By Leo Babauta

A lot of us rush through our day, our tasks, our emails and messages … because of a sense of being behind on everything. This is fine, but there’s a hidden cost that I call “Life Debt.”

In programming, there’s a concept called “tech debt” … basically, it’s the idea that when you take the shortcuts now, you owe some work later to make things the way they actually should be done. Every programmer does it — no one does things exactly as they should be as they go, but instead do things the short way now and come back later to complete the job.

This is what we’re doing in our lives as well. We’re accumulating Life Debt when we rush through the day, leaving little things unfinished, not put away, or in a mess because of our hurry.

That’s OK! No one is going to slowly do every single piece of maintenance or clean up needed, every minute of the day. It would take too long. But we should acknowledge the debt.

Let’s get into it.

What Does Life Debt Look Like?

There’s an infinite variety … but here are some examples of Life Debt:

• Getting ready: You shower, get dressed, do all the things to get ready … but leave things on the bathroom counter or floor in your rush to get out the door. The debt is the mess to be cleaned up later.

• Cooking: You’re rushing to cook a meal, leaving measuring spoons, measuring cups, a cutting board and knife, pots and pans … all dirty and all over the kitchen. Along with a mess of spilled food in different places. Instead of cleaning as you go, the mess piles up … and needs to be cleaned up later.

• Eating: You eat your meal, and put the dishes in the sink. You don’t have time to clean up now, so you need to clean it up later.

• Checking email: You read an email, don’t want to deal with it now, so you leave it for later. You do that with a dozen emails, leaving them to deal with later.

• Meetings and calls: When you’re done with a meeting, you rush to the next thing to do … but you don’t have time to type out a few notes or add tasks to your task list. You’ll do it later.

• Leaving little things around: As you rush through your office or home, you leave things here and there. You might not even notice. But they’ll be sitting there, waiting to be put where they belong at some point in the future — later that day, or even months later!

• Papers to deal with: You open some mail, and it’s something you need to deal with but don’t have time. You leave it lying on a pile of other papers that need to be dealt with.

• Open browser tabs: Your browser has a couple dozen tabs open, all things to be dealt with at some point, but you don’t have time to go through and deal with each one.

You get the point — this is everywhere. Files on your computer desktop, things piling up in your garage, a kitchen counter or table piled with things to be dealt with.

This is Life Debt. It’s a part of living, but it’s worth thinking about.

How to Deal with Life Debt

So what can we do about all of this? It’s important to note that this isn’t something to feel guilt or shame about, or to use to judge ourselves — it’s a part of life.

The question is: what’s a good amount of Life Debt that allows you to move through life at a reasonable pace … and what’s so much that it causes problems or too much stress?

There’s not a right answer for everyone.

For me, here’s what I try to do to deal with this:

1. Go slower, and put more space betwen things. OK, I’m far from perfect at this. But I realize that my life feels much less stressful and messy when I put a little more space between meetings and activities, and have more time for a little maintenance. I try not to rush between things (though I often do rush).

2. Pause before I move on, and complete things. I have a phrase “Complete the moment” that’s been helping me to pause and notice what needs to be done before I move on. For example, do I need to put away my clothes instead of leaving them lying around? Do I need to wash a dish or wipe the counter clean?

3. When I have some time, I’ll go around and clean up. Things that are out of place … I pick them up and put them away. If I find a mess and have a minute, I’ll clean it up.

4. If I don’t have time, I try to note it to be done later. Sometimes, I’d like to take care of something but don’t have time … I try to note it somewhere so I don’t forget. Ideally, I block it off on my calendar or put it on my todo list, even if it’s something like “Return the robot vacuum for a refund” or “change air filter.”

5. I have “catch-all” systems. Some things need to be cleared out regularly, so I try to find ways to make sure things are cleared out. For me, that’s usually weekly — I have days to clear out my read-later list in Instapaper, clear out my browser tabs, reorganize my todo list. I often have daily things — I clean the kitchen, clear out my email, and make sure my personal spaces are tidy by the end of each day.

I will say that I’m not perfect with any of this — that’s not what this is about. It’s worth exploring the ways that work for each of us, so that we don’t get weighted down too much by the messy debt we’re accumulating.