12 years ago, I wrote a post titled “Short. But Meaningful.” I remember writing it ahead of the holiday season. I was reflecting on a collection of over-scheduled breaks when I returned to meet family/friends and realized I needed to change my approach to such holidays.
Twelve years in, I still remember that post ahead of family + friends time (kid-time has eaten up most of what used to be friends-time in reality) when we visit India. The main insight from that post was to prioritize my own energy first. A simple insight that is surprisingly hard to live by.
I’ve since extended that insight on breaks like this. I take a couple of minutes to write out my top 3 priorities. This tends to be along the lines of –
(1) Time with self to decompress, reflect, and catch up on the backlog
(2) Time with family
(3) Enjoy special treats (could be a great conversation, a food treat, or some other experience)
It is amazing just how much of a difference this simple priority list makes to my happiness. I try to make time on most days to do all three of these.
It also helps me set expectations with myself on how much I will, for example, get done. There’s a bunch of admin that has piled up over the past months. This way, I carve out a chunk of time most mornings to keep whittling that list down.
Then it is onto family time. And so on.
The simplest equation for happiness is Reality/Expectations. This list helps me calibrate my expectations and allows reality to consistently outdo them.
