Is This Necessary?

Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?” – Marcus Arelius

I’m having “one of those days”  – you know the kind — lack of focus, too much to do, disorganized piles of papers on my desk. Ugh! The more I try to catch up, the more I seem to fall behind.

Taking a break from getting nothing done seemed in order so I took a few minutes to read some inspiring quotes and found the one at the top of this blog. Yes! That’s exactly what I needed.

Is this necessary? Such a simple question, yet so powerful. What can I eliminate? Taking it a step further, what can I streamline? How can I use my time more efficiently?

Here’s what I decided to eliminate:

• all the email subscriptions to stuff I never have time to read anyway. Less clutter in my inbox. Less guilt for not taking the time to read every single email. Time to focus on the emails that I really want to read.

• all the scraps of paper with a note to myself, a “to-do” item, or a website I want to check. In less than 15 minutes, everything important went onto one half sheet of paper and the rest went in the trash. Whew! I feel better already.

On to streamlining. . .that will take a bit more thought. Look for that in another post.

In the meantime, ask yourself “Is this necessary?” the next time you’re overwhelmed. Take a deep breath and eliminate a couple of things. You really will feel more tranquil and who knows? Maybe you’ll even have time to get to the really important things on your list.

© ReLaunch Your Life 2010