💌 Issue 001: How to do less, better.

Welcome to the first edition of miribel.co newsletter! 👯‍♀️ The bite-sized newsletter for the modern-day ambitious woman who wants to have it all. We're that friend in your inbox that feels like a warm cup of chamomile tea but also gives you real talk at the same time.

🔍 Today at a glance:

Length: 3.5 minutes | Readability: Grade 11-12 | Word Count: 949

• Insight: Focus on the essential and do less, better.

• Questions to ask yourself on what’s truly essential.

• Practical tactic: LNO Framework.

• A sneak peek on topics of upcoming newsletters.

🧠 Insight:

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or stressed about all the things that you need to accomplish when you get back from your long weekend, this week’s issue is for you ✨

Today’s inspiration for this issue is Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist and writer that was well-known for writing about many neurological conditions — ranging from the world of Deaf people and sign language, Tourette’s syndrome, and many other conditions.

Oliver Sacks kept a sign in his office to remind him to say no to invitations so he could write more.

He’s onto something.

💡 The way forward is by saying no.

Why should you say no?

1. Say no to the things that don’t matter, so that we can say yes to the things that do matter. Even if we think we say yes to something that’s “small,” we are simultaneously saying no to something that might be more important.

2. Life is not actually that short, it’s just that we waste a lot of it. We waste a lot of it because we don’t say no. We don’t focus on what is essential. I’m guilty 🙋🏻‍♀️ of being booked and busy, and sometimes not entirely sure what I truly accomplished that day.

3. If we seek a more tranquil life, we must do less. Not nothing, but less. This creates real efficiencies because we do less, better.

The reality is that so much of what we think we must do and that we end up doing is not essential.

In fact, we're in a culture where we feel like we need to constantly be busy and be doing so many things all at once.

There are some individuals who thrive by doing 10 different activities all at once. For some, it's how they keep their minds stimulated. Personally, whenever I am doing several, non-related activities in my life at once, it is often because I am exploring and trying to figure it out. It's not a bad thing - if you're one of those individuals and you find that your life is operating at its prime, then that's great. You do you!

But for the rest of us, I've observed that the folks who are really at the top of their game in the industry are the individuals who can really only do 1-2 things really really well at a time. They outsource the rest of the responsibilities 😂

Whether you want to be a top performer on your team or if you want to just be happy and nothing more, the way forward for both paths is still to do less, better.

The first step towards that is to say no.

💪🏼 Exercise:

Well, how can you say no more often?

• Step 1: Literally hang a post-it note or paper on your wall that states “No!”

• Step 2: Ask yourself the following questions 👇🏼

• Step 3: Let the rest go. Jk, track it somewhere and re-prioritize when you get to it.

Ask yourself:

• Is this essential?

• Do I have to do this?

• Why do I have to do this?

• Why do I feel pressure to do this?

• What would happen if I said no?

For example, if you stopped attending so many meetings and doing all these projects, what things fall through the cracks?

For all of the tasks where I feel anxiety or pressure around having to complete, I go through these 5 questions to make sure I audit how I feel and reframe my thoughts around the urgency and priority of the situation. 

♟️ Practical Tactic:

If you want something a bit more tactical to help you breakdown your tasks, this is a framework that I have implemented  in my day-to-day work and life to really understand the impact of the tasks that I do. When Shreyas posted this, it was originally intended for product managers. However, I think the principles in which we have high leverage, neutral, and overhead categories of tasks are applicable to our daily lives, work or not.

He breaks down life’s tasks into 3 categories:

1. Leverage - 10x return; do your best and let your inner perfectionist shine.

2. Neutral - 1x return; do a strictly good job and no better.

3. Overhead - <1x return; just get it done. Actively try to do a bad job.

Ask yourself:

 💡 Which tasks should we focus our time on? And when is it ok to just "get the job done?"

👀 Sneak peek:

For the folks who stayed until the end (thank you! I appreciate you 💝), I wanted to give you a preview of what the upcoming newsletters will entail:

• FULL details on my recent, first-time hydrotherapy experience/review and how you can implement it at home DIY!

• Results from a 3 week insomnia experiment that I've been a guinea pig of (and have been going slightly insane over)

• The secret to succeeding at something even though others have tried to do that same thing and couldn't do it

• Our first interview coming!

• & more!

Hope this week's newsletter helped and please reply to this email if you have any feedback! I'm always looking to improve and make these newsletters more useful for everyone.

That’s it for today! See you next week 💌