Cal Newport

So that's key.

So house rules can also be not just for dealing with complexity, but also making sure that like good things are happening on a regular basis.

Like we, our kids, we take them to the bus stop relatively early in the morning.

Like my wife and I figured out we should both go because when we walk back, that's a guaranteed walk and talk.

Whereas if you were saying we're going to plan a walk together every day in the afternoon or morning, man, it's so hard.

Like some days, sure.

But some days, you know, it's impossible.

But that makes sure it happens.

At least a day starts that way.

So that would also be – that's a rule to not just deal with complexity but to make sure – Yeah, make sure that the good things happen in your life, right?

All right, then you also talk about there's negative things that happen that you want a net, so to use the circus metaphor, and that that actually saves a lot of stress and consternation and schedule blow-ups if you have these safety nets.

Maybe you could walk us through a little bit more what you mean by that.

And then the final piece of this ringmaster analogy was this idea of adding delight into there, right?

If you're going to go through the effort of containing or controlling the complexity, might as well add stuff in it that's going to be really fulfilling as well.

What do you mean by managing for delight and what's the importance here?

Like your whole week can feel different.

If you had some idea, we're going to all go to this new restaurant or like this past weekend, me and one of my sons, we built a video game cabinet and my office is here, right?

It can make the whole week feel like, oh, that was a fun week, even though this might have just been a few hours out of 169.

Well, I have a special technique.

That's going to be my next book, Laura.