Less time, less space, more decisions

Today I removed a huge bookshelf from my room and replaced it with a much smaller one. Then, all my books couldn’t fit in. I had a problem and it turns out the solution can be wildly applicable in other areas of our lives.

Without a plenty of space, I had to decide what books to keep and what books to put somewhere else. I removed the ones I didn’t care about, put a few horizontally, and the problem was solved. All it took was a few decisions.

As another example, recently I had to create a lesson plan in the space of four hours. I suspect it would take me five or six, normally, but I had four and so four it took.

Sometimes the thing we need more of isn’t time or space, but decisions. Decisions about what’s the best we can do now and what’s not. What we need to do and what we don’t. That’s why deadlines work. But we don’t have to wait for one of those. Every day has a deadline at the end of it, so what if we could embrace not enough time and space as an everyday habit?

To start, ask yourself: Could less space help you now? Could less time help you now?