Tip #15: Sometimes we should try to do less, not more.

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Happy New Year!

One of the best parts of working at a university is that we get a fresh start every 16 weeks or so. But in January, we join the rest of the world in celebrating a new year, a clean state, a do-over. Many of us spend the first few days planning how to make the most of this opportunity with resolutions for the things we’re going to do differently this time around.

 I don’t mean to bring you down, but nearly 80% of us will quit those resolutions within 6 weeks. It’s hard to stick to big change and idealistic goals, and it’s so easy to settle back into our normal routines.

So maybe we should try to do less, not more. 

 An anti-resolution is a “not-to-do” list. What can you stop doing now that will help you do more of something else? What can you let go that will help you do your job better? Evaluate your professional and personal commitments. Are there any that don’t require your expertise? Could you reduce your involvement, or better yet, could you suggest someone else who could do it better? Can you stop apologizing when you haven’t done anything wrong? Can you stop minimizing your contributions to projects or downplaying your ideas in meetings? Can you move your phone to another room overnight so you aren’t tempted to check social media during bouts of insomnia?

To help you stick to your anti-resolution, create a core message for yourself. According to Chip and Dan Heath (Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive, 2006), a core message is a simple idea that you can use to make decisions. They provide Southwest Airlines as an example: The core message is “We are the low cost airline.” Decisions about everything from whether to offer free drink service to which markets to enter are based on this core message.

My 2017 resolution was the core message “Say yes!” It was inspired by a TedTalk by Shonda Rhimes, and saying yes to invitations resulted in a lot of opportunities, activities, and friendships that I didn’t have in 2016. But saying yes all year also left me exhausted by the time December rolled around. So this year’s core message, “Play to my strengths,” is also an anti-resolution of sorts. There are going to be times when I have to say no to some wonderful people or great projects, but that’s going to leave more time to do the projects that really need my input.

So this week, to kick off the new year and the new semester, I challenge you to make some anti-resolutions.