When I heard the expression, “Death by 1,000 paper cuts” for the first time, it didn’t mean much to me. But now I appreciate its depth.

Our life is made of many small actions and experiences. How we feel in any given day is a collection of all of those experiences. If there are many points of friction in your day, you are likely to have an ongoing sense of irritation, fatigue, and frustration in the background.

When your days are filled with little moments of distress like that, it is easy to fall into the habit of seeking relief through social media, news, games, and other forms of instant gratification. If this continues for long enough, you may just become numb to it all, as a way of protecting yourself from pain. This often happens at an unconscious level.

Sometimes, the quickest way to improve our life and wellbeing is to optimize the little experiences that we have every day—removing the small paper cuts. This is done little by little, action by action, routine by routine. Every time you remove a point of friction, there is a moment of relief. Something in you relaxes, and can now breathe. Over time all of this adds up to you having a day that flows better, and a life where there is more space for your goals and aspirations.

Exercise

Pay attention to the points of friction in your day today. It could be a window in your home that doesn’t open properly, an old app that has become hard to use, an automatic reaction of contraction when your coffee is not prepared to your liking.

If there are several, choose one. What can you do to permanently remove that point of friction in your life, today?

Going Deeper

If you want to find more ways to remove friction in your life, go through the Decision Fatigue Buster exercise in the free Workbook. And, if you are a member of the Mindful Self-Discipline app, use the daily journal feature to continuously improve your life one day at a time.