Editor’s Note: This is a post in the series, Simplicity in Action.
Patti
I’ve always been a pretty simple person, but a few years ago I noticed that my life had become increasingly busy and cluttered, and I made a conscious effort to change that. I read books, magazine articles, and blogs about simplifying but noticed that most focused on getting rid of “stuff”. I believe, though, that having more with less begins with limiting and maybe even eliminating intangibles, so I decided to take a very serious look at what filled my days. I bought a small Moleskine journal and carried it with me everywhere for 2 weeks. Every few hours, I would stop what I was doing and jot down every single thing I had done in those last hours. Everything! After the 2 weeks were up, I was astounded at what I found. Here are a few of the changes I’ve made as a result.
- I realized I have never received an email that required a response or action on my part within the next 4 hours in order to avert some crisis; logically, then, I don’t need to check my email every few hours! I now check my personal email once a day and work email twice a day on work days only.
- I combine “like” activities and do them less often. For example, done assembly line fashion, I can fix 5 lunches in just a little over the time it took me to fix just 1 every night. Every Sunday evening, I prepare a baggie with 10 slices of bread and containers of enough tuna salad, lunch meat, soup, fruit, etc. for the week, fruit, and take them with me to work on Monday.
- I significantly eliminated time-wasters. At work, I no longer stop by a colleague’s office to chat; instead, I smile and greet colleagues when I walk by, but I keep moving. Not only does this save time, it also keeps me from engaging in what often makes up office chit-chat — gossip and griping. At home, I only turn on the TV when I’m going to watch something, and I’m much more selective about what I watch and how long I watch.
- I reduced the number of my fb friends and the amount of time spent on Facebook and other social media. At first, this was hard for me. As an empty-nester and fairly recent widow when I began this process, chatting on Facebook filled lots of lonely hours. I realized, though, that I was refreshing the screen every few minutes for an hour or more only to discover where a friend was having dinner or to look at pictures of cute kittens and puppies. All the while, my own very real, very cute dog lay asleep at my feet. I downloaded a program that allows me to set limits on my computer use, site by site, and I limit myself to 15 minutes of Facebook every day.
- I spent an hour calling and emailing about 98% of the companies that sent me fliers, ads, newsletters, etc., and asked them to remove me from their contact list.
- I eliminated “services” and subscriptions I didn’t use/need. I no longer have a land line, for example, and receive no monthly magazines. My local library subscribes to my 2 favorite magazines, and I borrow them once a month. I also cancelled my newspaper subscription; instead, I read the same paper online — this saves me both money and time, as I can quickly scan the main page and the sections that interest me.
- I no longer serve on committees or belong to clubs or groups out of a sense of obligation or habit. The sky has not fallen because I no longer say “yes” to every request or because I stepped away from some activities. I’ve made room for others to become involved and freed up time to pursue new activities that interest me.
What have I lost from these — and other — changes? A significant amount of physical and emotional busy-ness, stress, negativity, and pressure. What have I gained? Time to pursue things I’ve always wanted to do, peace, a more relaxed pace of life, and even a growing savings account!
Should you do what I did? Yes and no. Don’t just adopt my changes — or anyone else’s changes. Do, however, evaluate your own life, priorities, and wants/needs to determine the changes that are right for you at this point in your life. Enjoy the process, tweak as necessary, and create a lifestyle that works for you. And then — enjoy!
Patti is a mom, teacher, and writer. Her blog, A Life Redesigned, focuses on creating a new life after sustaining a life-changing event or loss. You can find her blog at www.aliferedesigned.com.
Love it — thanks for sharing!
Great insight! It’s amazing how cluttered our days can become by doing things that don’t add value or meaning to our lives while we could be pursing things we’ve always wanted to do or just simply having moments of quiet! Thanks for sharing:)
Hello Patt,
Thanks for providing an alternative view on minimalism and simplifying our everyday lives. I have been through the same procedure not long ago and it is a fantastic feeling of clarity I get after it. What is difficult here is that we are messing with our habits and routines, which can be rather difficult to change without being persistent.
Best,
Anders Hasselstrøm
Motivational speaker
what was the computer program to block sites???
Gaining time to focus on what you love and who you love is one of the biggest impacts of adopting simple living into your everyday life. And the wonderful thing is that we can start it at any age, we can teach it to our children and anyone who cares to read about it. Glad you are enjoying your journey!
Just some thoughts …. Elimination, simplification, grouping, expanding, diminishing, combining attributes, changing perspective and a few other actions form the core of creative thinking. Innovative thinkers do this without being conscious of this list but it can be used as a checklist by all. The philosophical question one must address is our inner attachment of every repeated activity. An old cherished item is often an anchor of our memory. In defense of keeping them, I must admit that my old notes, sketches and all take me right back to the same mindset that triggered a certain creativity at that time. This is very useful for working on new but similar projects. Then again, one can’t advance without giving up the old and entrenched patterns.
Good for you, for figuring out that “stuff” is just the tip of the ice berg with simplifying. It’s all about decluttering everything: our time, our thoughts, our relationships, etc.
At this point in my life, uncluttering clearly seems to start with my mind … or in other words, the external reality that I created appears to be a reflection of my mind. From that causal perspective, rearranging or eliminating what is outside is not the main issue. There comes a time when one may look at all that is outside as something one will be leaving behind in an instant. Once that realization happens, our attachment in the form of “mine” diminishes. Then the distinction between having less or having more will start to diminish. Clutter or no clutter, one becomes fully free.
Hi Patti,
Enjoyed your insights and journaling for that 2 weeks is a great idea. It’s amazing what eats up our time and space before we even realize it.
Congrats on your journey!
Great post! I love the journal idea. What was the name of the program you use to set limits on computer use? ~Lulu
Great post. I can really relate to this and am so thankful that those of you who take the time to write down your thoughts and experiences make them available to the rest of us. For many months now, I have been chipping away at the iceberg that is my clutter. The resulting lightness that I feel in my home and in my body every time I set out boxes and bags on the front porch for pick-up is usually enough to keep me going, but I also rely on being inspired after reading things like this. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for the post, this is great!
Hello Patti!
Liked reading your insights on how you simplified your life and how you tackled each intangibles one at a time. I did myself a few of them but my favorite would be #4 on removing Facebook friends and limiting the activity for I did the same. It’s very interesting how minimal and simplified social networking presence can be immensely useful.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Shaleen
It’s appropriate time to make some plans for the future and
it’s time to be happy. I have read this post and if I could
I wish to suggest you few interesting things or suggestions.
Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article.
I want to read more things about it!
Thanks for sharing, Patti! I’m so glad you’ve found peace 🙂
As we read this, millions upon millions of people live on this very planet with very little of everything we are trying to eliminate. To be aware of their existence all over the globe is a first step.
When our identity is separated from all else that we may think we own, real peace happens. To give up limited ownership is to gain ownership of all that exists.
Das