good at the skill I enjoy doing most (business development/sales). The strategy would to get so good at something that people with complementary skillsets want to work with you on whatever your next project is.

I think a much more fulfilling and effective approach is the latter. Here’s why:

  1. The best want to work with the best. If the goal is to attract the best, you better make sure you are very good at something. I recognize I will only become excellent at something if I enjoy the process because when you love something you persist even when you don’t succeed.
  2. Ideas and the prototypes that manifest them are apt to change. I never want this to be the core foundation of why someone works with me. I’d much rather have a bond grounded in confidence in each other’s ability to perform at a high levels independent of the scenario.
  3. Everyone and their mom can get a crappy prototype out with some cash or time. This is far less unique and attractive than a highly valuable skillset.
  4. Life is short. I don’t want to spend inordinate amounts of time doing things I don’t enjoy. Yes, even at the expense of my career. If I did, I’d probably be working in finance right now.

Playing To Your Strengths

There was a lot of hoopla at the beginning of the year about more people learning to code. I think it’s a great initiative that will serve the technology community very well.

Though I think one thing many people in the community need to realize is we’re not all wired to be developers. We’ve each been given natural abilities and proclivities which allow us to excel at different things. Although I think everyone can be a “hacker” at some level, I don’t think everyone can be an excellent developer.

Have you ever seen American Idol at the beginning of a season? All of these people try to become professional singers despite the fact that they have not been given any natural talent. As viewers, we say to ourselves, “Why would this person ever try to be a professional singer. They have no business doing that.” Well…does the same rationale not apply in other professional arenas?

          

Everyone can sing just like everyone can code. But achieving excellence is something much less people are able to do – again, due to natural abilities and proclivities.

The mere fact that I didn’t enjoy coding signals to me that I’m not playing to my strengths. I know I can’t win here. So I’ve given myself permission to forego spending time on it despite the acknowledgement it’d serve me well.

We can do anything with our lives, but we can’t do everything. And as much as coding is an awesome skill I’d love to have, for the reasons above I just don’t think its the best place for me to allocate my time right now. Maybe that will change, you never know.

I’d love to hear some other perspectives on this. If you have thoughts about it, I’d love to hear it in the comments sections.

Weeklong 3 | Eating Vegetarian

Posted on Mar. 24 in Personal Development, Weeklongs with no comments

This is post is part of my Weeklongs Project.

For the past week I ate a vegetarian diet.

Typically I stick to a paleo/4 hr body hybrid regimen, so the departure from meat wasn’t easy. Pretty much every day looked like the following:

Breakfast: 3 eggs
Lunch/Dinner: Mixed greens salad with veggies and tofu or hummus with a whole wheat pita.

I didn’t notice any significant difference in how I felt. Even if I had, I’m not sure if the sample size of 5 days is long enough to substantiate any conclusions.

The most interesting observation surrounded my discipline allocation. During my normal regimen, I have no problem stiff-arming unhealthy garnishes: cheese, fatty dressing, crackers, those awesome little chips you can put in salads. Saying no every single time is pretty easy at this point.

But the past week this was much more difficult. A bowl of mixed greens with walnuts and balsamic vinegar just wasn’t cutting it. So I’d fold and tell them not to hold the feta cheese. I’d justify this move by the fact that I was still abstaining from something I wanted: meat.

This got me thinking about the existence of a discipline reservoir and the existence of discipline allocation habits. Do we only have so much discipline we can exercise in a day? Around certain activities? If this is the case, are these thresholds our habits create? Should we be strategic with our discipline as we are with our energy? My intuition says yes on all fronts, but I think a deeper dive is in order at some point.

The art of discipline is extremely interesting to me; it’s the foundation of high performance in all arenas of my life. My health, effectiveness at work, and moral compass are all enhanced and defined by discipline. Thus I’m excited to think more about my observations from this past week as I continue to this project.

For now, I’m going back to my normal eating regimen. If I need to pick where I’m going to fold, I’ll take grilled chicken and turkey over garnishes every time. That cheese was really good though.

The Humble Brag Economy

Posted on Mar. 22 in Psychology, Startups, Tech with no comments

As Will Dean so insightfully highlighted two evenings ago, the newest luxury goods are experiences.

The dominant conditions surrounding society have made it so. Generally we have less free time which assigns a higher value to anything devote our time to. We also have incrementally more channels to document and share our experiences (facebook, twitter, foursquare, etc).

The humbling result: many people, including myself, actively seek out experiences that provide “humble brag” opportunities.

                                   

Immediate examples that come to mind from my life in my quest to become…the most interesting man in the world:

  • Krav Maga Classes – Will I realistically use any of this? No, but what guy doesn’t want to say he’s taken Israeli self defense classes?
  • Running of the Bulls – Let’s risk our lives so we can tell people we did something cool!
  • Tough Mudder – I’m actually paying to endure torture. But that picture of running through a fire pit is going to be so worth it once its on FB!

Gravitation towards exclusivity has always existed; the proliferation of social media has just caused the flames to burn brighter than ever before.

        

You know that guy who only checks in when he’s in really cool places? Humble brag

That girl who only has FB albums that document exotic trips? Humble brag

That picture of the beer I brewed which I tweeted last night? Humble brag

More so than highlighting this dynamic to make others self-conscious or feel toolish, I’m hoping to expose the eminent market opportunities available around creating and exposing cool experiences. Sidetour? Yeah, there’s some humble brag in their fuel tank. Tough mudder? There’s more WOM around this event than the presidential election. All those urban email newsletters like Thrillist? Arms dealers for HBs.

People like to tell others when they do cool stuff. Sometimes overtly, other times implicitly through pictures, check-ins, and context clues. Entire markets for products and services are being created before our eyes by piggybacking on these conditions…and a few clever entrepreneurs are winning.

