How You Do One Thing Is How You Do Everything

Oh shit the call is in one minute!

Your laptop almost falls on the floor as you jump out of bed and quickly put a hoodie on.

You run out to sit at a decent desk, wipe the mess to the side and open Zoom.

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The home office has made moments like this way too easy.

In fact, I think it’s a modern societal disease:

• Work is becoming less and less formal
• Everything should be easy
• Comfort seems to be the only goal of anything

And while there’s a good side to this, part of me is…melancholic in a way??

I mean, there’s a unique charm in taking something seriously.

When we care about how we look, when we care that our work is really excellent, when we take the challenging path because we think it’s better in the end.

I’ve noticed that the days where I feel my worst (emotionally) are the days where I let it slip.

There’s no bad intentions here—often my rationale goes something like “I just need to get focused, all these other things don’t matter.”

But the thing is…
they do matter.

Both “feeling bad” and “feeling good” are spirals: when we feel bad, for example we don’t take the 3 minutes it takes to clean up our mess, which makes us feel worthless, so we feel even worse.

But sometimes, all it takes to pull yourself back together is just a little good thing.

Making your bed.
Putting on some nice clothes.
Cleaning up your desk.

When that’s how my day starts, there’s this little voice in my head:
“Yeah, it’s one of these days. Let’s do it.”

One little action can be enough to reverse the direction of the spiral.

So I do think that small things matter.

Take things seriously.
Look your best even if you’re working from home.
Eat healthy when nobody is watching.
Pick up that bit of packaging when you walk past it.

How you do one thing is how you do everything.