Before You Add One More Thing

Read Time: 3 minutes

The new year is here, and I know what you're thinking. New year, new energy—what should I add to my practice? What new habit? What new system?

Here's what I want to gently say: nothing.

Or rather, not yet. Maybe not at all.

I spend a lot of time with people who are drowning—and one of the patterns I see is that the moment they start to feel a little better, a little clearer, they immediately fill that space with something new. A new app. A new productivity hack. A new goal. A new way to optimize. And suddenly, they're back in reaction mode, back in the shallow end, trying to build a foundation with tactics again.

I know this pattern because I live it. Just last week, I caught myself in the middle of two books, already eyeing a third. That familiar buzz of excitement—new ideas, new frameworks, new insights waiting for me. And then I paused. I recognized it immediately: I'm doing the same thing. Reaching for more instead of going deeper. One foot in, one foot already reaching for the next thing. Surface level everywhere.

So I closed that third book. I went back to the one I was actually reading. And I remembered: the insight I need isn't in the next book. It's in the one I haven't finished yet, in the parts I haven't fully digested.

You can't hack your way into peace. You know this by now. You've lived it.

The work you're doing with Groundwork isn't a productivity system you master and move on from. It's an active practice—the kind that deepens the more you return to it. Your Brain Dumps don't get better because you're doing them faster. Your reviews don't get sharper because you're squeezing them into less time. Your system doesn't hold you more securely because you've added another feature.

These things transform you because you practice them. Because you go deeper.

So here's what I'm inviting you to consider this January: before you add anything, before you commit to anything new, ask yourself: What one or two things am I already committed to with Groundwork? How can I go deeper there? Where is there more to discover?

Maybe it's your weekly review—the one you sometimes rush through. What if, for the next month, you actually sat with it? What if you asked different questions? What if you let it teach you something you haven't learned yet?

Maybe it's your Focus Areas. Most people land on three and move on. But three is supposed to be a practice of radical choice—of saying no to everything else. Are you practicing that? Or are you distracted by the other ten things you could be doing?

Maybe it's your relationship with your calendar. You've organized it. Now what? What are you noticing as you live within it?

The depth is where the real change happens. Not the accumulation.

This year, I want you to consider this permission: you don't need anything new. You need to go deeper with what you've already begun. You need to let the practice do its work. And you need to trust that the peace you're building comes from that commitment to depth, not from reaching for one more thing.

Your practice is already in place. Tend to it. Let it tend to you.