Your Body Has A Capacity - Your Calendar has one too...
Have you ever tried to pour a gallon of water into a quart-sized container?
It doesn't matter how carefully you pour.
Once it's full...everything else spills over.
Years ago I was at a networking event and the speaker was slated to talk about something super simple - a "To-Do List".
I remember thinking, “I've made to-do lists my entire life. What could possibly be new?”
Turns out...quite a bit.
Instead of writing one giant list of everything that needs to be done, she had us divide it into three separate lists.
“To Do”- Things only I can do.
“Delegate” - Things someone else can do or that technology can do for me. Grocery delivery. An automated onboarding email. Scheduling software. There are so many things that don't actually require “me.”
“Dump” - The hardest list.
Those were the things that no longer aligned with my values, weren't moving me toward my goals, or simply weren't worth the space they occupied in my life anymore.
That one exercise completely changed how I approach my days.
Not because I suddenly had less to do.
But because I finally recognized something we all often forget...
“I have a capacity.”
So do you.
Everything has one.
A storage container.
A battery.
A computer.
Your brain.
Your muscles.
Your nervous system.
Your body wasn't designed to process endless stress, constant notifications, overflowing calendars, emotional weight, physical labor, family responsibilities, work demands, and still somehow function at its highest level.
Yet that's exactly what so many of us expect from ourselves.
We tell ourselves we'll rest later.
We'll eat healthier next week.
We'll exercise when things calm down.
We'll say yes one more time.
We'll squeeze one more thing into the schedule.
Then we're surprised when we're exhausted, our workouts feel harder, we're craving sugar, we're snapping at the people we love, our sleep suffers, and the scale refuses to cooperate.
The problem often isn't a lack of willpower.
It's that we've exceeded our capacity.
A few weeks ago my family bought something called a "Brick."
Not a literal brick.
It's a small magnetic device that, with one tap, blocks the distracting apps on our phones. Suddenly social media disappears. Endless scrolling disappears. Constant notifications disappear.
We still have access to calls, texts, calendars, and reminders.
That's it.
It's amazing what happens when the "Brick" is on.
We finish the things we actually intended to do.
We're more present with one another.
Our conversations are better.
We're less mentally scattered.
Nothing about our day changed except the amount of input competing for our attention.
Capacity isn't just about how much you're doing.
It's also about how much you're allowing in.
The healthiest people I know aren't the ones who juggle the most.
They're the ones who know what matters most.
They protect their time.
They protect their energy.
They protect their attention.
And because of that, they have more to give to the things that truly deserve it.
The same is true for your body.
If you're constantly asking your body to do more than it has resources for; function on less sleep, live with more stress, skip meals and movement, consume endless caffeine - eventually something gives.
Recovery slows.
Hormones become less cooperative.
Inflammation rises.
Progress stalls.
Health isn't built by asking your body to do more.
It's built by giving it what it needs first.
So this week, instead of asking yourself, "How can I get more done?"
Try asking, “What deserves my capacity today?”
Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do isn't adding another habit.
Sometimes it's removing one.
Here's to creating a little more space this week.
Because your best doesn't come from doing everything.
It comes from giving your best energy to what matters most.
xoxo,
Kim
