Turtles-Paradise

What is important in life? To me, there are few more important things than experiencing the new, spending time with the people I love, and watching the birds, the surf and the sun.

I haven’t written in here for almost two months. I’m not going to apologise though, for I had very little to contribute in that two months. I was struggling with figuring out who I was, and what I really wanted from life.

For a long time, I thought I wanted that modern, minimalist, entrepreneur lifestyle. The kind that writes best-selling ebooks on a laptop in Peru. I thought I wanted passive income, freedom from work. It’s a lifestyle that’s sold as the future of the internet, and it’s an unsustainable one. People who buy ebooks, write ebooks. There’s an entire glut of info-products on everything from how to tidy your house to rigging your blog to attract a stream of profitable visitors.

The truth is, that freedom sounds tempting. Mostly because of that laptop in Peru. But who wouldn’t want to quit their day-job, travel the world, and whack out a few thousand words on nebulous subjects here and there?

The truth is, every possible tip on developing yourself and making a success has already been written down, and is probably accessible for free. Ebooks mainly repackage existing information, or personalise it with an individuals person experiences in applying it. That can be useful, make no mistake. There’s a lot of good ebooks out there. But the idea of writing one, of churning out SEO friendly blog content, or of relying on the circular – admittedly huge – internet marketplace was not for me.

Over the past two months I’ve purged my to-do list. I cancelled experiments with Mechanical Turk, survey sites, get two dollars a month for hours of work type submissions. I refused to take on any more web-design projects, bar a couple of minor modifications for long-term clients. I finished projects that had been hanging around uncompleted for months (sorry, Mum!). My husband received his visa, that means he has 99% of the rights and obligations of a British Citizen, and can stay here indefinitely.

And around two weeks ago, I realised my to-do list was empty. Done. Nothing left. It was the oddest feeling to be able to come home from my day-job, and just relax. Play a video game. Cook something nice. Or just lie down and drift into peaceful rest.

It has been a long time since I’ve had that amount of mental space.

It feels good. Really good. So good I’m thinking of patenting it as the new ‘cure-all’ drug and selling it for forty-seven bucks apiece. Only, sadly, you can’t bottle and sell free-time.

Anyway. All this is besides the point – the point is that I had some time to think about what I really want, and what makes me happy. The truth is, we are all different. What works for someone else, even your favourite guru, might not work for you.

So make your own mistakes, and learn your own lessons. There’s a bit of advice that’s been floating around for a long time.

Most of us have too much stuff. Whether it is a pile of junk mail on the kitchen table, or a closet stuffed full of old board games and broken toys, clutter is insidious. The worst part is – once you get used to it, you don’t even see it anymore.

Tip 1: Throw out 50 things

Grab a box and do a fast sweep of the house. Grab empty cans, junk mail, unused toiletries, bits of paper with scribbled notes on the back, out-of-date food, anything that’s broken or unused. Don’t give yourself time to think: just clear that clutter now!

Tip 2: Get everything out

To streamline your kitchen, your office, or your bedroom, pick a day when you don’t have much else planned and pull everything out of the cupboards, closet, wardrobe and drawers. I did this with my bedroom recently, and it was a little scary to see how many random t-shirts I had acquired, most of them advertising things.

Put the most essential items back – so put a good knife back into your kitchen, and put your clean underwear back into your bedroom. Put everything else in a box. If you need it, get it out and put it back into the kitchen (or kitchen). After six months, give the box to a charity shop – without opening it.

After all – how many of us use paperclips anymore? How many times have we actually used that juicer? How many socks do we actually wear in a week?

Tip 3: Do 15 minutes a day

The Flylady website recommends spending 15 minutes a day decluttering. You can also get rid of one item a day, or do one drawer a day, or whatever small decluttering action you feel happy with. The key to this decluttering technique is little and often.

Tip 4: Get rid of Storage

It’s a harsh measure, but it works. Get rid of your sideboard, your free-standing wardrobe, your second fridge. Move to a smaller house. By forcing clutter out from the dusty drawers and dark spaces you force yourself to confront it. You might be amazed at what you find. Old pez dispensers, expired medication, bits of lego?

