When you start to discover the benefits of less, emptying your closets and junk drawers seems obvious. Scheduling less becomes easier, and doing less is a welcome change. If less is good, more is better. More less that is.
Imagine applying your principles of less to other areas of your life. Is there a benefit to less when it comes to your words? Can what comes out of your mouth be too much?
Simplifying has been such a blessing in my life, that I recommend more less…
- Speak less. If you are known as the blabber mouth, or if you ask questions just so you can answer them, you might consider choosing your words more carefully. What you say will become more important and more meaningful when you say less. Speak less and listen more.
- Write less. Some of my very first blog posts are less than 300 words. Some recommended that I give them more. Some said that the perfect post would be between 750 and 1000 words. I listened. I tried it. It seemed a little contrived. Delivering a certain number of words is not what this blog is about. This blog is about delivering the message while valuing your time and attention. Write less and deliver more.
- Gossip less. Gossip starts off innocently enough. “Can you believe what she did?” I’d like to think that I don’t gossip maliciously, but when I turn your story into my story, my speculation, it’s not nice or helpful. My opinions on what I think is your gossip worthy situation won’t help you if I am sharing them with someone else. If you lean towards what you may think is harmless gossip, consider the time you are wasting. Consider the energy you are putting into something that you have no intention of changing. Gossip less and help more.
- Judge less. You may judge a person or situation out of habit, to protect yourself, or to discern how to treat someone. With that often snap judgement based on what someone drives, how they dress, how many tattoos they have, or perhaps their physical condition, you might miss an opportunity for genuine connection. Judge less and connect more.
This post only has 426 words. Less fluff, more meaning. Less is not just for clothes and kitchen utensils. Let the power of less seep into every area of your life. When you let less into your heart, you’ll start giving more than you ever imagined.
Reminds me of Hemingway, really. Much kinder, you are, Courtney–but we need only to say 10% of our words. The other 90% are communicated by “all that is not said.” The negative space on your blog do speak tomes.
Perhaps “posting less”…I need to write effusively, but much can remain in my journal. The others are non-negotiable.
Thanks for for clarifying. I think “more of less” is the most lovely paradox of 2011.
M
Mark, Of course there is a time and a place for more words, especially in story-telling and novels, but I’ve always found the idea of striving for a certain number of words in a blog post to be silly. A post should be as short or as long as it needs to be.
P.S. Thanks for your kind words. 😉 (I read and listened to 100% of them)
Lovely post! There’s going to be more of “less” now that spring is here and I am getting the itch to weed out more stuff.
The writing thing, however–I am definitely an effusive writer, always was, always will be, but am glad that most of my posts are now half as long as they were at one time, thanks to serious attempts at editing. 🙂
I love your writing style Meg. I never feel like you are including words just to hit a certain word count.
I am excited for Spring, but watching the snow fall today.
I love your posts, length and all. It’s just enough to turn my thoughts around for the day and bring a sense of calmness and re-thinking my day in order to have more of less!
Thanks Diane, I really appreciate that feedback.
The Gossip Less and Judge Less points are extremely valuable to me right now. I finally made the connection last night between the all the gossiping and judging that my husband and I do together towards others, and how we frequently inaccurately perceive judgments from one another. Does that make sense? I always feel like he is negatively judging me, though he tells me he isn’t – and I’m sure it’s a result of how often we are judging and gossiping about others together. It’s a bad habit that for a long time I assumed was just “a part of who I am.” Usually there isn’t any real anger or disgust there, and I often justify it by claiming I am only making observations. I want to cut it out of my thoughts and actions and replace it with love & compassion.
I want to add that I have used gossip and judgment to get positive feedback from others who I desire approval from – usually a laugh, or admiration/shock that *I’m* the one who’ll say what others won’t. Not the best way to get attention.
Liina, You are really about digging deep. I love that.
Your posts really touch me & speak to the work I am doing! Thank you for that.
One of my goals this year is to listen intently.
1,000 word blog, would have to be very good for me to read that much 🙂
If it’s a great story, I can hang in for 1000 words, but usually not!
I really appreciated this post and can relate to so much of it. The comments are thought-provoking as well.
