The First Rule of Simplifying: Identify the Essential (or, How to avoid the Void)

Every Wedneday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits.

“Our lives are frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify” - Henry David Thoreau

We talk a lot about simplifying your life on Zen Habits, from simplifying your possessions and clutter to simplifying the stuff you need to do. But recently I had a comment from a reader who said that the problem is that he doesn’t know what to do with himself after cutting out television and other time-wasters from his life.

The simple answer: Do what you love.

His comment, while understandable, illustrates a common misunderstanding of simplification, and it’s a good point that I thought is worth discussing. The misunderstanding: that simplifying is basically just cutting stuff out, leaving an emptiness or void. People think that it leaves you with a boring life, and nothing fun. They couldn’t be more wrong.

The real goal of simplifying, and the First Rule, is to first identify what is essential, what you love, what is important to you — and then cut out all the rest that distracts you and keeps you from doing what’s important.

We have so much stuff in our lives, from possessions to things we need to do to information coming in to visual and emotional clutter, that we are overloaded. The result? We end up doing a lot of things that aren’t really important to us, because we have so much other stuff to do that has crept into our lives and that we leave in our lives, unexamined.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, Socrates must have been an excellent simplifier — as evidenced by the fact that he just wore a robe and sandals. In any case, in order to simplify our lives, we must first examine our lives. What is important, and do all the things in our lives give us value? These are the questions to ask, and if you find the answers, simplifying is extremely easy.

Let’s look at how finding what is essential, what we love, and what is important to us, can help us simplify, and what it leaves in our lives:

The first question: What is most important to me? What do I love to do? The answer is different to every person. For me, it’s simple: I love my wife and kids, I love writing, I love reading, and I love helping others. For others, it may be hiking or mountain biking or creating music or anything, really. Answer this question first.
The second question: what are the things going on in my life, the things I do every day and every week and month, and how are they related to what is important to me? If you are going out drinking with the guys, and it’s not really important to you, and it’s stopping you from doing what is important, that’s a candidate for simplifying. Examine all your commitments, and ask yourself if they are really important to you, if they give you great value for your time, and if they are related to what is truly important.
Possessions: The same questions can be asked of all the stuff you own — do you really love them? Are they truly essential? Another question you can ask, to clarify your thinking: If my house burned down, which few things would I want to replace? Get rid of all the rest. They leave clutter and stress and keep you from enjoying the stuff you really love.
Everything else: This same concept can be applied to anything else in your life — your work, the information you read every day, the television programs you watch, the people in your life. Know what’s essential, what you love, what’s important … and get rid of the rest.
What you’re left with: If you get rid of the extraneous stuff, the stuff that’s not related to what’s important to you, what do you have left? Just the important stuff. Just the stuff you really love to do. When you get rid of the other stuff, when you cut, let’s say, television and hours of Internet surfing and beer drinking from your life, don’t just cut it out — remember what’s important and what you love to do, and do that instead. For me, that means spending time with my family instead of working, that means writing or reading instead of watching TV, that means helping others instead of going to the mall (something I want to do more of).

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying.

See also:

The First Rule of Simplifying: Identify the Essential (or, How to avoid the Void)

Every Wedneday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits.

“Our lives are frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify” - Henry David Thoreau

The simple answer: Do what you love.

Let’s look at how finding what is essential, what we love, and what is important to us, can help us simplify, and what it leaves in our lives:

