To Get More Out of Life, Choose to Do Less

By Melissa Chu (https://medium.com/@melissachu)

"Let’s say that you want to improve as a singer. To improve this skill, you take vocal lessons, study music theory, and practice singing daily at home. Outside these activities, you exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet. Although the latter activities aren’t directly singing-related, they improve your singing because they keep your body and vocal chords in good shape. All these activities combined help you become a better singer.

But let’s say that you’re also interested in carpentry. You read some books on the topic and spend much of your free time on building furniture at home. On top of singing and carpentry, you decide to pick up a new language. So you dedicate some of your time towards learning from a tutor and practicing at home. These activities are largely irrelevant and take time away from singing, so your progress in singing becomes much slower.

This is the Dilution Effect. The Dilution Effect happens when we set out to achieve a specific outcome, but the addition of unnecessary elements detracts away from the desired outcome. Dilution takes your focus away from where it needs to be.

We only have a finite amount of energy. When we only have one thing to focus on, we can devote all our energy towards it. But when more activities call for our attention, our energy becomes divided, taking away what’s most important.

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If you want to succeed, then focus on one area first. Once you’ve found success in that, then you can move on to conquer another area. When you simplify, you’ll find that doing less can be the best way to achieve the most."

I highly recommend You read the full article here:

https://medium.com/the-mission/to-get-more-out-of-life-choose-to-do-less-f0404bf253ef