Weeklong 2 | Diligence Toward Friendships

Posted on Mar. 19 in Weeklongs with no comments

This is post is part of my Weeklongs Project.

Last week I hung out with a non-tech friend every single day of the week. It was great.

One thing about the tech scene is that there is no off switch to value creation. There’s no shortage of work to be done, networking events to go to, classes to attend, drinks to grab, and blog posts to write. As a hard-charger hellbent on progress, I’ve prioritized these things since I got into the scene.

I’ve always enjoyed great friendships outside of my industry. But in my self-imposed sprint to get ahead, I can’t say I’ve approached maintaining many of these relationships with the same diligence I have with my “contacts.”

Over the past year I’ve usually spent the weeknights/mornings with people that were in my industry outside of a special lady friend. Weekends I usually spend with non-tech friends. I’ve met so many great friends during the week and it’s definitely been fruitful for building a network. Yet this in balance has not been so great for maintaining close bonds with many people I care about that border the small group of people I hang out with most weekends.

Last week was a first step towards changing that. It was so awesome to get insight into all the amazing things different people are doing and to recall awesome memories. It revitalized relationships that had gone stale and fueled new insights in the way that only outside perspective often can.

We all have personal CRM challenges, but it’s important to be cognizant of those that exist outside our professional sphere of influence. Last week was a great reminder of this.

This week: Giving the whole vegetarian thing a try. Though I don’t plan on eliminating meat from my diet at all, I’m interested to see if it changes how I feel and it should be a good test of discipline.

Sales: Get to A Resolution

Posted on Mar. 14 in Business Development with no comments

I heard our VP of Sales Adam Liebman say something a few weeks ago, that I think is very important for all Sales/BD people to understand. Sometimes it’s just as important to get to a no than a yes. Why? It’s in your time’s best interest. Every moment you spend on a deal that’s never going to happen, is time you could be working on one that will. Thus, the faster you determine that someone isn’t buying, the more you can focus on people that are. The idea is to get to a resolution as fast a possible without jeopardizing a positive outcome. It’s an art that can only be learned through time and experience and is more appropriate for pure sales/productized partnerships.

What is a productized partnership? It’s one that requires little customization. Your offering is not apt to change; either they’re buying or they’re not. An API integration can be an example of this.

The velocity and degree to which you should push for a resolution depends on a host of things. Just to name a few:

  • How productized vs. customized the sale/partnership/deal is
  • How many alternative targets exist. If there’s a million people you could sell to, don’t waste your time on ones that won’t close.
  • How much one target will move the needle. Big opportunity = mas tiempo.

So why don’t we push for a resolution when we should?

         

In the sales/deal funnel, ambiguity can be a very comfortable position. It always feels better to know you still have a chance to close than getting out right rejected. But you need to be honest with yourself about why this ambiguity exists. Is it because you’re being patient, respectful, or waiting for a strategic event? Or is it because you’re preserving your ego and/or afraid to stray from your comfort zone. If you’re in the latter camp, you’re not taking all the ground you could be. This behavior can resemble the following:

  • You give up a target just because they didn’t respond to your first cold email.
  • You decide not to try any form of communication other than email when you don’t get a response; you convince yourself it’s unprofessional. Pick up the phone scaredy cat.
  • You continually find reasons to wait to contact someone that aren’t grounded in strategic patience (or some other appropriate reason).

Getting to a resolution can be an uncomfortable process because you’re opening yourself up to the prospect of rejection. Once you embrace that rejection, when prompted by things out of your control, is actually a good thing, it’s easier to push for a resolution. And when appropriate, the faster you get to a resolution the better. You can shift your focus to games you can win.

Again, sometimes it’s just as important to get to a no than a yes.

Weeklong 1 | Getting Rid of Things

Posted on Mar. 11 in Weeklongs with 1 comment

I did my first Weeklong last week. Everyday Monday through Friday I picked 5 things to throw out or give away. My PHD in multiplication equates that to 35 things. 

       

Note* I only make my bed for photos I post on my blog


My motivation for this Weeklong was the following:

  • I hate clutter and I live in a small apartment
  • Graham Hill’s Ted Talk: Less Stuff, More Happiness 
  • Interest in cultivating a greater understanding of my personal happiness

Observations:

The first 10 things were easy to get rid of: books I’ve already read and crappy shirts from startup events were low-hanging fruit. But when I started getting past item #20, it became more difficult to part with things. 

“But what if I want to wear that shirt” – “There might be a theme party where that could be useful” – “I might want to watch that movie again” – “I highlighted in that book; I want to save those notes!”

These were the internal skirmishes I encountered.

When I was brutally honest with myself, all of these fabricated battles were total crap. I rotate 2 pairs of jeans and wear the same 10 shirts. I never go through my old book highlights. That movie actually sucked and I hate re-watching movies that are less than awesome.

It got me thinking more broadly about “things” and why we accumulate them. I realized that I don’t love things, but the experiences they enable. I like clothes because I like going somewhere and feeling like I look good. I just bought a squash racket so I can play Squash. I have books because I love the experience of getting lost and learning. 

The reason that I was holding onto these things was fear that I couldn’t replicate an experience these items facilitated. Generally, my fear was unwarranted. I only need about ⅓ of all the things I have (or less) to replicate the experiences/feelings that are important to me. Everything else just weighs me down in some form or another.

Thirty five things later, I agree with Graham Hill’s maxim less = more:

  • I have more space
  • I have less desire to go blow money on “things” (more money!)
  • I am less stressed because I have less extraneous clutter (more happiness)
  • I feel good about giving stuff away

I’m going to keep getting rid of stuff.