My guide to cutting through the bullshit and making things simple.

Why make things hard on yourself.  Over the past year, I’ve been dramatically changing the way I approach life.   To be honest I was confused.  The world felt like it was sitting on my shoulders and I was slowly being dragged down.    And then I took a stand.

This is how I simplified my life.   All of the following is ridiculously easy to achieve — you just need to take the first step.

Productivity

Lets start with being productive.  There was a time, when I thought to be productive you need a complex time tracking system, numerous lists, inbox workflows and other meaningless words.  You DO NOT need to read an entire book about being productive (you know what I’m talking about).  Lets stop being productivity nerds.

Productivity is very simple and takes just 3 steps:

1. Figure out what you actually need to do.  If you don’t need to do it right now or can’t – set yourself a reminder.
2. Write down the steps required
3. Complete the first steps

Don’t let people fool you into believing that productivity is anything more than the above — When first launching task.fm, I worked part-time in a Preschool (and enjoyed it), put in a full work day running Task.fm and managed to write 2 daily blog posts.  Yes it was hectic, but I managed with nothing more than a notepad and the above 3 steps.

You can spend your entire life trying to be uber productive without actually achieving anything.  I’ve stopped worrying about productivity by simplifying my work process to the those three  steps, which are repeated over and over again.

Paper

Look at all the bills, junk mail, notifications and other paper clutter you have lying around.  At one point, I thought I needed to hoard all of this for “just in case” type scenarios.  In reality though, I don’t need bank statements from last year (or even last month) and I certainly don’t need coupons, old magazines, and my course outlines from college.

Colin’s idea of a shredding party sounds like a wonderful concept.  I’ve gotten rid of as much paper as I possibly can.  I’ve kept sentimental items but the majority of paper was nothing more than just that…paper.

Another valuable step in simplifying paper, is to automate or eliminate the reasons behind paper.  For example, most bills can be sent via email and through internet banking and automatically paid.    You can also remove yourself from junk mailing lists.

Finally, any paper items you want to keep for future reference can be uploaded to Evernote and stored securely.

So simplifying paper can be done in just 3 steps as well:

1. Ask yourself if you really need to keep this piece of paper.  If not (be tough), shred and recycle.
2. Automate bills, receive digital statements and opt in for no junk mail.    Do some research into a virtual mailbox like VirtualPostMail or EarthClassMail which will scan your mail to have it viewed online like email.
3. Use evernote to store exiting paper digitally.

Income

I have no idea how the corporate world works, and that’s a wonderful thing.  I don’t need to worry about “getting that promotion”, or the global economic crisis or how to short stocks through a hedge fund (as you can see I have no knowledge in finance).  All I need to worry about is how I’m going to achieve my Target Monthly Income.

I’ve figured out how much I need to earn each month in order to support my world travels and my ideal lifestyle.  This is my target monthly income.  Its surprisingly little.  And it seems even more doable when I simplify it further by calculating my Target Daily Income.

I know exactly how much I need to earn every day.  Knowing this, I know how many Pro accounts on Task.fm I need to sell and if I need to supplement that income with some other source.

To simplify income requires (you guessed it), another 3 steps:

1. Figure out how much your ideal lifestyle costs and this will be your Target Monthly Income
2. Decide on how you will achieve this.  Through your current employment? through multiple sources?
3. Stick at it.  Achieving your TMI surprisingly doesn’t happen overnight.  I guarantee that if you stick at what your doing for the next 3 years, improving your efforts by just 1% every day.   You’re will absolutely, 100%, guaranteed to succeed.

This was a revelation for me.  Once I realized how simple income can be everything just clicked into place.  I stopped my endless search for “the next big opportunity” and simply looked at what I was doing now and how I could improve it just a little bit each and every day.

Savings and Finance

I’ve already simplified bills (by paying them automatically), and income is also now a walk in the park (not really, unless you’re a dog walker), so lets simplify saving.

Saving isn’t an art and requires no superhuman abilities.  No matter your situation, the more complex you make saving the less effective it will be.

My saving strategy is dead simple and I completely forget it even exists until I write a blog post like this.

1. Stop spending (see, Possessions below)
2. Open a high interest saving account.  One with no fees.  Mine has interest of 5% per annum (but can only be accessed via internet banking — a good thing).
3. Automatically put funds into the savings account each week.

