Today’s advice: don’t get too busy. It’s foolish to cut back on something as pleasurable or healthful as sleep. It’s equally misguided to pack the hours in your waking life.The happiest people I know live very simple lives. Some of them don’t use email, if you can believe that. And yet they are productive.

Their genius comes from a natural idea, expressed by Philip K. Howard:

Smart people spend time alone. They don’t fill their days with appointments from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., as many politicians and executives do. Great science does not emerge from hard logic and grinding hours. It comes from the mysterious resources of the human brain and soul. Inspiration is nurtured by activities like chopping wood and raking leaves, preparing dinner and reading to the kids. These activities soften the rigid pace of the day’s pursuits and allow all our God-given intuition to work its unlogical magic. Only then can we reach our fullest potential. Only then can we leap from thinking to understanding. [source]

Most of us are busy from the minute we hear our alarm clocks to the time we collapse in bed and reset our alarms (after sending that last email, of course).

We ought to consider the path less traveled. Go simplify and relax. Sleep in, meditate, take a walk, or do whatever eases you. Who knows, you might even experience that relaxing provides a competitive advantage.

I often think about how busy we are. I think, perhaps this is why we get great ideas in the shower. It’s the primary time we spend alone. It is the last sanctuary that connects us to our natural form.