How to do less… Well, first off, let’s stop doing more.
Stop over committing.
Stop trying to prove yourself through the process of taking on more responsibilities.
Stop trying to appease institutions to hire you. Their thirst is never quenched and your energy is a limited resource. Trust me I get it. I am an adjunct art professor teaching five classes at four different universities in one college semester running on Tuesdays and Thursdays between classes with no margin for error or traffic between class start times. Not to mention the fact that I also have a part time college art collection job to boot. I might not have mastered how to do less yet, however I absolutely understand the compulsion to constantly do more.
If it is not about glamorizing a position or job striving that’s the issue, maybe it is people pleasing. Trying to be the resourceful one, or the reliable one is a lost cause. Give up on that too! It is not cute for you to play martyrdom. It is just plainly exhausting for no better outcome. If you want to be nice then give someone a compliment, lend a listening ear or make a small gesture. Leave work out of it.
Maybe you believe you HAVE TO do all this work. That is fair, but what if you didn’t? Would everything fall apart? And if it did, would that be so bad? Are you never allowed a sick or vacation day? If you can take time off, then surely your temporary absence is allowed. So then why not ease up? If it is not allowed to take time off, quit that job immediately! We all get sick, we all need breaks, 600 unread emails or not, we all need the space to let things fall apart in our absence. Also, does it not show your importance if people have to see and carry the full weight of your responsibilities when you are not there to fix everything? Absence makes the heart grow fonder and you my friend could make more space between you and your workload.
We always hear that we should get 8+ hours of sleep. But what if we built the intention around meeting those sleep goals with the same conviction we strive and push ourselves to take on more responsibilities. Would we not excel with greater productivity yields? Committing ourselves with the same level of agency to acquire at least eight hours of sleep each night would inevitably positively impact our productivity rates. So is it productivity we are really after? If we were really obsessed with production, then shouldn't we be obsessed with the resource that fuels our production?
In truth we are fueled by the dangled carrot of capitalism. We want peace of mind, which deceptively we are conditioned to believe that money can buy things that sets our mind at ease. However you would think at this point that we would know better; that this system is wielded to keep us working and hang the illusion of happiness on the horizon. Visible but somehow always out of reach.
Money and work aren't the way towards peace of mind and a soft life, living in feedback with self and others through generative activity and inactivity is the process.
So if it's not rest for productive ends we are after, but the pursuit of a good life, then why do we think we have to work for it?
Why must we earn rest rather than accept the fact that this is the natural state of our bodies? We are a moving body that requires cell regeneration and rest in order to function. So if it is the good life we are after and in fact that is what we are working for, then work is merely a process to move closer to the idiosyncratic development of a desired future.
We might want to co-author our story. Seeking the support and influence of our family and peer group to design the life of our dreams together. So the real work is practicing life in the context of community engagement. Co-creating friendships, supplying support, releasing all the guilt and shame around the things we should be doing and holding space for us to think, be, and rest together. That is the beginning of how to do less.
Forgive me for sounding naïve when I say this, but what I believe we need to flex is our muscles of imagination.
If we just imagine ourselves as choosing the life we have presently, we then have the freedom to shift our paradigm on how we relate to the process of living right now. And if we can reshape how we approach the present, as if we’re already living our dream life, then we’ve given ourselves the agency and the permission to change. With more permission, we can grant ourselves the freedom to do less.
For example, I do not intend to, nor do I wish to teach five classes at four different colleges for the rest of my life. However, I do wish to be a college or professor, which I am. So how might I remind myself that in some ways I chose my circumstances, and that there was some choice in the matter.
Also, if I were to consider the idea of retaining this lifestyle as my chosen life then, I would not have to worry about moving to different states. I would not get lost in my escapist daydreaming. I would simply stay in the present, and tell myself that I have what I want. I have the freedom to choose how to reshape my future. I know I can move forward with a positive perspective, as I chose this, and this is in fact what I want. Following my acceptance of the present circumstances, I then really have the freedom to do anything. I now sit empowered in the place that I find myself and it helps me get more comfortable with what is. If I can accept what is, as it is, and see that I have the power to change my circumstances to fit my evolving desires, then I have everything. I hold the key to my own peacemaking. So it’s not work, or the right job, or the perfect amount of money, it is in essence a shift in perspective where I accept the present circumstances, and I trust myself with future decisions to aid in my best interest.
