The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life

Cross out those two hours of television each night, and you’ll gain over half a day each week. That’s quite a windfall!

I once saw an interview with a prolific author who had turned out hundreds of books over the course of his career—and could write a single one in a matter of days. His secret? He had developed a computerized template for outlining his plot, and simply changed the premise, locations, characters, and other details for each new story. In essence, he h

Consider the following scenario. You visit the grocery store in the morning to buy your food for the week. After lunch, you realize you forgot about your dry cleaning, and hop back in the car to get it. Later that afternoon, you remember you have to make a bank deposit, so you’re out the door again. That evening, your family decides they want to wa

Saying “no” to new duties ensures that your current ones aren’t neglected, and that the people who deserve your time most aren’t cheated out of it; in essence, it’s saying “yes” to your present responsibilities and your loved ones. Furthermore, it’s also saying “yes” to yourself: scheduling a little “me time” is essential to your personal developme

A common example of such standardization is document templates. If you often need to produce paperwork with a specific format—such as an invoice, memo, or letter—save a blank version of it as a template. Then, you can dispense with all the setup each time you start a new one. Simply open the template, save it as your new file, and get right to work

On the other hand, perhaps you get manicures because your friends do, watch television to keep up with water cooler chat, or read certain magazines out of habit. Here’s your opportunity to do some purging! When we ask ourselves why we do certain activities, we may be surprised at the answers; we probably never stopped to think about it before. Such

Now, imagine your ideal day. Which activities would you include, and which would you omit? Of course, you’ll probably still need to go to work and cook dinner; but would you visit the park instead of the coffee shop, or do yoga instead of surfing the Internet? How closely does your ideal schedule match your real one?

Let’s take a breather, and reminisce about how carefree and happy we were in college. Not coincidentally, that period was likely when we had the least amount of stuff. Life was so much simpler then: no mortgage, no car payments, no motorboat to insure. Learning, living, and having fun were far more important than the things we owned. The world was

Embrace “good enough” Have you ever spent too much time writing the perfect email, cooking the perfect dinner, preparing the perfect presentation, or finding the perfect gift? (I know I have!) The quest for perfection can throw our to-do lists in a tailspin; what we should have been able to complete in short order takes us two, three, or four times