The Year of Letting GO! – Friederike Fabritius

One of my goals this year is to slow down and focus on what really matters.

I’m letting go of excess clutter in all aspects of my life: my physical space, my online spaces, and even my social ones. Our brains are constantly overwhelmed with information overload and decision fatigue, and I am no longer just accepting that for myself – I am going to change it.

Here’s how I’m going to do it, and how you can too.

1️. Embrace the Pareto Principle. 20% of your efforts lead to 80% of your results. So instead of trying to do it all, identify the things in your life that truly matter and focus your time and energy on those. If the ROI on your time and energy isn’t there – cut it out.
2. Double down on your strengths. Evaluate what you are good at and what is going well, and stop running after sunk costs. Take a step back and look at the situation critically and ask yourself: is this going the way that I want, or is it wasting my valuable time and resources? Focus on what is working for you, and leave the rest in the dust.
3. Embrace a rebel spirit. Decluttering your life in this way will sometimes go against convention, and that’s OK. You might feel like you have to do certain things because other people expect you to – but you don’t. Not everything that other people want or expect you to do “needs” to be done, and you also don’t need to do things in the way that other people expect either. Sometimes it’s just a waste to try to keep everyone happy if it comes at a price for yourself. So focus on what you really want to do, and work their expectations around that.

What can you do less of this year to make space for what is truly important?

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