Ever read E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful? It was one of the earliest proponents of APPROPRIATE technology.

I think the “Smaller, smaller” mantra really hits the nail on the head. It’s all about taking the grand goals or projects in our lives and making them more “digestable” It’s interesting to see how the “chunking” principle sorta comes into play on this as well.

Make it easy to do and you will do it easily. Make it hard to do and you won’t.

Do it right. No faster. No slower.

I know it sounds clichéd, but I prefer:

Be like water.

and

Simplify.

I also created this one:

If what you want cannot be achieved, alter what it is you want.

Adaptability is key. As is simplification.

“Do less with less”

There’s a better way, find it. — attributed to Thomas Edison

My wife’s old professor used to say “Think. Plan. Do. Finish. Publish.” over and over.

He said the world would be much better if more than a few people did more than three of the five.

Outside academia, Publish has equivalents that turn your private project into something that impacts the rest of the world. (“Ship it”, etc.)

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It does have to be finished.

“Do things not in spite of them being difficult, but because they’re difficult.”

Hokey, sure. But it’s the shift in attitude that’s important. Don’t do difficult things to get them out of the way, do them because doing them is rewarding.