Simplicity came up as a subject after trying to answer various questions and comments in my blog, and in social media. It was I would say I prompt time for me, because, at the time, I was trying to cope with a lot of clutter in my job and life.
Why Have I Focused On Making Things Simpler?
My focus at the time was habit modifications and how these can be boosted up a behavioral change! I feel I had things not anymore used and I kept on collecting things, without I had a proper “place” for them!
So I started to declutter my life and picking up small things, here and there to help me establish some new, better, habits. Passive, as well as active habits.
Small habits, such as:
- Do not keep too many things, unless you absolutely need them
- Delete more freely all the things you won’t need it in the future
- Do not open email first thing in the morning. Try to do the most important things instead and later check your e-mail
- Do not collect or pile up. Delete or organize them.
- Block time for important things (like important projects, reflection time, meditation time, appointment with your significant other or spouse, etc.)
- Not subscribing to anything I have not immediate use of (newsletters, magazines, sites, etc.) Moreover unsubscribed on anything I am not going to use and keep focusing on the things and information I need now for achieving my goals.
- Try anything the avoid FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in your daily practice.
- Declutter whatever has been gathered around and make readily available the rest.
- Do not start each day with burdens. If there are things do not take care, add them the important to your project management software and delete the rest.
- Try not to carry previous mental “errant” on next day. Try to finish all your chore on the same day!
- Always take some time to focus on yourself and your goals (make an appointment with yourself and stick to it)
- Reinforce all the good habits, help you promote yourself and your goals and eliminate whatever keep you bind to the old behaviors your want to change.
Simple rules, lead to simple strategies for everyday tasks.
The Simplicity Mental Model!
All these small strategies and tips resulted in a previous article: “On Simplicity“. But finish it up, I felt I wasn’t done. It was good (according to your comments) but not excellent.
I felt there were more things to do, more research to be done, in order put these small tips in their real context. I needed a framework, to help me think and act in a simple and efficient way.
It is the way I work. I try to find all the core principles lead to the things I examine and use, the why and how behind any reason.
The same thing happens with simplicity as, well. The simplicity was not the end, was the medium to streamline my work and make my life a lot easier.
To do that, I needed more information and data, to feed my research. One part came from you, yes, you friend and fellow leader in LI community. It came via my e-mail and your comments, the things I wasn’t capable of making you understand, and the things need a lot of clarification.
The other part came from my own research trying to understand the simplicity as a leveraging factor for what I do.
As a compulsive note-taker, I try to record, your questions along with my ideas, trying to match and provide answers, first to my own questions and second to your own.
Another Book On Productivity?
The results of this venture, along to my ideas and certain things I collected here and there, was resulted in a new book about what simplicity means and how to use it effectively in your life and business.
Its name is Simplicity: Exploring the path of least resistance and focused on the practical things helped me to focus on what matters.
My idea wasn’t to produce a new book on productivity, per se (actually I wasn’t intending to write a book at all) but to provide a practical guide on the things you need to think and reflect upon:
- BEFORE try to apply a new, more simple, lifestyle and ways of work
- DURING your way of trying to simplify your life and business and
- AFTER you have established some new behaviors related to a more simpler living
You see, what I have found, was that simplicity was a whole deal. It is not an application, it is an operational system and adopting it, would retrospectively influence every detail of your life and work.
Simplicity is not your ordinary how-to productivity book. It addressing many things concerns people today and aims at providing practical solutions for long-lasting results.
About The Simplicity Book
Spending time to research and write this book help me understand that what I call “simplicity” is what other people called effectiveness.
Somewhere along the line, writing makes me understand that simplify “enough” and adjusting the things you use to your way of life and business (not the other way around), might be the foundation for enhanced effectiveness and productivity.
That’s why “simplicity” is a winning strategy. Because among other things:
- Reduces clutter and makes you focus on what lay ahead of you
- Eliminates the unnecessary, proving space for the important things
- Poses a sharp distinction between what have to be done and what should be done
- Helps you focus on the important things of you life and keeps your priorities aligned to your goals
- Makes you take action to provide results, to plan for moving closer to your goals and removes the “burden” of thinking too much emotionally for tomorrow’s affairs.
- Makes you raise and keep your limitations while finding ways to overcome your shortcomings
- Keeps on making you finding ways to improve the things around you and develop things have value for yourself and the other people.
- Gain you time and reduce stress
What would you say? Would you give “simplicity” a try?
About the book, you asked? Oh, you can find more information, here or buy it on Amazon. Either way, I am waiting you for some more discussion on “simplicity“.
How can you do that if you don’t buy my book? Well, that’s a problem! But not a large one.
I urge you to buy my book and find for yourself what “simplicity” can do for you!
But if you can’t, Â you can find the basic principles of the simplicity I am talking about, in my article “On Simplicity“.
You can use the ideas there to start a discussion or, more interesting, to write your own questions for your own life and business.
And if you can find it difficult to check on this article, I transcribe it to a very beautiful PDF for you to have it as a reference for your own researches.
You can download your FREE copy, here!
I hope what contains can help you as it helps me to simplify many aspects of my life!