The 1 Simple Mental Model I use When I Want To Get Things Done
~ Complex ideas are not automatically better than simple ones.
When I think about losing weight, I know it’s pretty simple.
Eat less calories than you burn. And you won’t get fat.
But… Is it easy?
F*ck no! It’s impossible to fight:
All the junk food available 24/7 on Uber Eats.
Your brain asking for chocolate when it’s 5 feet away in the kitchen
The comfy couch, the warm blanket, and Netflix when it’s 2°C (35.6°F) outside, raining, and miserable.
Still… Even though I’m having a hard time cutting down body fat, I know it’s simple. I just need to pay attention to what I eat.
But for a long time I was in denial.
I was sure there was a silver bullet somewhere. A piece of information to unlock magical results.
Then I realized something. I was thinking like 99% of people: that simple things are stupid and don’t deserve our attention.
And if you look around you, it’s easy to spot people doing that. They struggle to make complex work. They get stuck because they refuse to follow the simple path. It’s like a child trying to put the star shape into the rectangle hole.
“Losing weight? Can’t be that easy!”
They think there’s something wrong with their metabolism. Or maybe they have a rare case of storing more fat than the average person. Or their macro proportions are not “optimal” for their body type.
So instead of eating less junk food, they go on a virtual hunt for the magical fix. The microwave solution that’ll help them lose fat.
They waste months (like I did). They read about microbiology, the latest fad diet, or turmeric.
I get it… It feels good to consume information.
You think “Finally some progress”
But you know it’s bullsh*t.
An obsession with optimization to avoid doing the real work – to eat healthier. And if they still can’t lose weight, they use it as a crutch. An excuse to avoid (again) the real work.
And this goes beyond dieting, like:
Investing. All you need to do is buy good companies and hold. But people prefer to day-trade like it’s a casino, or play with options and lose all their money.
Losing weight. All you need to do is eat healthier. But people prefer to read about the latest fad diet, or starve, so they can have a quick win.
Maintaining friendships. All you need to do is reach out to friends. But people prefer to see friends as an audience and only update their friends via social media.
This is why I have a golden rule in life: do the simple things, and don’t make the simple harder.
Do what’s simple. And don’t complicate it
I used to think dieting, losing weight, and getting more muscle had to be complex.
“It can’t be just eating loads of protein and lifting weights.”
So instead of following this simple recipe of A + B = Z, I thought A + B + C + D + E + … + P = Z..
My life was unnecessarily harder. I turned something simple to follow into a nightmare to manage.
Now, after a few months doing the basics, I’ve realized 2 things:
Simple is not useless. It’s amazing. It’s easier to follow. To adjust. To keep going.
Complex ideas are not automatically better than simple ones. That’s because complex ideas need constant effort to maintain. So they’re not an option for long-term change (only if you have superhuman willpower like David Goggins)
The best way to deal with complexity is to keep things as simple as possible.
– Sonke Ahrens, How To Take Smart Notes*
Going back to dieting, when I try to lose body fat, I don’t focus on:
Macro-nutrients
Timing my meals
The optimal amount of turmeric to eat
All I focus on are 2 things:
On eating a lot of f*cking vegetables and avoiding high-caloric processed food
On making sure I’m going to the gym
That’s it. I don’t want to have to hire a project manager just to stick to a diet and try to be healthy.
I want to do the bare minimum that’ll make everything else irrelevant (food and exercise).
If you’re struggling with sticking to something in your life, try to make it simpler.
Ask yourself “what does easy looks like?”
For example:
If you’re trying to lose weight, focus on eating better and exercising.
If you’re investing in the stock market, focus on investing in a company you believe in. And give it time to grow.
If you have too many friends, try to keep up with a few close one, try to keep up with a handful of people (since you can’t have more than 5 close friends).
99% of the time, simple solutions are enough. Don’t complicate it just because you feel it isn’t.
Keep it simple. And keep it going
It’s tempting to add complexity to your life.
I tried that with my diet. And I failed miserably.
I understood the basics but didn’t follow it.
And I’m going to take a guess and say you already have enough complexity as it is. Retirement. Kids. Buying a house.
It’s all too much. You don’t need the added nightmare of making things complex.
Keep things as simple as possible. Because as life gets tough, only simple survives.
What have you simplified in your life? Drop a comment below.