As I’ve written, I’m currently taking two college courses: Basic Statistics and Experimental Psychology. I’m thoroughly enjoying both, but here are a couple things that have caught me by surprise.

First, I’d forgotten how much work is required to truly succeed in a college class. Skating by with a passing grade is one thing, but developing a strong grasp of nearly every concept—really learning the material—is hard mental work! Sorry if that’s obvious—I had honestly forgotten. I’m becoming more empathetic toward my own advisees as a result.

You may not have heard of Charlie Munger, but you’ve heard of his longtime business partner: Warren Buffett.

Charlie Munger is an investor, philanthropist, businessman, attorney, and the very definition of a polymath—his wisdom does not respect divisions between domains of knowledge. He is a proponent of developing what he calls elementary, worldly wisdom: a personal framework for decision-making consisting of mental models based on the big ideas from major disciplines.

Since 2011, I’ve used David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system. As a long-time advocate, I’ve written several articles about GTD. But I’ve abandoned the GTD camp in the dead of night—or at least, I’m no longer a purist—and my reasoning is below.

But first, a little GTD review.

Getting Things Done is both a methodology and the name of a book outlining that methodology, and it’s all about two things:

1. Breaking down projects into a series of ultra-granular Next Actions, each one the next physical step required to move toward your intended outcome.
2. Tracking commitments in external systems so your brain is free to do what it does best: think.

On point #2, I’m still a zealot. In fact, my belief in the power of getting commitments out of our heads and into an external system has never been stronger.

How much stuff should we own?

Consumerism and minimalism each have an answer for us. Consumerism says, “Own as much as you can afford (or even a little more).” Minimalism, says “Own as little as you can get away with.”

Both answers are a little simplistic.

Consumerists who own lots and lots of stuff are forced to spend considerable resources (time and money) caring for their stuff—possessions need to be maintained, fixed and replaced.

Like you, I’m always looking for ways to make recurring tasks easier. I’ve recently hit upon a strategy that’s been working great for me, and I hope you find it useful too.

Tiny difficulties add up

About a month ago, I was struggling to maintain my twice-weekly blog posting schedule (as you may have noticed). For some reason, writing had gradually become quite stressful. I took a few weeks off to recharge, but it had little effect. I was stuck.