One Week

The hedonic treadmill is real, you own too many things, you accumulate too many things, and you can work with what you already have, most of the time.

New stuff is alluring. Sometimes you need it. Most of the time, though, you just want it. The rule is this: the moment of discovery, of being in the market for something, is when you will be maximally interested in buying something. This is also the moment when you are most likely to allow your lizard brain to make mistakes.

There is a hack. Here is what you do:

1. Keep a note in your notes app called “to buy.”
2. Every time you decide you want to buy something, instead of checking out with it, add it to the app, at the bottom, with the current date.
3. Every week, look at everything at the top of the list that’s more than a week old. Think harder. Buy stuff if you want. Don’t if you don’t. Wait if you want to wait. And, most importantly, delete it if you’ve decided against buying it.