The Meaningful Minimum

Not my Slacker Slogan

I’m sure we all know someone who does the absolute minimum required to get by. As a child they did just enough chores to avoid getting permanently grounded. As a student they did just enough to graduate. As an employee they do just enough to avoid getting fired. As a spouse they do just enough to avoid divorce. This sounds like they’re following the Meaningful Minimum philosophy of life. But no! The Meaningful Minimum is not a slacker philosophy. Far from it!

“One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.” (Proverbs 18:9 NIV)

Instead, it’s a proven productivity hack that has served me well in various aspects of my life.

Prefer to watch? Here’s the 60-second version:

The Meaningful Minimum concept is that it’s better to do something rather than nothing. Too often our routines keep growing and growing until they’re overwhelming. Working out is a great example. We start small and manageable, but keep adding new exercises, extending the time, and increasing the weights. Then one day when we get ready to work out, we realize we don’t have the time or the energy to perform the monumental task before us so we skip it. This starts happening more frequently, and eventually we’re out of the habit and have to start over. The Meaningful Minimum concept is this: have a minimum amount that you will almost always do, except on the hardest days. That way, you keep on track, and tomorrow or the next day you might have time for the full workout. 

It’s important to differentiate between the MM (Meaningful Minimum) and your goals. The MM will be a subset of the goals, but your goals will be bigger. Your goals will guide you in the direction you have established, and include tactical steps to get there. Your ultimate goal might be to write a book, and the interim goals will include daily or weekly progress toward that. You might set yourself a reasonable, achievable goal to write 1,000 words a day. That’s great, and most days you should do that. But what about days when you don’t have enough time to write 1,000 words – without a MM, you might be tempted to just postpone today’s writing because you can’t achieve your daily goal. But if your MM is 10 minutes focused solely on your book, whether that’s writing, editing, brainstorming, outlining, etc, that MM will still be achievable. And the MM has a bonus: we often go beyond it and achieve more. You might not feel that you have the energy or the creativity to tackle writing 1,000 words, but you’re willing to commit 10 minutes. Once you’re in the middle of those 10 minutes, the creativity or the energy often kicks in.

This concept is used in various productivity concepts and can be used in our lives for all sorts of goal setting. For Christian goals, you could set a minimum for daily or weekly prayer, Bible reading, outreach, service, memory verses, etc. You can set goals for fitness, cooking, house cleaning, reading, or any number of things. But always remember that this is an achievable minimum. It won’t work otherwise. Imagine adding all of your goals to a list and putting a daily minimum for each one. You might achieve the minimum sometimes, but this strategy will ultimately fail. Instead, create a true minimum of what you truly feel is important. It can be aspirational, but only if it’s achievable. Your daily or weekly goals are NOT the same as your Meaningful Minimum.

For example, my suggestion for your God OS Minimum is to commit to spending at least 10 minutes each day in the Worship section. Add in more time and do the other sections on most days, but on the days when you’re totally swamped: keep up your Meaningful Minimum of 10 minutes worshiping God (or whatever your Meaningful Minimum is). You might decide to set yourself a realistic daily goal that includes 15-20 minutes of worship, Bible reading + Bible study, 15 minutes in prayer, reviewing current memory verses + adding 1 new weekly memory verse, spending 30 minutes serving others, etc. This might be a realistic daily goal that you can accomplish most days, but it is not a realistic Meaningful Minimum. The MM needs to be something that you can achieve on all but the most extreme days. And what better way to balance a hectic day than spending 10 minutes with our Creator who knows us better than anyone else?

The Meaningful Minimum can be a great start to a much bigger future.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,” (Luke 16:10a NIV).

Photo by Mark Ashford on Unsplash