The Art of Doing Less

I used to be one of those people with an endless to-do list — it would grow faster than I could cross things off.

And it consumed everything: my conversations, my thoughts, my sense of peace.
“I’d love to, but I have to…”
“I’m just so busy.”
“I have so much to do.”

It was like a mantra of exhaustion.

I would fill my calendar to the brim, believing that the more I scheduled, the more accomplished I’d feel.
But most days, I barely made it through half.

And that unfinished list?
It became a mirror for my self-worth.
Each unchecked box whispered: You’re not doing enough.

That cycle — of overcommitting, under-resting, and constantly striving — eventually led me straight into burnout, over and over again.

It took me years (and many rock-bottoms) to recognize the truth:
My worth was never meant to be measured by my productivity.

I was clinging to old titles — the overachiever — without noticing how they were quietly depleting my joy, my energy, my creativity.

Maybe you know that feeling too — the one where your list never ends, where you’re constantly juggling what you want to do with what you have to do, where your own rest and nourishment always seem to come last.

Learning to say no felt radical at first.
But it’s one of the most sacred acts of self-respect we can practice.

Here’s what helped me begin to shift:

1. Rate your list: Urgent / Good-to-Have / Maybe / Meh.

2. Cross off your Meh’s completely.

3. Reschedule your Maybe’s.

4. Handle the Urgents and let that be enough.

5. Rate each task on how much you want to do it vs. how much you feel you should.

6. Release the “shoulds.”

7. Practice saying no. (After all, it’s NOvember — the perfect month to begin.)

Because you can’t do everything.
And you were never meant to.

You are meant to be.

To rest, to breathe, to notice.
To let your nervous system settle into the sacred rhythm of enoughness.

So this Sunday, I invite you to slow down.
Cross something off your list — not because it’s done, but because you’re done chasing it.

Make space for presence.
That’s where your real power lives.