I recently read Effortless, by Greg McKeown. I encountered this book (like most books in my life) at the library, and was drawn to the idea of making the most important things in my life easier. If you straightened up at that and thought, "but the most important things are supposed to be hard," I can tell you I had the same thought, which meant I just had to read it to learn more.
McKeown's thesis is that while we can whittle down what we do to the most important things, it's harder to change how we do those things and further improve our lives. A lot of other books in the genre suggest ways to make the most important things easier, automatic even, and books like Atomic Habits pair well with Effortless.
The most useful part of this book, and what I'll share with you here, is the idea of setting upper and lower bounds for performing essential tasks on a schedule. McKeown introduces the topic with an utterly shocking example: the contrast in performance between two rivals attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole. Amundsen's party made it first and returned home safely; Scott's party perished, exhausted and demoralized. One difference? Amundsen did not allow his party to travel more than 15 miles on a given day, and insisted they travel even in bad weather. Scott pushed his team to the brink in good weather, and hunkered down in bad weather.
Amundsen set a lower bound for his team: we will travel every day regardless of the weather -- and an upper bound: we will not travel more than 15 miles per day regardless of the weather. This brings new, life-or-death meaning to "slow and steady wins the race."
So how does this relate to our regular -- work at home, get the kids to school, lower my cholesterol, read all the emails, stay in touch with family -- lives?
The point is to stop before you burn out. The point is to stop while it's still fun. The point is to turn it into a habit, so that you don't have to work so hard to get it done. The point is to make it effortless.
Here's a few examples from my own life*.
I have started new exercise routines at least two dozen times in my life. Sometimes I've started out hard. A new heart-pumping aerobics class for an hour a day, or if I'm going easy on myself, an hour of yoga (but still hard). Within 48 hours, my body is wrecked, I'm exhausted, and I can't do it on the third day. But about four months ago, I decided I would put on good shoes and go for a walk at 3 pm*. I walked for half an hour or so, and came home feeling proud of myself. I did it the next day, and the next, and the next, until I got bored walking one day and jogged a little. Until the weather was bad one day and I did gentle yoga in the living room instead of walking. Until I left the house at 3 one day and my partner called me 2 hours later, asking where I was and was I okay - yep, I said, just still out walking. I set a lower bound for my performance (put on shoes and go for a walk at 3 pm) and an upper bound (come home right before it wouldn't be fun anymore) and I have established a do-able, regular exercise routine that serves as my new baseline for healthy habits.
I applied this to my email life too. Have I shared with you how much I hate email? Really, everything about computers; perhaps I was born in the wrong century, but, necessities of life, so email. I set some limits on myself. I don't read emails as they appear throughout the day. I read them all at once at the end of each day or tomorrow morning. But I do skim the list of senders, watching for messages from my supervisor or anything I am expecting that I know I need to take action on right away. Everything else, I don't even skim until it's Time for Email tomorrow or later this evening. I guess I would say my lower bound is "eye-ball everything to make sure I'm not missing anything critical from my boss" and my upper bound is "read all the emails only once per day." I arranged this all about two months ago, and I can't even believe how much it's changed my life.
So what lower and upper bounds will you set? Note how low the lower bounds can be ("put shoes on" or "see who sent the email") and see how simple the upper bounds can be ("until it's not fun anymore" or "only once per day"). Maybe you want to stretch more, so you set a timer and simply stand up and wiggle when the timer goes off - that's your lower bound. Your upper bound might be stretching on the floor for 15 minutes with your now very happy dog. Maybe you have a writing goal, so you write for just 5 minutes a day (your lower bound), and up to 2000 words (your upper bound). When you get to 2000 words, if you still have energy and ideas, take a few notes for tomorrow and set it aside. The point is to stop before you burn out. The point is to stop while it's still fun. The point is to turn it into a habit, so that you don't have to work so hard to get it done. The point is to make it effortless.
I'd love to hear how you can make lower and upper bounds work for you, and I'd love to hear what you thought of Greg McKeown's Effortless. Drop me a line on the Contact page. If you're struggling with how to utilize lower and upper bounds or you want help deciding where to start, schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me.
* I accomplished both these things while I was a client in an engagement with a talented coach. Her thoughtful questions and gentle guidance helped me come up with and maintain these very important changes in my life. Thanks Coach!
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