My not-to-do list

My children love digging holes in the sand on beach. Then they wait for the waves to come. The wave recedes and their hole is now filled with sea water. It really seems to thrill them.

Good music needs there to be enough pauses. A good painting should have enough ‘white’ space. To appreciate a good meal, one needs some ‘palette cleansers’ in between courses. It helps to maximise the next burst of taste.

Empty space.

We hardly allow there to be enough empty space in our lives. We watch shows, we listen to music, we read books, we go for a workout, we work some extra hours, we meet some friends. Any little space gets quickly filled up like an empty bucket dropped into a pool of water.

When there is no space, how can anything new come into my life? When I am always rushing from here to there, how can I do justice to the things I really want to do? When my head is already filled with fixed ideas of how everything should be done, how can I learn anything new? When I relate with people based only on my past emotions, how can we discover newer depths in our relationship?

I am on a mission to create some empty space in my life. I am making a ‘Not-to-do list’. Here is what I have put in it so far. Or rather, here is what I am deleting from my life:

1. No meetings until 2pm
2. No food intake after 9pm
3. No phone for 3 hours of deep work everyday
4. No screen (TV, work, phone) after 11pm
5. No working at a stretch for more than 50 minutes
6. No negative thoughts for more than 3 minutes
7. No judgements of people and situations
8. No taking one any new projects without a 30 day ‘gestation’ period
9. No immediate reactions when I am irritated
10. No defensiveness and justification when someone gives me critical feedback

My dear friend, I would love to your ideas from you on how to create more empty space in my life...