Don’t “Optimize” Your Life

The shortest line between two points is getting assimilated. (Source: Macrovector.)

You cannot optimize your life. Not really. Stop before you hurt yourself.

Sure, you can discipline yourself and wrangle social media distraction to a minimum. In fact, that’s smart. You can, of course, make sure that you’re not eating “empty calories” or bingeing on bad television. Do that. You can tweak your exercise routines to make the most of what few minutes you have free between two other tasks, and seem to squeeze more minutes from a day. Sleep less by scheduling your rest to maximize your restfulness. Save your fingers and type less with speech to text and more abbreviations – we’re all court stenographers and have to type in shorthand, when we’re juggling fifty correspondences and rushing toward as many deadlines.

Or, get into “deep work,” cancel all your social media accounts, and truly focus — after all, that gives you an advantage in this world: a far more “optimized,” productive output.

Admittedly, it’s good to feel like you can get more done in less time and be in better shape with shorter workouts. But by the time you’re coasting on the free-and-clear of “four-hour workweeks” and effective smoothie diets, you might be able to pause long enough to notice how this “working smart, not hard” just tunes a human being for a life within the huge machine society’s become.