I really appreciated this, firstly for your openness about your anecdotal experience and secondly for emphasizing the importance of prioritizing (rather than just ‘withdrawing,’ which can frame sustainable self-care as irreconcilable with EA).
Really, I liked this post a lot and I am glad you posted this. I anticipate coming back to it in the future as a reminder for when I feel myself slipping into the minimizing mindset. It’s also made me more open to shifting away from current habits that lead me towards that—for example, I literally audit all my time, including eating and free time—maybe I should experiment with not doing that?
I’ve just started reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks, which has reminded me of the common therapeutic advice to ‘identify and align with your values,’and I am starting to see prioritization as a helpful theme for perfectionists (aka maximizers)!
Thank you for your kind words! I do find it really useful to have time that is intentionally free from obligation. I do still track my time, but I have an “endorsed chill” category (which I absolutely did not circa 2018).
You might enjoy the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown. It’s written in a standard business-psych tone, so expect lots of inspiring anecdotes of corporate success and bolded subheadings, but/and it has a number of useful strategies for prioritizing. It also frames a bunch of things I was deficient in― e.g. dropping unnecessary commitments, sleeping adequately, accepting trade-offs― as difficult skills that high-achieving people should master, which made cultivating those skills feel more appealing on an ego level.
I really appreciated this, firstly for your openness about your anecdotal experience and secondly for emphasizing the importance of prioritizing (rather than just ‘withdrawing,’ which can frame sustainable self-care as irreconcilable with EA).
Really, I liked this post a lot and I am glad you posted this. I anticipate coming back to it in the future as a reminder for when I feel myself slipping into the minimizing mindset. It’s also made me more open to shifting away from current habits that lead me towards that—for example, I literally audit all my time, including eating and free time—maybe I should experiment with not doing that?
I’ve just started reading Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks, which has reminded me of the common therapeutic advice to ‘identify and align with your values,’ and I am starting to see prioritization as a helpful theme for perfectionists (aka maximizers)!
Thank you for your kind words! I do find it really useful to have time that is intentionally free from obligation. I do still track my time, but I have an “endorsed chill” category (which I absolutely did not circa 2018).
You might enjoy the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown. It’s written in a standard business-psych tone, so expect lots of inspiring anecdotes of corporate success and bolded subheadings, but/and it has a number of useful strategies for prioritizing. It also frames a bunch of things I was deficient in― e.g. dropping unnecessary commitments, sleeping adequately, accepting trade-offs― as difficult skills that high-achieving people should master, which made cultivating those skills feel more appealing on an ego level.