In running and cycling there\u2019s a concept called \u201cjunk miles\u201d: activity that you\u2019re doing without proper direction or intention. You\u2019re not going hard enough to improve your fitness, or far enough to improve your endurance. You\u2019re stuck in the middle: not engaged enough to benefit, but not relaxing and getting the benefit of rest either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often make the same mistake in other aspects of our lives, but don\u2019t notice because we don\u2019t have a word for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJunk entertainment\u201d is something that keeps you occupied, but you don\u2019t love<\/em> it and won\u2019t remember it a few hours later. The TV show that\u2019s just good enough to keep you from changing the channel or summoning the energy to get off the sofa. The third auto-playing YouTube video you\u2019ve sat through, drifting ever further from what you went there to watch in the first place. The book that\u2019s just OK, but you feel a strange sense of duty to plough through to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJunk work\u201d is time you spend in a work environment doing something that isn\u2019t not<\/em> work, but isn\u2019t achieving anything meaningful either. Re-organising your files, scrolling through LinkedIn or fiddling with your website could all count as junk work. In an office you might call it \u201cpresenteeism\u201d, but self-employed people even do it when no-one else is watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJunk relationships\u201d might be those friendships you\u2019ve had for a long time, and continue out of obligation. If you find yourself wishing for a last-minute excuse good enough to cancel and just stay at home, you might be in a junk relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s even \u201cjunk parenting\u201d, where you\u2019re interacting with your kid but neither of you are getting much out of it. Maybe she\u2019s happily engrossed in a game she’s invented, and you feel you \u201cshould\u201d get involved and teach something or take an active interest \u2013 even though you\u2019d rather take the few minutes to boil the kettle or read a few pages of a book. Or, heaven forbid, get dressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These types of junk have exactly the same negative effect as junk miles: they contribute to your overall fatigue and eventual burnout, without generating the benefits that more focused or intentional activity would give you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The solution is simple: \u201cdo less\u201d. Shut the laptop at 3pm if you\u2019ve done everything you\u2019re usefully going to accomplish for the day. Bail on the boring book. Halve your social engagements without diminishing your enjoyment. Leave your child happily in her own world and spend some time in yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But \u201csimple\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201ceasy\u201d, and we all have one enormous barrier: guilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guilt is what keeps me at my laptop until at least 5pm every day, even if I don\u2019t have much to do or I\u2019m not in the mood \u2013 and even though nobody would know if I\u2019d stopped an hour ago, and they wouldn\u2019t care even if they did know. Guilt is what keeps us all non-stop flat-out busy all the time, even if only 30% of our activity generates meaningful results or produces real enjoyment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know how to banish this guilt and do less, but it\u2019s worth trying. We all need to put our lives on a strict training programme: work hard when we\u2019re working, be all-in when we\u2019re playing, and cut out all the junk that keeps us unproductive and overwhelmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What we need isn’t “more time”, but “less junk”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n