For as long as January felt, February is drawing to a close just as fast. It’s wild how big of a difference only 3 days can make.
A theme for me this entire month has been about returning to simplicity. A big part of the practice was simplifying my daily routine. Early in the month I evaluated all of my activities to see where I could reduce time spent or eliminate (for a time).
As a result I removed Twitter and Instagram from my phone and immediately saw my phone’s screen time drop an hour.
I’ve been writing, journaling, and reading more in that time. Not only have I found that time more relaxing, but I’m coming up with more ideas to share with all of you.
To me, simplicity is a little different while still being related to minimalism. Many times the terms can be used interchangeably, while the difference is primarily connected to material goods.
Minimalism usually leads people to fewer and fewer “things” while simplicity is more concerned with a practice of stripping out the non-essential steps of anything in life.
Here’s the practice for this week. With your bullet journal or notebook close at hand, keep a record of each material item you use. I think you’ll find it interesting and less time consuming than you are imagining right now.
Be as strict or lax as you want, no one is keeping track of you. The goal is to be aware of which items you use regularly.
At the end of the week review the list, and take a moment to look around and consider the many household items you don’t use each week. Obviously some have very specific though irregular usage, but it’s easy to realize items like that immediately.
Instead think about all the items you don’t use regularly and their place in your life. If you only had those items recorded on the list, you could certainly get by – in fact you just did for a week!
This isn’t a “toss everything” email but more of a nudge to think about your relationship to the items you own. How much do we use for function versus items using our homes for storage and wallets for purchasing?
One of the best books on this subject is Essentialism. A nice primer on the book can be found on a recent episode of the Tim Ferriss Show.
If you have Netflix, check out the documentary Minimalism. Hosted by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, it’s a look at how much better life can be with less.
The film was directed by Matt D’Avella, and he goes in to even more detail on his YouTube channel. I recommend starting with the Minimalist playlist. Matt has become on of my favorite YouTubers recently.
Next week we’ll talk a little more about this subject but focus more on the mental game. Simplifying where we direct our time and attention is just as important as the physical items at home and work.
Have a great week,
Matt
Photo by Noémi Macavei-Katócz on Unsplash