Sometimes less is more
2024-06-07
Last week I talked about taking a break from tracking stuff during my holiday and now that I'm back I want to reflect a bit on my experience as well as present my plan for the foreseeable future. Just like the last one, this is a highly personal topic and you might have different feelings about the things I talk about, which is absolutely fine of course, so please only stick around in case you're interested in my personal takes...
As planned I skipped all tracking except my pure diary during the holiday and to be honest it was an amazing experience. Sure, I can't fully seperate whether my enjoyment of this amazing trip to Zadar was due to the beautiful location, the nice people around and/or the new distance from my everday life and habits. Having just finished my final exams as well as critical organization for the prom and its funding before the trip started surely also had a positive contribution to my experience, since such a successful outcome at all of them was a huge relief, but I also feel like the sharp break from tracking had its fair share in the broader picture.
Being on the one hand forced to take this break due to the lack of some tools and just wanting to on the other hand, allowed me to really relax and live in the moment, which is something I quite struggle with in everyday life. Especially my habits of calory and meticulous time tracking felt quite restricting lately without providing much valuable insight and not following them really was somewhat of a liberation for me. Other aspects like sport and weight tracking aren't that time consuming or don't have to be maintained as strictly to generate meaningful data, so I didn't find such a relief from stopping them as well, but in order to identify the relevant aspects that are due for a change you sometimes have to experiment in the broader game.
Overall, this time with basically as few responsibilities and just things to deal with in general as possible showed me the value of enjoying the present as well as things you have instead of always just planning the future and seeking for more. Another aspect I really didn't expect is the huge potential of not planning things to meticulously or at all for that matter, which is something I somewhat talked about in the past, but really fail to follow honestly. Just jumping into a new experience or project might feel uncomfortable at first, but you will most likely still find your way as well as succeed and won't procrastinate as long pretending to yourself that you still need to "plan", which you aren't doing anyways. Leaving my phone in the apartment we rented for some of the trips we took was a huge help too in that regard as it disconnected me from the internet with its arguably really helpful, but also sometimes just unnecessary resources and prevented me from focussing on taking pictures for friends and family, which in return allowed me to capture the present moment much more vibrantly with my mind.
Sometimes less really is more and that will be my guideline for tracking stuff in the future. Unless it provides a much greater return of information than time invested (like reflecting on your day in a diary) or doesn't require much effort at all to maintain (like weighing yourself in the morning), I just won't bother with it. Specifically, this means that I permanently stopped tracking calories (and also deleted the app for it from my phone) as well as cleaned my calendar to the bare minimum. Instead of representing every minute of my day and planning daily habits/activities inside it, it now just functions like any good analog calender would. It contains only events/appointments with others that I have to fulfil (like meetings, visits to the doctor etc.) and some carefully picked irregular habits that also need to be maintained (my weekly review, time for these articles...), which allows me to finally use the really helpful agenda view again that wasn't usuable before due to the plethora of "events" I had.
Furthermore, I noticed how much I like the Getting Things Done methodology I'm using for my personal stuff - especially the overview as well as freedom it provides, which is something I'll emphasize in the future. There still is value in externalizing many things (especially tasks), but most of them really don't need to be planned more rigorously unless they are of high priority. Instead just block time to work on meaningful projects in general and allow yourself the freedom to work through tasks as you desire. You'll find that this is even more productive, since you just pick what appeals to you in the moment and don't have to waste time with unnecessary planning.
With that said, feel free to share your experiences in the comments down below and have a lovely day...