Use a smaller bowl

Literally and metaphorically, it can be wise to limit the container

When people are trying to eat healthier diets, they often hear the classic advice to use a smaller bowl or plate. This is supported by some research, and is particularly helpful for foods that can be hard to eat in moderation, like buttered popcorn or ice cream.

When you have a bigger bowl or plate, or the original container from the store, you can keep eating without noticing just how much you’ve consumed, because there’s still some left.

But if you start with a smaller bowl, once you’ve eaten everything in it, the empty bowl itself is a cue that it’s time to evaluate. You could choose to get more popcorn or ice cream if you want. But most of the time people don’t.

Metaphorical bowls

You can use a smaller “bowl,” so to speak, to manage your time too. How? Designate a fairly small chunk of time for activities that aren’t worth more time.

For instance, social media and online shopping are the time equivalents of a giant bucket of popcorn. They aren’t particularly gratifying, but they are absorbing, and hard to stop. So, as with the popcorn, you can set a timer and scroll for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off--just like when the bowl of popcorn is empty—you can pause and ask if it’s time to do something else. Most likely, it is.

Necessary bowls

You can also “use a smaller bowl” for activities that are necessary but can expand to consume all available space. For example, e-mail. If you decide that you need to deal with your inbox over the weekend, you could decide that you’ll process e-mail while your kids are doing gymnastics on Saturday morning and you’re working in your parked car. Then when gymnastics is over, you’ll be done. When there’s a limited amount of time available, you’ll work at a pace that lets you finish the task, or at least do what actually has to happen.

When you don’t build in a time limit, on the other hand, you can look up and realize that you’ve spent hours dealing with e-mail. That feels about as good as when you realize you’ve eaten a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s. Or worse, because ice cream is delicious but email is emphatically not.

So, today, try identifying which activities deserve a smaller bowl. What would you like to spend less time on? How can you put in a stopping point, so you can evaluate whether you want to do more? Figure this out and you’ll spend time better — and probably be happier too.