JBP Rule 11: Make at least one thing better.

These are my thoughts about Rule 11 from Jordan B. Peterson’s “40 Rules”. You can read them all here. In the case of the rules that made it into his “12 Rules for Life” book, I’m not going to repeat any of his explanations here. These are my own thoughts about each rule from my own life and experience.

11. Make at least one thing better every single place you go.

I really like this one. In one sense, it’s an extension of the “act like the whole world’s watching” principle.

To start with, at least leave things or places no worse than they were when you started.

There are a bunch of different “pick it up” lists on the web. The simplest seems to be:

If you take it out…put it back.

If you open it…close it.

If you drop it…pick it up.

If you take it off…hang it up.

If you use it/spill it/dirty it…clean it.

If you finish it…throw it out.

But that’s just the start.

Now take it to the next level and improve everything you touch and everywhere you go, even if it’s in tiny increments.

David Allen’s productivity method (Getting Things Done or GTD) includes a small item that’s easy to skip over, one that has had a huge impact in my life.

If you see something that needs to be done (or you’ve written it down in a to-do list) and it’s going to take you two minutes or less to do it, then do it immediately rather than scheduling it for sometime in the future.

Of course, you can take this to ridiculous levels where you can’t even get from point A to point B without doing 50 things in between, but the principle is solid. Just make it better than it was, even a little bit.

Another idea (for which I’ve tried to find the source with no success) is to move stray items in your house or office just a bit closer to their ultimate destination. For example, if something should be upstairs and it’s currently downstairs, move it to the bottom of the stairs. Then, the next time you’re going upstairs, you can take it with you.

This applies to out in the world as well. I often pick up pieces of paper or plastic that I see on the sidewalk and drop them in the nearest garbage can.

This is a mindset of constant improvement. You can make it a habit with very little effort each day until it’s so automatic that you’re unconsciously tidying or moving or improving.

You don’t have to take it to an obsessive level. Just make things a little better.