Tip 5: Scan It

We live in the digital era, and whilst digital clutter can be a problem in itself, it had to be said I’d rather my paperwork was virtual. Don’t print off every email and file it – send your files to your email.

PDF scanners like the ubiquitous ScanSnapcan turn all your tax returns, receipts, utility bills and other documents into PDF files.

I have one of these at work, and it’s pretty awesome. But if you don’t have a lot of paperwork, then don’t get it.

Even better is to opt out of paper-statements, bills and so on. Most companies let you get your bills and statements via email now – and they will often give you a bit of a discount for saving them the cost of postage.

Save a tree. Ditch your filing cabinet. What could be better?

Tip 6: Swap It or Rent it

One way to avoid getting clutter in the first place, is to rent or swap for what you need. Bookhopper is like PaperbackSwap for those in the UK. It lets you exchange your books with other readers, thus ensuring that you have both a plentiful supply of reading material, and you don’t have a big pile of books cluttering up your house.

Renting is often easier than buying. Renting a car, for example, can be cheaper than owning one – especially if you only use your car occasionally. Renting a TV over the World Cup period would work out cheaper than buying one, if that’s the only thing you’ve watched in the last four years.

Tip 7: Organise your Food

Many of us buy ingredients for dishes we end up only cooking once. The expensive pantry ingredients often sit around afterwards, taking up space and otherwise turning themselves into clutter. If you hated it, or it’s faded into something unusable – get rid of it. I once bought a spice jar of saffron for a specific dish, and it was so eye-wateringly expensive I never used it again. The result was that the taste faded and it ended up going in the bin. A total waste!

For any ingredients you have left, find some meals you can use them in, and then use them! Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Buy your food once a day and buy only what you need. Keep your fridge clean and mostly empty, and you’ll never end up looking into it and seeing a pile of junky salad dressings but nothing to eat.

For your dry staples, get only what you know you will eat. Porridge oats are awesome to have – unless you never eat porridge. We all have four or five meals we always end up cooking – and it’s usually beans on toast, not duck l’orange.

Tip 8: Replace Multiple Devices with a Multi-Purpose Device

If you own lots of equipment, and you use that equipment, it may be worth upgrading to a multi-purpose device. Instead of having an mp3 player, a digital camera, and a mobile phone, you combine the three and get a smart phone.

Instead of a scanner, a printer and a photocopier, you get a combination all-in-one device.

Be careful with this one – it’s easy to get sucked into ‘upgrade’ mode. I have a mobile phone and a digital camera, but I don’t want the monthly fees associated with a smart-phone, and I don’t use my phone often enough to make it worth replacing.

Tip 9: Share with Someone

If you read a lot, share your books with someone else who likes to read a lot. Not only do you combine your libraries, you also get someone to talk about your latest read with.

Share camping equipment with another outdoorsy couple, share fitness equipment with another fitness fanatic. Get a communal lawnmower for the neighbourhood.

Tip 10: Don’t Replace Things

When your jeans finally get just too many holes in to wear, or your washing machine leaks all over your floor, get rid of it. But don’t replace it. Learn to live without your jeans, and start using a laundromat or washing your clothes in the bathtub.

When you shampoo runs out, see if you can make-do with baking soda.

When your tent poles snap, go camping with a poncho instead.

When you spill beer all over your laptop, unplug. Internet cafes and libraries can fill the void, and you may find your life substantially better for not being able to check your emails every five minutes.

For every ‘time-saving’ device there is usually a cost. The cost of storing, cleaning, maintaining, replacing. If we went back to (some) of the labour intensive methods, we might find we don’t need to work 80 hours a week just to afford all of our time-saving toys.

What’s the hardest thing to get rid of for you? What have you decluttered today?

One of the things that can be difficult when you simplify and downsize your life is what to do with the time you have acquired. Now, I’m a long way from having a 4-hour workweek. But I’m also a lot better off than when I was working a 50 hour full-time job, and working part-time at the weekends - alongside a bunch of other commitments.

The trouble is, it’s very easy to fill up the free time with some more useless activity. You might end up watching more television, or start mindlessly surfing the internet. You could get involved in a bunch of things you feel like you should be doing – even though you don’t really want to. Lots of minimalists tout their favourite activities as part of the minimalist life-style – but if you don’t like yoga, then don’t do it.

