I have an issue with taking on too much. Over-involving myself, doing anything people ask for my help with, taking on more positions and attending more organizations. Filling my calendar until I have meetings and clubs overlapping, until I am leaving one event early to make it to a different event, until sleep is something I put off doing like it’s a luxury. I want to do everything.

I found a book called “Essentialism: The Disciplines Pursuit of Less.” It had a graphic that really stuck with me.

The first sphere is me exactly. The second sphere is what I want to be. So, that’s what I’m going to do. Over the rest of this year, I am going to attempt to cut nonessential things out of my life. And I will write about it here. This will be a maybe monthly thing, depending on how fast I can actually cut things out. I will start by taking an account of how much good I am doing with each thing on my weekly schedule compared with how much time I spend on it. I will also look at how important it is and who else is involved in it to take over any job I give up.

One thing that I am involved in that is relatively low on my internal list of importance is Kappa Pi, an honorary art fraternity. It is one of those groups that “looks good on a resume.” I show up to meetings, try to participate in activities, try to fit it into a schedule that doesn’t have space for it. I end up cutting things too close, skipping lunch to make a meeting, having to leave early for the next thing, or showing up late or ending up not being able to make it at all.

This organization is more trouble than it is giving me any benefit. And in the end, I am not really giving enough to it to get anything out of it anyway. I have to cancel on events, can’t make the activities they have, and am not benefitting the group in any way. When I can take a step back and look at it objectively, it needs to go.

For this one, I simply am sending an email explaining that I am not able to give the organization the attention it deserves and that it is in everyone’s best interest for me to not give the false pretense of being able to get involved when I will most usually not be able to. It is really hard to get rid of something, even something I have not felt particularly excited about going to and have not really been able to show up to as much as I should. It is letting go of the idea that I can do everything. As the book I am reading points out, though, the important part is changing that mindset from trying to do everything to doing what is important with excellence.