Maintenance isn't sexy.

Someone who is "keeping things running" doesn't get many magazine articles written about them.

But, the more time I spend in my work, which is almost all maintenance, the more I come to believe that maintenance holds the key to so many things.

Maintenance is a kind of planning

Initially I thought maintenance was about living in the past, but it is really about tomorrow.

It's an investment you make in how you want things to be.

What do you want to not go wrong?

Sometimes things need to break a little so that you can learn how to make them a whole lot better.

Diving into a problem within a system can introduce you to that system's biggest bottleneck.

Incremental improvements can reveal large possibilities.

Owning things has a cost, so get rid of what doesn't serve you

All complicated objects require ongoing care.

The universe trends towards entropy, and whether it is time or money, keeping things working will cost you.

Your resources are limited: be careful what you choose to keep.

There is a corollary, if you want something to leave your life don't maintain it.

Consistency matters

It's easy to miss a couple of cycles of routine maintenance.

Reminders should rise to the level of urgency that the thing breaking would cause.

Making things uniform makes life easier

Socks are a great example.

If all of your socks are the same brand and color you don't need to spend time matching them up, and they become easier to replace.

Maintenance can make or break anything

Your health, your relationships, your city's sewage system - everything needs maintenance to keep working correctly.

So prioritize what is important to you and maintain it with care!