Money goes from my regular bank account to the savings account automatically every week.  I don’t even realise it happens.  At the end of each month I also put excess funds (what I earned above my TMI) into the savings account.

I don’t have a complex investment strategy and I haven’t taken financial advice.  The ironic thing is, this simple strategy performed much better than if I was to invest in shares over the past two years.  My 5% return is on par with most of the financial advisors.

Possessions

I own way too much stuff.  And I hate the fact that I do.  I am jealous of the minimalists who have really simplified their possessions into just a few hundred items (and mainly less).  I don’t think I will ever get that minimal, but I have been reducing the amount of things I buy and also travel like a minimalist with just a partially filled carry-on.

I used to buy the latest and greatest.  I had one of the first iPod Touches in the country, I had to have the latest Macbook and most powerful PC.  What a waste of time and money I poured into these.  Now I just buy the absolute maximum of one gadget a year.  This year I got a Flip cam.  I would like to get an iPad, but as I’m not a journalist reviewing the latest and greatest, I think I can wait until next year.

I’ve also cut back on the number of clothes I have.   I love when I’m travelling because I have just a few items.  Living out of a suitcase is so simple and stress free.  You’re limited to just a few choices.  I hate shopping btw, so giving up clothes was very easy.

1. Stop buying Gadgets.  I know its tough.  Its tough for me too.
2. Live like you’re always travelling.  Stick to just a few essential items
3. Spend your money on experiences rather than nick nacks and clutter.

Workspace

If you’re lucky enough to work from anywhere, you’re workspace will probably be fairly simple to start with.  When travelling, my workspace is simply my laptop.   But taking a deeper look at my computing habits,  I realised I could still make things much easier on myself.

For example, I look at all the time I used to waste, updating software, making sure anti-virus subscriptions were up to date,  getting rid of spyware, reinstalling windows….you can see where this is going.  I much prefer a Mac.  I know this is controversial, but I am fully convinced a Mac is much simpler and easier to use.  Its still not perfect, but its much better.   You may have more control on a PC,  it might be able to do more.  But thats not my concern — I want to simplify.

1. Use a Mac (bitch at me if you want)
2. De-clutter your computer.  Get rid of past downloads, old documents, applications you haven’t used.
3. De-clutter your entire work enviroment including your desk.  Take everything off it and put back just a couple of items.  A clear enviroment produces a clear mind.

Your Health

I’m not a doctor and I’m not a health expert.  I’m also not perfect — but I do consider myself to be reasonably healthy.  I have to thank my parents for this.

Again, being healthy shouldn’t be hard and a complicated process.  I’m still learning a lot about health so let me know what could be done better in the comments.

1. Forget diets, cleanses, and all that crap…just eat low GI.  This is simple.  STOP eating processed food.  The more a food is processed the higher the GI (of course there are exceptions, but use common sense).  Do some research, find out what this means so my taxes won’t have to pay for your diabetes.
2. Simple exercise.  I did a little bit of research into some simple strength exercises I could do at home or on the road with no equipment.  I don’t do reps or sets (still don’t know what they are) and instead just focus on increasing week by week and not straining myself.  Its simple, noticeably effective and addictive.
3. Sport.  I play netball (don’t ask) once a week. Its fun and social.  This could easily be replaced with some simple jogging or a daily walk.   Just do something active.

Health is a complex issue so It is hard to simplify.  Everyday I read things about Vitamin D, sleep, multi-vitamins, cancers etc.  Let me know simple ways you manage your health.

Communication

Simplifying communication seems daunting.  I know how many emails you get, I know how much time you waste on IM – I do the same.   Simplifying communication doesn’t necessarily equal less communication.  Its really important that I respond to the emails and calls I get, but it can be done in a more efficient fashion.

1. Stop using Facebook for Communication.  I stand by my belief that it wastes more time than it saves.  Sure use it to occasionally see what friends are up to, but get the hell off Facebook Chat.
2. Don’t use Voicemail.  Lots of other options.  Get it transcribed, forward it to another phone or turn it off.
3. Don’t feel you need to be everywhere.  Email + Phone.  Simple.  I rarely use Skype, or IM and only when I need to discuss something specific.

In Conclusion

Simple is better.

Photo by – Thomas Hawk