One of the first things I started doing was watching old TV shows that I had never had
time for before. I started watching X-Files, for example. And whilst I do enjoy the show, I have never made time for TV before because it just wasn’t that important to me.

And before I knew it, all my newly acquired free time was being eaten up by a bunch of little pointless things – reading random pages on wikipedia. Tracking the news about the UK budget in pin-point detail. Surfing internet forums. Watching Family Guy.

I needed to make sure I was spending time on the things that were important to me.

I should add that I don’t think we’re designed to be 100% productive all the time. As humans, we require down time – time to play and relax. But we should make sure we’re relaxing the way we want to, and not the way society dictates that we should.

• I love reading hard-boiled crime novels, and related genres.
• I love doing Yoga – and the best part is I was finally able to touch my toes yesterday after weeks of practise.
• I love sitting outside, drinking tea and just watching the sky.
• I love listening to cheesy 90′s music and dancing.
• I love rambling through fields and getting lost.

These are the things I should be filling my extra time with – not watching X-Files, or reading about David Cameron.

What do you like doing? Can you do it now?

There are two approaches to everything. The first approach is the ‘super-project’. That’s when you commit to something and run at it full-tilt. It’s when you go on an extreme weight-loss diet, a clutter purge, a radical shift in your career, or a total life-style overhaul.

The second approach is the ‘little and often’. That’s when you commit to slowly replacing unhealthy food with healthy alternatives, de-clutter slowly by giving away one item a day, or gradually educate and transition yourself over time into a new way of being.

Both methods have plus points and minus points. The ‘super-project’ can be high-risk. It can be overwhelming, it can cause us to burn our bridges, and it can be difficult to sustain. It can also be a fast and effective means of forcing yourself to follow through, a kind of Phoenix like rebirth of yourself.

The ‘little and often’ method is often more sustainable, less dramatic and safer. It can be an effective means of gradually transforming your life and making sure you have really thought it through and built the necessary foundations. You slowly reduce your spending in one area. You slowly tidy and de-clutter your house, drawer by drawer, cupboard by cupboard. You commit to a ten year plan, instead of a ten day plan. You can also spend a lot of time spinning your wheels, getting rid of something just to buy two other things, reduce your spending in one area just to have it creep up somewhere else.

The Art of Routines

A routine is a habitual set of actions that is performed regularly. A routine is often done on auto-pilot. We come home, we turn the TV on, and we stick dinner in the microwave while watching Family Guy. A routine can also be a small thing that leads us to the goal we want. We could come home, switch into our trainers, and go for a twenty minute run.

The key is to make sure our routines are in line with what we want to achieve. How do we make sure that happens?

Decide on what you want

The first step is to know what it is you actually want. Do you want to start a side business? Cook more meals at home? Save 50% of your income? Be able to run a marathon? You can’t work towards a goal, until you know where you’re going. Otherwise you just go around in circles.

Figure out the little steps that get you there

Start a side-business? You need a client. Where do you get a client? Figure out a small list of actionable things you can do, and then pick a time of day to them. For example, you could send out three leaflets a day to local businesses. You could do this every morning before breakfast, or last thing at night before sleeping.

If it’s the ability to run a marathon, you need to go running frequently. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat a salad a day. And so on. You’re a smart person, you don’t need me to tell you what you need to do.

Keep it Simple

This is a blog about simplicity after all. Just pick one daily routine. Don’t start a side-business, go on a diet, commit to run a marathon, and take something to the charity shop every day. You want one habit that you do daily. Not ten habits that you forget and run out of time for.

Once it becomes habitual, you can start a new one. Around thirty days is probably good. And try giving up habits too, for every new one you bring in.

Remember you have a lifetime

You don’t have forever. If you keep putting it off, you’ll wake up when you’re seventy and realise you never did anything. But also – realise you have an entire lifetime. You don’t need to do everything urgently. Learning a new language can wait until you have your health sorted. Ten years is a long long time. You can spend a year messing around with one thing, and then move on to something else.

It’s about the journey – not the destination.