Today I woke up with razors on the mind.

Not the barbershop kind. Oh, but what a concept that I would arise mentally riddled with buzz cuts.

But I did arise mentally riddled. With overwhelm. Too much on my plate while still getting my sea legs back after a really emotionally taxing start to the year.

And that’s when I thought: RAZORS.

There’s a set of philosophical razors that I come back to from time to time. Generally when I’ve been in a trench of over-thinking, over-planning, over-committing.

If you’re not familiar, razors are ‘rules of thumb’ that allow you to quickly eliminate unlikely explanations for a phenomenon or simplify decision-making.

There are actually several philosophical razors worth knowing…

Hanlon's Razor tells us never to attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. Genuinely useful in comedy green rooms, or over-consumption of media. Although, it can be pretty easy to assume malice these days. Soups unforch.

Hitchens's Razor states that what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Excellent for internet arguments in comment threads at 2am for anyone who’s into that. There was a time…

The most famous of these: Occam’s razor.

Which states… the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is usually the correct one.

And suddenly it hit me like the news that we can’t call men bald anymore lest it be considered ‘sex-related harassment’ — that’s real. At least in the UK.

My overwhelm doesn't need a complicated solution. It needs a simpler one.

The Hustle

I don't have to get a HEAD of myself.

Bald jokes are still legal in newsletters as far as I know.

But in all seriousness, applying Occam's Razor to overwhelm means asking one simple question: what is the ONE thing that, if I focused on it completely, would make everything else easier or irrelevant?

Not seventeen things. Not a color-coded priority matrix. Not a productivity app that requires a walk-through tutorial.

One thing.

Right now I truly do have too much on my plate. I’m heavily involved in every capacity of my creative work when all I want in my post-deep-grief era is to show up and just be the creative. My brain wants to tackle all of it simultaneously and therefore makes meaningful progress on exactly none of it at times.

The simplest solution? Pick one. Move the needle on just one thing until it creates the domino effect. Then pick the next one.

Occam's Razor isn't just about explanation, it's about execution.

Strip away the complexity you've invented around a problem and usually the path forward is embarrassingly obvious.

The complicated version: build seventeen spreadsheets, devote too many hours to planning meetings, create a vision board, download yet another app, reorganize your desk again, and spend four hours optimizing a system for doing the work instead of actually doing the work.

Or.

The Occam's version: sit down. Pick the most important thing. Do that thing.

Annoyingly simple. Devastatingly effective.

Sometimes the only thing standing between you and momentum is the elaborate maze you built around the starting point.

The Chill

The simplest solution to overwhelm isn't a better system.

It's permission.

Permission to not do everything at once. Permission to let some plates spin down gracefully instead of frantically keeping them all airborne. Permission to be in a season of simplifying instead of a season of mass expansion.

I've spent the better part of this year showing up for everyone and everything while quietly white-knuckling my way through the hardest emotional stretch of my life. The grief, the logistics, the keeping it together in public, the performing, the pitching, the planning.

All while just wanting to create. Hence why sitting every Tuesday morning to brain-dump my thoughts on you all is beyond cleansing.

So maybe Occam's Razor applies here too. What's the simplest explanation for my overwhelm?

I've been doing too much for too long while carrying too much weight.

And the simplest solution?

Put some of it down.

Not permanently. Not dramatically. Just enough to find the thread that leads to momentum again. Just enough to remember what it feels like to work from inspiration instead of obligation.

The razor cuts both ways — it can simplify your to-do list AND your expectations of yourself during challenging seasons.

You don't have to be operating at full capacity while you're still healing. You're allowed to do less with more intention. To pick the one thing that matters most today and let that be enough. And do that one next thing well.

Simple isn't settling. Simple is sometimes the bravest choice you can make.

Sometimes simple is just grabbing that razor, and starting with a blank slate.

Bald doesn’t sound so bad after all…

Upcoming Shows

Friday June 19th — Laugh Factory Chicago 7 + 9 pm

Tuesday June 23rd — Laugh Factory Chicago 7:30 pm

Thursday June 25th — with Jim Norton in Iowa

Friday June 26th - Saturday June 27th — with Jim Norton at The Den Theater Chi

Love you all and cheers to the hustle + chill. We simplify because we are daring.

xx NPH