“The simple life is an authentic life.”
Inside Minimalism Vol.1
Our inaugural ebook of 50 essays on simple living
It is available in ePub, MOBI, and PDF versions, so it will work on pretty much any device, like your computer, iPad, smartphone, or Kindle.
You can also download from Amazon, Google Books, and the Play Store.
Note: You can still subscribe to our Inside Minimalism series and receive new simple living essays to your inbox every week. Subscribers also receive other perks including special discounts.
8 Ways to Distraction-Free Living
Simple methods to staying focused and letting go
By Carl Phillips
Life can become full of distractions; some big, some small. These add up and make it difficult for us to truly focus and get anything worthwhile done. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose a path of less distraction by combining some of the following.
1. Become a Minimalist (Sort Of)
Seems obvious, right? Personally, I don’t consider myself a minimalist in the purist sense. However, minimalism and other key concepts (simplicity, 80/20) do allow one to focus on the important. They are tools we can all learn to make use of in our lives. A fundamental part of minimalism is stripping away the excess, until we are left with what matters most. This is fertile ground for a focused approach to living our lives.
2. Simplify Commitments
Overcommitting ourselves is one of the biggest reasons many of us get distracted. It’s also a big reason so many of us end up stressed and feeling like we never have enough hours in the day. Say yes to less. Get comfortable with the liberal use of a polite, but firm, ‘no’ in your vocabulary. Value the white space in your diary and be careful to protect it.
3. Single Task
Quite why multi-tasking is celebrated in our culture remains one of life’s mysteries. Multi-tasking has always been a great way to get average to poor results, from more than one thing at a time. Does this sound like an ideal to be chased? Single tasking is the way to get things done well, distraction-free.
4. Unplug
More of our time than ever before is spent plugged in—quite literally. The online world, and our mobile devices, can become a constant distraction if we don’t use them with discretion. We need to make time to unplug on a regular basis.
5. Avoid Chasing Random Acts of Variety
Variety can indeed be the spice of life but it can also be a curse if we’re constantly distracted by the bright, shiny, and new. Maybe staying committed to something and improving it is also ‘a spice of life’.
Know when to pivot in life and when to stick.
6. Appreciate the Power of Narrow and Deep
In an age when distractions are more plentiful than ever, many of us end up spreading ourselves wide but never really to any depth. Reconnecting with our ability to narrow our aim and dig deep becomes ever more rare. But digging deep brings its own rewards and can often support our biggest successes.
7. Say No
Most of us default to yes as our response of choice, to any request on our time. We may even see this as something to strive for. The truth is, most of us need to get more comfortable with saying no, more often.
Too many yeses add up to us overcommitting, juggling too much and becoming distracted. Better to be focused instead and truly commit to what we say yes to.
8. Turn the Volume Down
We live in a noisy and stimulating world. While this can add to the richness of our lives, it can also be one almighty distraction. Sometimes we just need to turn the volume down on life a little, detach from the glow of our devices and events in our calendar, and focus instead.
Life is much too precious to be distracted all the time. We can never truly enjoy the moment or appreciate the thrill of being in flow when we are flitting from this to that. Identify and commit to what really means something to you. Rewire yourself for a focused life—it’s a good life.
On Being Joyful
When did we stop the pursuit of joy and start focusing on coping?
By Cindy Johns
When I teach my yoga class, my students attend in an effort to help cope with their lives of stress and overwhelm. They often ask me to provide them with strategies to deal with their anxiety and ways to work through their depression. Or, they’re clamoring for new methods to be more productive—to do more and be more. What I’ve noticed, though, is that nobody asks me how they can find more joy.
Today, I practice and teach yoga because it makes me feel joyful and peaceful—like I’ve reconnected with myself. But, if I’m being honest, I first fell in love with yoga because it helped me cope with a life that was slowly suffocating my joy.
Our system has cast our eyes down and outward while looking for external validation. Everything seems to be done with the motivation of fitting yourself into the system and forgetting your true purpose—or worse yet, not attempting to find your true purpose. As a result, things like yoga and meditation become coping mechanisms and ways to help us better fit in rather than a means to joy and self-expression.
So now I am planning each class I teach as a celebration of life. Progressing through movement as to shrug off the day’s worries and building to poses to remind my participants of the magnificent beings they are. My desire is that they leave each class with a reminder of how joyful it is to be alive.
And in doing so, I’m reminded of my own privilege in providing my fellow humans with an ancient practice that brings them back to who they are—something removed from our modern-day matrix. That itself fills with me with joy, and it is my simple service.
Over time, I’ve learned that looking for the simple ways to serve people in joy is how I find my joy, relieve my stresses, and settle anxiety.
A Little More of Less
A few other articles we think you might enjoy…
The Person You Want to Be Won’t Happen By Accident by Joshua Becker
7 Quick Reminders to Help You Simplify Everything by Courtney Carver
Wants and Needs by Seth Godin
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