Good habits mostly reduce chaos for the next person, and the next person is often you.

RESILIENCE

WHAT THIS MEANS

Nearly all the benefit of being organized goes to your future self, who is a different person with no memory of your reasoning. The clean kitchen, the labelled file, the bag packed the night before: each is a small parcel sent forward to somebody tired who will be grateful without knowing why things are easy. That makes tidiness less a virtue than a favour. You are usually the next person.

Do one thing today specifically for yourself tomorrow morning. Lay something out, clear something away, write the first line of what you will have to start.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which future version of you is paying for today’s shortcuts?

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