I also feel like I “should” be writing longer posts, but I really enjoy blogs with shorter posts that get right to the point. It takes some of the pressure of blogging off, too, if you don’t feel like you have to write a thesis with ever post.
Am so glad I came across your blog (bless the power of Twitter). It’s autumn on my side of the world, but still I’m craving more order, less chaos in my life. And as you say, the surface clutter is important to clear, but I’m sure that removing the internal clutter will give me so much more peace.
On gossip: A man said “If you aren’t part of the problem or the solution and you are talking about it, it’s gossip”. Wise words. Also like the proverb found in the bible, “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.” 17:28
Such a useful post in so few words. Thank you.
The most profound and positive changes in my life over the past few years came when I embraced the notion that less can be more.
I’ve been following your blog for some time now but have never commented. I couldn’t agree more with all of your points. I am not a Chatty Patty, never have been. I’m quiet and introspective and listen very well and that is why I am always asked my opinions because I rarely give them but when I do is based on objective observation. I don’t care for gossip. I think we are all beautiful imperfect creatures and we all have our own roads to walk and whether we run, walk, or skip through them is noone’s business but ours. I believe gossip is based on unknown fears and lack of understanding and acceptance. We do not walk in others’ shoes so therefore we do not know why that person is the way he/she is. We are not bad, strange, weird, scary or whatever other word you care to apply to it, we are simply different, that’s all. Different. And in that difference is where the beauty of the world lies.
Love your blog. It always inspires….
Oh I’m still a chatty patty or as my mother would say ‘i could talk the hind leg off a donkey’ but i have a friend who as been my rock through this last year but because of an earlier road accident his thinking is slower and sometimes his speech. As he has spent time listening to me I have taken the time to listen to him. As for gossip, its easy to get drawn in and i do, but as soon has i realise i walk away.
I feel like, when I ran TMP, my best posts came during the time I ran the site as posts with 400 words or less. Leo loved that premise. I wish I would have stuck to that more. I feel that the more constraints you place upon your growth, your growth as an individual has more meaning, better structure.
Anyways…I praise this approach Courtney!
David Damron
Life Excursion
well done!
I have been re-reading Thoreau’s Walden. At one point he describes how he spent a whole day sitting on his doorstep watching the birds in the forest outside his house. Then he says: “I love a broad margin to my life.” Being this at ease with the quiet moments in life is what I aspire to.
Good post Courtney, and in terms of blog posts, I think the best approach is let them be as long as they need to be…
I’ve recently begun writing a series of specifically short posts of 100 words of less. This has hopefully had the same effect that writing haikus always has on my writing when I return to them – it helps it be more vivid, more focused, more memorable. Every word has its place and has to add something important to the overall post, or it gets cut. I’ve found it a very rewarding and enjoyable way to write.
I still write longer posts in between too, and recently wrote one of over 1100 words, quite possibly the longest post I’ve written yet. I just felt it needed the extra room to breathe and to meander a little though in this case.
I think it’s often good practice to pare down and edit posts to be more impactful and memorable. I can’t really see any circumanstances where it’s necessary to pad out a piece of writing just for the sake of meeting an arbitrary word count.
You would have to be good to keep me reading for 1,000 words but like the idea of 100 word blog – might try that one.
It’s really helped me focus, I’d recommend it Bev!
Perfect blog-post length.
Speak less… I’ve been working on this for over 2 years. I’m winning and my big mouth is losing, most of the time.
I agree with your words. Couple of thoughts if you don’t mind.
1st one is attributed to Lincoln:
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.”
2nd is about a book I bought called, Wanting More (click here to view: http://alturl.com/rwrim), which delves into some of the science of how/why humans grow into consumption addicts, etc.
3rd. We decided to move (I have a wife and 7 kids with 4 either at college or married) about 9 months ago and so my wife and three 16 year old sons packed up most of our stuff and put it in an extra room downstairs. But, then our move stalled. Funny thing is that I don’t miss any of the packed belongings except for the books and pics. It’s quite insane how much crap is in those boxes that I don’t remember.
Thank you for the ideas which will ring in my mental ears for a while.
Curtis Rasmussen