More Now, Less Later

Getting ready for a vacation this week reminded me of the Minimal Effort(tm) rule: More now, less later. It seems to always happen this way; the week before a trip is busy not only with the preparations for the trip, but also with extra work and chores and complications that don’t happen in a typical week. For some reason, the universe seems to think it is necessary for me to be completely exhausted and burned out in order to fully appreciate my vacation. I assure you, universe, I am quite capable of enjoying my vacation without the extra drama and stress beforehand!

However, there are a lot of cases in life when some extra effort early on can save you considerable effort in the long run. For example, it may take some time, effort, and considerable thought to implement a filing or other organization system, but if you consider how much time, effort, and frustration it will save you from now on, that initial effort is well worth it.

And so it has been for my vacation. A lot of extra effort initially means I am feeling very relaxed and ready for fun, knowing that I accomplished many great things last week and have taken care of anything that may have kept me worrying this week. I wish you many Minimal Effort(tm) weeks like mine — calm and proud of your accomplishments. One way to get there is with extra effort up front.