An Introduction to "Halving"

Imagine being able to spend only half as much money (and saving the other half!) without compromising. Cutting your stress level in half. Getting to your wellness goals in half the time. Banging out your to-do list in half the time. Or, cutting your waste and environmental damage in half. And, imagine doing all of these at the same time! These things are possible (seriously!) by adopting an easy strategy that I call “Halving.” 

What is Halving?

Halving is the mindful practice of consuming and using half as many resources, which will ultimately improve your health and save you time, money, energy, and more. Not only that, but it can boost your success and happiness. Putting this into practice involves retraining your brain to make informed choices about everyday actions that we usually do on autopilot. Basically, it’s about stopping to consider the entire chain of events set into motion by one seemingly little decision—like how to get from point A to point B, what and how much to order at a meal, what quantity of groceries to buy or how to manage your emails.

It is as easy as it sounds – and the effects it can have on your life, and the world we all live in, can be dramatic (but in the best way possible!). Take a minute (or two) and let us explain how Halving It All is doable. Click here.

Example 1: Going to Work 

OK, now that you’ve watched our video and have a better sense of what it takes, let’s look at the commute to work scenario. You live in the city, two miles from work, and typically take the subway to get to your office. If the weather’s really bad, you take an UBER, or if it’s a beautiful day, you walk. In other words, you don’t put much thought into the decision. Halving makes you consider all the consequences to your choice of transportation—time, calories burned, exercise, carbon footprint, cost—and how all those factors add up over time. 

Here’s how this breaks down during one round trip commute looking at the time it takes, calories burned (good), CO2 emitted (bad) into the air and cost (also bad):

Not much to sweat about given the day you're having. Here’s what happens after a year, and this is where things get interesting:

Walking every day vs. taking an UBER will save you over $10,000 per year. What’s more, walking the route will result in burning over 100,000 more calories, improving your cardiovascular fitness, and increasing your muscle tone. And you’d emit almost 1,000 fewer pounds of CO2 into the environment. These savings are enormous! And that's just you. Imagine if everybody did that!

Now, what about that 9 to 13 minutes of extra time spent per trip walking? Don’t look at it as wasted time. In fact, multitasking during the walk—making business or personal calls, listening to a news podcast, or even just putting your phone in your pocket to take a mental break—helps you save time (and increase relaxation) in the long run. If the walk to work still seems too daunting, consider that doing it even just half the time will benefit you greatly. Most of us can manage that, right?

And There's More

This is just one of countless ways you can Halve It All. In the coming months in our Halving blog, we’ll be sharing different ways of halving at work (how to cut your emails in half, how to cut your meeting times in half); at home (how to cut water bills in half, cut grocery costs in half); and going out (how to cut your food and alcohol costs in half).

For your health, wealth and world around you, you can Halve It All.

Have any other Halving ideas?  Please share them in the comments below.