18 Mar 18: Do Less - Chima Anya & Slone

Song: Do Less (ft Crown)

Artist: Chima Anya & Slone

Album (Year): People Forget (2018)

Notable Lyric: "I need to do less so I can do more"

Chima Anya is a rapper I came across when I watched the Orchestral Rendition of Jay-Z & Kayne West's Watch The Throne. (For those of you living in / near London, I highly recommend attending upcoming Re:imagine events! Link here). We actually got on the same tube carriage on the way home from the brief conversation I had with him could tell that he’s very down-to-earth person and would certainly enjoy speaking to him in more depth about music.

When I listened to this song it resonated with me because it's such a simple concept but it makes so much sense. I've always been a person that has so many ideas for projects that I want to start but never get around to it. This blog is a prime example as I’ve provided myself with a platform (Canvas) in order to have the freedom to work on as many projects as I want! However, balancing that with a full-time job, exercising (football & gym), and socialising, doesn’t leave much time or energy for other things. Doing less in order to do more would allow me to put more focus onto fewer tasks as opposed to half-heartedly doing too much – it’s quality over quantity.

“The number one killer of youth now is stress” although I don’t know how statistically correct this is* I still think that the “youth” of today put an incredible amount of pressure on themselves to be popular, successful, and good at everything. Due to the constant exposure to what seems like other people doing well on Instagram and LinkedIn, we continuously compare how well they’re doing to how badly we’re doing. This is not to say that we shouldn’t aspire to be the best that we can be but to counter this, doing “less” and allowing you to focus on one project or goal at a time could help you progress in that area as opposed to frantically trying to get quick results in multiple tasks.

"I've been on Facebook for one hour - possibly two"

I love that this line has been included in the song because I can segue seamlessly into a paragraph about time spent on social media. During my final year at university I completed a project on addiction to social media and how apps are designed to keep us hooked. While researching for that project I came across an app called OFFTIME which tracks your phone usage. At the moment of writing (5pm on Sunday) I've been on my phone 32 times today an accumulated time of 2hr40mins. Hour upon hours of our lives are drained on social media that could be spent more productively. I’m no different and finding the balance between using it as a source of information or to remain informed and connected versus reading pointless YouTube comment arguments isn’t always easy to find. Sometimes it makes you think how we spent our time before that …

Anyway, I'm personally taking this piece of advice and applying it to my own life from now on. There is a lot going on and, especially when living in a city like London, you are continuously followed by the temptation at every turn. As much as I would like to attend all of these, the pay cheque to pay cheque lifestyle a graduate salary provides you with does not leave much wriggle room for such luxuries. It comes down to what you decide to sacrifice in order to make the time to do things you enjoy or will be beneficial in the long-run (assuming we live long enough to reap the rewards).

"I was at a point where I was just doing too much. In the modern climate you've got to play so many roles that you have no interest in playing. Advertising is constantly reminding you of all the experiences you could be having and we just too greedy" - from Complex article (link here)

*3 years of studying Psychology has made me very sceptical to any statistical claims like these.