I’ve always been one of life’s great optimisers.

I used to spend so much time and energy trying to find the “right” or “best” or “most efficient” way to do something that I missed out on just enjoying doing the darn thing in the first place.

Take weekend trips away with Lozzadog.

In early 2024, Lauren and I racked up a flurry of mini-breaks to Zurich, Toulouse, Seville and Gdansk. 

Before each weekend, I’d spend hours looking up the best restaurants and sights, then I’d pin them all on Google Maps. The weekends turned into games of whack-a-mole, to the point where I was “collecting” restaurants, parks, churches, food markets & cities like Ed Sheeran collects lawsuits.

Then I'd get annoyed if we didn’t make it to one of the hotspots on our list.

That's just one example.

I had my health and fitness phase too.

When I lived in Edinburgh, I became obsessed with working out, cutting fat and “optimising” my body. I don’t just mean going for a run or lifting a few weights. I mean religiously researching protein powders, figuring out how to get my body into ketosis and stepping onto the scales every day to see if another lb or two had melted away.

I even remember bringing a packet of ham with me to a bar and drinking soda water while my pals slurped beers and pizza, all to try to keep my body running like a Swiss watch.

What else?

Well, time management was also a big one.

Time was always something I thought I had to maximise, stretch and squeeze for every last drop.

Even when it came to relationships, the question I’d ask myself was “how could this relationship be better?” 

And like most things, if you go looking for it, you’ll find it.

So whenever I asked that question, find it I did. And whenever I “worked on” my relationships, it took me further away from simply enjoying the other person’s company.

I could go on.

Even as I sit here typing away on this fine Tuesday morning, I can feel a new category of optimising sneaking in:

Parenting.

A few times I’ve caught myself wanting to research the best toys, the optimal sleep schedules and find the perfect child-raising formula for Baby Grundy.

And look:

I know there’s a balance to be struck and wanting the best is no bad thing.

I also know some things are meant to be optimised. If you’re working on a financial model or your newsletter’s sign-up page, it might make sense to peek under the hood, measure what works and care about getting a better result.

But I’m not talking about financial models and sign-up pages in this email. 

I’m talking about life.

Life isn’t a machine, a maths problem or a research project.

Life isn’t meant to be controlled, upgraded, perfected or completed.

Nor do you find happiness by trying to optimise the shit out of every aspect of your life.

Life is meant to be lived.

And when the great optimisers of the world like Tim Ferriss shave 7 seconds off their paleo breakfasts, buy the perfect pillow for maximum dream efficiency and try to outsource their own heartbeat, I do wonder…

For what end?

To free up some time to optimise something else?

If so, I have the sneaky suspicion that Tim is doomed to optimise his life forever. 

You can research and fine-tune as much as you like, but you’ll never find perfection (I've tried).

I guess if anything, this email is as much a reminder to me as it is a chirpy daily missive to you.

It’s a reminder that if I catch myself asking “how can I make this better?”, it’s a clue I might be heading in the wrong direction. A clue that I could benefit from throwing away my clipboard and sitting up to smell the roses instead.

I’ve always liked the John Lennon quote “life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans”.

I think John could just as easily have said “life is what happens while you’re busy trying to optimise your life”.

If you’re tired of treating life like a never-ending optimisation project, you might like to check this out:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com