The next step is to identify what is in your best interest.
I suggest you take the time to reflect on what success looks like for you.
Who’s recognition are you seeking? What audience do you want? Who do you want to serve? What does fulfillment look like for you? How will you know you’re making a difference ? What does fun look like for you? What activities bring you joy? What activities make you uncomfortable and stretch you in directions you otherwise would never face? When you imagine your future, Where are you? What do you see? Who is with you? How would you describe yourself?
Once we address some of these questions, and take thoughtful time reflecting on our current answers, we can start trying to surround ourselves with those people. We can put ourselves in the settings that we wish to exist in, embody the characteristics we want to exude, engage in activities that make us uncomfortable, but stretch our potential, and find the communities of people who enjoy doing the same things that spark our joy.
This is exactly how to do less. To foster imagination is not necessarily a productive act, yet it does good for yourself and the people around you.
Doing less is giving yourself more.
Work has always crafted an endless cycle to tend to, in order to earn something. But to earn things in life really just takes time and time is not something we can speed up or do more with to get us there sooner.
Doing less is about learning how to come home to yourself. How to quiet the noise of the work to be done and intrusive technology that has soon consumed the last 30 years of our lives. Technology is demanding more from us overtime, where we have slowly been beaten down to believe that this is what life looks like now.
Life begins when we permit it to. We can wield our minds to bend reality. I would argue that in attempts to do less, we hope to strike a balance in a culture built on the reverence for only, masculine driven action with no reciprocal feminine energy. The work world will never carve out room for us to rest and breathe. So how do we teach the work world how to meet us where we are? How do we continue to slowly pull back more and more to normalize an appropriate threshold for work?
How to do less in essence is a thirteen step process.
To begin, 1) try not to continue to commit to more. 2) Assess why it is that you even continue to onboard more responsibilities and more tasks. 3) Maybe even engage in talk therapy or self reflective activities to sit with your motivation to keep acquiring more work and accolades. Once we know what we’re trying to prove or disprove about ourselves in the performance of working so hard all the time, what we’re running towards or running from, then we might be able to 4) start slowing down to see where we can do less. When moving slowly, we can see all the things we want to say yes to, and the intuitive urges that pull us in our natural direction. 5) We can see where we want to say yes, and where we feel obligated to say yes, and begin shifting our yes-es. 6) Redirection in our commitments is the difference between expanding our energy and investing in what brings us vitality and being drained chasing a figment of consumerist hope. 7) As we invest in ourselves, we still need to find room to say no. Saying no to the people we love, no to the things we enjoy, no to more work when we can take sick days, or ask for help. 8) We can schedule in time to do no work. To be unavailable to our friends, family, partners and the world at large. To turn off our phones to silence inbox notifications, that way 9) we create a space where the noise of everyone else’s wants and needs are not louder than our own. 10) We create space from the compulsion to scroll on any platform as a pastime that consumes all our time. 11) We reclaim our time. 12) We make mindful choices and remain conscientious of the narratives, stories, and voices we privilege. Our world is curated, whether that be for us, or by us, and allows us the ability and the power to progress as we choose. 13) To do less is a choice. A choice I hope you make. A choice I myself continue to exercise as I have my own narratives and things I’m trying to achieve and escape. But if I can get good with myself, and trust myself that I know who I am and where I’m going, and what I have to offer in the spaces where I exist at the moment, I can go anywhere. I can be anything and I can be that right now. I can be that in silence. I can be that in stillness. I can be that on the couch in my pajamas. I can be that walking outside. I can be that playing with my dog. I can be anything and myself all at one time. I am more than only my job. I exist in a multitude of identities all at one time. I am worthy, brilliant, and capable, no matter where I am and what I am doing. So why not do less?
Po Less Press