Sunday, April 29, 2007

Doing What I Should Be Doing

But innovation comes . . . from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much.
-- Steve Jobs, quoted in Business Week

It seems lots of folks lately are talking about the need to do less, and to focus on what really matters. This isn't a new concept, but they do have some new slants on the subject. Maybe one of these will resonate with you.

Leo at zen habits writes about the need to edit your life.

Scott H. Young writes about empty calories: "Empty calories aren’t just in our food, they are in our lives. Empty calories are all those tasks that make you feel productive even though you aren’t contributing any value."

And Brian Oberkitch at Like It Matters writes about trimming the attention sails, saying "You are what you pay attention to."

All of which reminds me of my favorite quote from Richard Stine, "It is simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing. Otherwise we would be somewhere else, doing something else."

2 comments:

Blue Yonder said...

I found these reflections valuable. I always struggle to find the right time balance between enthusiastically pursuing all my different passions and giving myself enough downtime for rest, reflection, and relaxation.

Jeri Dansky said...

Blue Yonder,

I think MANY of us face the same struggle - and that we have to continually pay attention to what's going on in our lives and keep tweaking things, to ensure we stay in some sort of balance.

Jeri