Write the number of tasks done on a paper end of each day. Try beating it as often as you can.

– Idea from Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie suggested in one of his books to beat your daily tasks done as often as you can. It is intended to make one compete with themselves. To push yourself on a lazy day or a phase of postponement habit. The visual trigger of looking at the number drives you to do something about it. The very act of measuring is sometimes a trigger to do more. To keep pushing ourselves and to keep beating that number. But all said and done, how many of us need to do this? Do we really need more stimulation than we already have?

Take, for example, your morning routine. Most of us wake up feeling anxious about all the things that need to be done in the day. To-dos and calendars can help with the direction but not do the job for you. We are surrounded by more stimulation each day. The TV, the radio, the mobile phone, the laptop, the tablet and sometimes simply your friends. They are all telling you how fast the world is moving while you struggle to keep up. Have you tried this? Have you bought this? Do you earn this much? Do you make better money than the other people with your experience? Have you reached this milestone yet? Have you reached the milestone well enough? It’s non-stop.

You cannot please the society, the media or even yourself most of the time. I say we cut the competition. With others and oneself. What if instead of beating the number, we stick to showing up? Doing the most important things well. Meaningful deep work. The count of tasks shouldn’t matter, the value you get out of it should. Will this approach help you show more results in terms of quantity? Maybe not. The quality cannot escape the eye of the right people. If it still goes unnoticed, let it. As long as this approach is making you calmer and more effective in your results, do it.

Let’s beat the rat race I say. Why not beat the constant stimulation? Let’s beat the never-ending competition and switch to minimal living. I am getting out of the race everybody is so eager to run. You can too. Find your lane and drive down with the sensibility of a monk. A monk that concentrates on each breath coming in and going out. The focus is not only on breathing. It is on breathing deep and well. Feeling the air going into the lungs and coming out with all the toxicity. He sometimes counts his breath but does not beat it. It is to make it deeper. More healing and less rushing.

If this idea resonates with your thoughts, do leave a comment below.