Many of us rush through our day, our work, our emails and messages … because of the feeling of being behind everything. That’s fine, but there is a hidden cost that I call “life debt”.
In programming, there’s a concept called “technical debt” … basically, it’s the idea that when you take shortcuts now, you have to do some work to actually do them. Every programmer does it – no one works exactly as they should, but instead do things in short bursts now and come back later to complete the work.
We are doing the same in our life. We accumulate life debt when we rush through the day, leaving little things unfinished, not putting them away, or creating a mess in our haste.
OK! No one is going to slowly do every maintenance or necessary cleaning every minute of the day. It will take too long. But we should acknowledge our debt.
Let’s get into it.
What does life debt look like?
There is an infinite variety … but here are some examples of life loans:
- getting ready: You shower, get dressed, do everything to get ready … but leave things on the bathroom counter or floor in your rush to get out the door. Hate messes to clean up later.
- cooking: You are rushing to cook a meal, measuring spoons, measuring cups, a cutting board and knives, pots and pans … all dirty and all over the kitchen. Along with the mess of spilled food in different places. Instead of cleaning as you go, the mess piles up … and needs to be cleaned up later.
- to eat: You eat your food, and put the dishes in the sink. You don’t have time to clean up now, so you’ll have to clean it up later.
- Checking email: You read an email, don’t want to deal with it now, so you leave it for later. You do this with a dozen emails, leaving them to deal with later.
- Meetings and calls: When you finish a meeting, you rush to the next task … but you don’t have time to type a few notes or add tasks to your task list. You will do it later.
- Leave little things around: When you go through your office or home, you leave things here and there. You may not even notice. But they’ll just sit there, waiting to be put where they belong at some point in the future — later that day, or even months later!
- Papers to deal with: You open some mail, and it’s something you need to deal with but don’t have time. You put it in the pile of other papers that need to be dealt with.
- Open the browser tab: You have dozens of tabs open in your browser, all of which need to be dealt with at some point, but you don’t have time to deal with each one.
You get points – it’s everywhere. Files on your computer desktop, things piling up in your garage, things dealing with a kitchen counter or table.
This is the debt of life. It’s a part of living, but it’s worth thinking about.
How to deal with life debt
So what can we do about all this? It’s important to remember that this is not something to use to feel guilt or shame about or to judge ourselves – it’s a part of life.
The question is: is a good amount of life debt that allows you to move through life at a reasonable pace … and what is so much that it causes problems or excessive stress?
There is no right answer for everyone.
For me, here’s what I’m trying to do to deal with it:
- Go slower, and put more space between things. Well, I’m far from perfect on this. But I find that my life feels a lot less stressful and messy when I put a little more space between meetings and activities and have more time for a little maintenance. I try not to rush into things (although I often do).
- Stop before I go on, and complete things. I have a phrase “complete the moment” that helps me pause and notice what needs to be done before I move on. For example, should I put my clothes away instead of hanging them? Do I have to wash the dishes or clean the counters?
- I will clean it when I have some time. Things that are out of place … I pick them up and put them away If I find a mess and have a minute, I’ll clean it up.
- If I don’t have time, I try to make notes to do it later. Sometimes, I want to take care of something but don’t have time … I try to note it down somewhere so I don’t forget. Ideally, I block it off on my calendar or put it on my to-do list, even if it’s something like “return the robot vacuum for a refund” or “change the air filter.”
- I have a “catch-all” system. Some things need to be cleaned regularly, so I try to find ways to make sure things are cleaned. For me, it’s usually weekly — I have days to clear my to-do list on Instapaper, clear my browser tabs, reorganize my to-do list. I often have daily things — I clean the kitchen, clear my email, and make sure my personal spaces are tidy at the end of each day.
I will say that I am not perfect with any of these – it is not. It’s worth exploring ways that work for each of us, so that we’re not too burdened by the messy debt we’re accumulating.
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This post was Previously published in Zen Habits. Oncopyright Courtesy Leo Babauta.
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Photo credit: iStock.com
