Nothing is really neutral.
Every input or output of your life is influencing you one way or another.
However, some of the items have such negligible influence that messing around with them is a waste of energy.
You’re not going to feel their effect, not very much, maybe not for a long while.
There is a time and a place for assessing and messing with your neutral outputs and inputs, but that time and place is after you feel that you’ve regained some control, not before. (And not during.)
There is change, and then there is optimization.
Optimizing can be helpful, and for systems-thinkers like me, it’s often fun.
But it can also be a pathway to procrastination and perfectionism.
Not helpful. Not fun.
After you take inventory of your inputs and outputs, you might add in another column before you start the sorting. A “neutral” column.
As you go through the sorting process, if you don’t have a clear answer or a strong feeling either way, tick off Neutral. Keep moving down the list.
Don’t pause to optimize, not now.
Choose to focus on making changes to the inputs and outputs that have a significant impact on your life.
Later, when you’re feeling frisky, you can tackle the Neutrals and figure out what to do with them.