When Less Really Is More

How we simultaneously underestimate and overestimate ourselves, and how to avoid both

Mike Sturm
Forge
Published in
3 min readJan 23, 2022

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Is there any more overused cliché than “less is more”?

I guess that’s kind of ironic, given the spirit of the saying. But I digress.

There’s an application for the aphorism that I don’t think gets enough attention. It has to do with achieving goals and managing tasks. When it comes to estimating the goals you can achieve in a given time, we tend to underestimate ourselves. But we shouldn’t.

However, when it comes to filling up our to-do lists for the day, we tend to overestimate what we can get done. But once again, we shouldn’t.

Both of these errors in estimation yield the same result: we get frustrated. Our motivation dwindles. We fall short of what we know is our potential.

And as I pointed out at the outset, the fix is simple: remember that less is more.

Goals: More is More

If you are serious about your goals, you need to dedicate a separate block of time for thinking about them. And during that time, resist the urge to think small. That is, think only about the what, and not about the how.

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Mike Sturm
Forge
Writer for

Creator: https://TheTodaySystem.com — A simpler personal productivity system. Writing about productivity, self-improvement, business, and life.