The Art of Managing Your Fucks

An exploration of determining what to give a Fuck

about.

Let me put my Tony Robbins hat on for a sec… If you’re not

looking for an article spewing methodologies on how to live
then move along kemosabe. What we have here is a method
to determine what to give a fuck about and how to manage
those fucks the Shuster way.

What is a Fuck?
Before diving in, we should establish what a
‘Fuck’ is. In the context of this discussion a ‘Fuck’
stands for a life issue that tends to be focused on.
Some examples of Fucks (to give about — aka “I
give a fuck about “x”):
 Family (and/or friends)
 Debt/Bills
 Health/Physical Fitness
 Career (and success/wealth)

To give a fuck or not? That is the

question.
Many people I’ve met over the years (students,
clients, co-workers, friends, family members, etc.)
care greatly about things that do not matter in
the grand scheme of the universe, specifically in
relation to your existence. Keeping this in
perspective is difficult and often soul crushing so
do not get caught up in it!
While caring about others is an important fold of
being a human being (so I’ve heard) you cannot
let others drag you down. There’s a great book
you can check out on the subject — The Subtle
Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. It’s
necessary to free yourself of unwanted fucks
before you can truly determine what to give a
fuck about:

How to not give a fuck

Regardless of the situation, follow these 3
steps to break the cycle and stop giving a
fuck.
1. Catch yourself. If a ‘Fuck’ isn’t
reciprocated (or produces any ROI) it’s not
worth your time.
2. Accept it. …
3. Let it go.
How to determine what fucks you
have
Have you freed yourself of unnecessary fucks?
Excellent! Now we can move on how to
determine your fucks. Use this helpful method to
determine the number of fucks you can give:
*Note — This is not an actual mathematical
algorithm, more of a metaphor to get my point
across.

Income
It’s cute to say that you don’t care about money,
but in reality it’s a main component of freedom in
life. You can only do what you can afford, so this
limits your number of fucks to have/give. Here’s
a 2010 Princeton study on how much you need to
make to be happy for some perspective . If don’t
have any $$$ you should only have one primary
fuck… acquiring income.

/
Time
Time is the ultimate commodity. You can’t make it
or get it back. Conversely if you have no time (as
you spend all of it making income) you should be
focusing on how to achieve balance. If you have
nothing but time and no $$$ you should only
have one primary fuck… acquiring income.

= Number of Fucks
Now we can determine if you have any extra time
or money to designate for extra fucks! If you
have small amounts of income or free time then
you only have about 1 or 2 fucks. Those fucks
should be used to find a new scenario (Design
Salary Perspectives) or learn how to get one (Find
a Design Gig).
Once you build up your income and balance of
time you’ll find you have a few more fucks free.
Here are a few suggestions of what you can now
afford to give a fuck about (or determine your
own):
 Debt (don’t have any)
 Health (it doesn’t get easier as time goes on…
be mindful of vices)
 Family (start one or become more involved)

Conclusion
Hopefully this has given you some perspective on
how to find and leverage the issues you really
should be caring about in YOUR life. The real key
is to be conscious of yourself before you start out
on other things. Don’t let the fucks of others
interfere with your goals.

Lessons on living the design life and more can be

found in my upcoming book— A guide to wealth
& success in design. In putting together DE$IGN
I’ve decided to share selections of content via
Medium in the hopes of gaining interest as wells
feedback while I’m writing the book. For more
information check out the original post.