{"id":1026,"date":"2009-09-23T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=1026"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:49:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:49:25","slug":"decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of goal-setting advice focuses on deciding what matters to you. People exclaim, \u201cfollow your passions!\u201d or \u201cset priorities.\u201d This is fine, but it misses the opposite, but equally important question: what <em>doesn\u2019t <\/em>matter to you.<\/p>\n<p>Importance is relative, so in deciding to make something a priority or importance in your life, you need to make something else unimportant. Unfortunately, few people deliberately select the things they <em>aren\u2019t<\/em> going to care about. As a result, they end up trying to do everything and accomplish nothing.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s Unimportant to Me<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a few things I\u2019ve decided are a low priority for my life:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fashion<\/li>\n<li>Following the news<\/li>\n<li>Politics, beyond the basic issues<\/li>\n<li>Academic grades, beyond a minimum level of effort<\/li>\n<li>Sports<\/li>\n<li>Religion (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/21\/why-atheism\/\">at all<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Live Television<\/li>\n<li>Games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, I half expect to receive at least one or two comments from people attacking my list. \u201cHow can you not follow the news, care about grades or be involved in any religion?\u201d Obviously, one of the things I&#8217;ve mentioned is extremely important to them.<\/p>\n<p>I want to point out my list isn\u2019t universal. I\u2019m not saying the above things are always unimportant. I\u2019m simply saying I\u2019ve deliberately selected them to be low priorities in my life. Their absence from my schedule allows me to set time for the things I do find important such as, socializing, running a business, and staying healthy.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m also not implying that I\u2019m necessarily poorly dressed, completely uninformed about world events or that I get lousy grades. Simply that, when directing my conscious activities, I put a lower weight on those things in my life. I\u2019d rather fail at each of the things in my list, if it meant my truly important pursuits succeeded.<\/p>\n<h2>Deciding What\u2019s Unimportant For You<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s easier to color outside the lines than within them. It\u2019s easier to try to focus on everything evenly, rather than intentionally leave parts of your life blank. But, without constraints, a picture is just a blur of colors, and life is undirected chaos.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d suggest trying to come up with a list of things you consider low priorities. If your list is short (or you have difficulty picking anything), you might want to take a deeper look at where you spent your time. Ask yourself questions like, \u201cIf I had to pick 4-5 things to fail at, what would I sacrifice?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simplicity demands constraints, and trying to do everything is more like doing nothing.<\/p>\n<h2>Unimportant Doesn\u2019t Mean Disaster<\/h2>\n<p>Declaring something as unimportant doesn\u2019t mean it will immediately fail. Simply that you aren\u2019t going to invest tons of resources to ensure it succeeds. Sometimes the area of your life will just remain neutral, without getting significantly worse or better, over time.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I\u2019ve put fashion as a low priority for my life. I buy new clothes infrequently, and I have a limited wardrobe. But, every several months or year, I\u2019ll buy new clothes and try to look presentable. Fashion, for me, is mostly in neutral territory. I put in an extremely low amount of effort which allows me to coast by.<\/p>\n<p>Other times, low priority items crash and burn. When I decided advertising was a low-priority for my business, the revenue I generated plummeted. Without dedicating the best webspace real estate and working to increase revenues, my income went down by a factor of 10 over a few months.<\/p>\n<p>However, the sacrifice of low priority items is usually made up by the extra effort you can put into high-priority pursuits. When my advertising revenue crashed, I was also making 3-5x the lost income in additional sales of guides and ebooks. So, even when your unimportant issues fail, they allow your truly important work to flourish.<\/p>\n<h2>You Can\u2019t Do Everything<\/h2>\n<p>Either you declare your unimportant tasks, or the world does it for you. If you choose not to label anything as trivial, you\u2019ll run out of time and energy. And when that happens, something has to give, and it might end up being something you actually care about.<\/p>\n<p>I have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/10\/are-you-a-maximizer-or-a-simplifier\/\">maximizing personality<\/a>. Which is great, because it allows me to drag myself off the couch to pursue adventures and new opportunities. But the downside is that I like to do everything. Without spending some time deliberately omitting focuses from my life, I\u2019d try to do everything. Indeed, often I have, and it usually goes poorly.<\/p>\n<p>Pick the things that don\u2019t matter. Or, at the very least, decide your maximum input level for those pursuits. If you stop yourself from overcommitting on the small things, you can ensure you have the opportunity to pursue the big things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of goal-setting advice focuses on deciding what matters to you. People exclaim, \u201cfollow your passions!\u201d or \u201cset priorities.\u201d This is fine, but it misses the opposite, but equally important question: what doesn\u2019t matter to you. Importance is relative, so in deciding to make something a priority or importance in your life, you need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,680],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-goal-setting","7":"category-nc-productivity","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what\u2019s-unimportant-to-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A lot of goal-setting advice focuses on deciding what matters to you. People exclaim, \u201cfollow your passions!\u201d or \u201cset priorities.\u201d This is fine, but it misses the opposite, but equally important question: what doesn\u2019t matter to you. Importance is relative, so in deciding to make something a priority or importance in your life, you need [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what\u2019s-unimportant-to-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c\"},\"headline\":\"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":801,\"commentCount\":12,\"articleSection\":[\"Goals\",\"Productivity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/\",\"name\":\"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/09\\\/23\\\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Scott H Young\",\"description\":\"Learn faster, achieve more\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c\",\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott Young\"},\"description\":\"Hello, my name is Scott H. Young and I am obsessed with personal development! When I am not reading several books a month on the subject I am constantly trying to find new ways to improve and get more out of life.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.scotthyoung.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/scottadmin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what\u2019s-unimportant-to-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young","og_description":"A lot of goal-setting advice focuses on deciding what matters to you. People exclaim, \u201cfollow your passions!\u201d or \u201cset priorities.\u201d This is fine, but it misses the opposite, but equally important question: what doesn\u2019t matter to you. Importance is relative, so in deciding to make something a priority or importance in your life, you need [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what\u2019s-unimportant-to-you\/","og_site_name":"Scott H Young","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/","article_published_time":"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00","author":"Scott Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@scotthyoung","twitter_site":"@scotthyoung","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Young","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott Young","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c"},"headline":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You","datePublished":"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/"},"wordCount":801,"commentCount":12,"articleSection":["Goals","Productivity"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/","name":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You - Scott H Young","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-23T17:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-04T09:49:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/23\/decide-what%e2%80%99s-unimportant-to-you\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Decide What\u2019s Unimportant to You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/","name":"Scott H Young","description":"Learn faster, achieve more","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f58ab6c4a36422c78416e5b7a79604c","name":"Scott Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a2da240fb070ba8346e3be8b89043b66c39bdcf933d9e7311dcb10383d0bc645?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott Young"},"description":"Hello, my name is Scott H. Young and I am obsessed with personal development! When I am not reading several books a month on the subject I am constantly trying to find new ways to improve and get more out of life.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/author\/scottadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5322,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions\/5322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}