The first question: What is most important to me? What do I love to do? The answer is different to every person. For me, it’s simple: I love my wife and kids, I love writing, I love reading, and I love helping others. For others, it may be hiking or mountain biking or creating music or anything, really. Answer this question first.
The second question: what are the things going on in my life, the things I do every day and every week and month, and how are they related to what is important to me? If you are going out drinking with the guys, and it’s not really important to you, and it’s stopping you from doing what is important, that’s a candidate for simplifying. Examine all your commitments, and ask yourself if they are really important to you, if they give you great value for your time, and if they are related to what is truly important.
Possessions: The same questions can be asked of all the stuff you own — do you really love them? Are they truly essential? Another question you can ask, to clarify your thinking: If my house burned down, which few things would I want to replace? Get rid of all the rest. They leave clutter and stress and keep you from enjoying the stuff you really love.
Everything else: This same concept can be applied to anything else in your life — your work, the information you read every day, the television programs you watch, the people in your life. Know what’s essential, what you love, what’s important … and get rid of the rest.
What you’re left with: If you get rid of the extraneous stuff, the stuff that’s not related to what’s important to you, what do you have left? Just the important stuff. Just the stuff you really love to do. When you get rid of the other stuff, when you cut, let’s say, television and hours of Internet surfing and beer drinking from your life, don’t just cut it out — remember what’s important and what you love to do, and do that instead. For me, that means spending time with my family instead of working, that means writing or reading instead of watching TV, that means helping others instead of going to the mall (something I want to do more of).

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying.

See also:

Posted on 14 June 2007 in Simplicity |
Digg |
Del.icio.us |
Stumble |
Print

Comments (11)

Andy Says:

June 14th, 2007, 7:27 am

Excellent article! Certainly this is the key to happiness in my book.

Although I think perhaps you could only follow it to it’s logical end if money were not a problem for you; lack of money is the great complicator.

rob Says:

June 14th, 2007, 8:42 am

As much as it is about getting the unimportant stuff out of our lives, I also think that it is about picking those things we want to do more of - be it time with the kids, writing, photographing, etc. To just simplify isn’t enough. You have to make some conscious choices about what you want in your life, not just what you don’t want.

HopefulGirl Says:

June 14th, 2007, 12:08 pm

I love the advice and the article, but here is my question…does anyone have great advice on how to figure out what I love? I think some of the best advice ever given is to ‘do what you love and find a way to make money doing it’ but my struggle has alway been…what do I love? How do I sort through the things I am good at? How to I drown out the voices of outside pressure telling me what I SHOULD love, and how do I find out what I DO love?

Alex Says:

June 14th, 2007, 12:11 pm

I must disagree on the “possessions” item

“If my house burned down, which few things would I want to replace? Get rid of all the rest. ”

There are many possessions that you can’t get rid of, although they are easily replaceable. If my house burned down, I probably wouldn’t jump to save my fridge - yet, I can’t live without one. Same goes for cooking tools, clothes, etc..

Marc Says:

June 14th, 2007, 14:22 pm

Keep in mind too that interests and things that you love doing change throughout your life; they have in mine, especially now that I have a beautiful garden that I enjoy working in. :)

Right now you may think: I’m going to get rid of my X because I am not interested in doing Y anymore. A few years down the road you may think: Gee, I really actually enjoyed doing Y and now that Z is not a part of my life anymore, I now have time for Y again and wish I would have kept X, as buying a new X is cost-prohibitive now. Depends of course what X is and if you have storage room for it and if it will deteriorate over time if not used.

Of course all this depends on personality: if you are constantly changing your mind about what you like to do then maybe you need to address that shortcoming and find some consistency in your life (or maybe that’s exactly what you enjoy about life). So long as you don’t complain all the time that your life is too busy and don’t do anything about it. ;)

Leo Says:

June 14th, 2007, 16:36 pm

Great comments, guys! A couple of responses:

@Alex: Actually, I didn’t mean to imply that you should only keep items that you would save during a fire … I meant what would you replace after a fire. Obviously you’d need to replace your refrigerator and cooking utensils, but would you replace your fondue set and juice maker? (Just an example — I don’t know if you actually have these items.)

@HopefulGirl: I wrote an article on this for Lifehack.org: How to find your passion. Hope this helps, and good luck!

@Marc: You bring up a good point, but I think that your changing interests shouldn’t stop you from simplifying. It’s common for people to keep stuff because they might want it someday … however, you will often end up with a load of stuff that you don’t actually use, just in case. My interests change all the time, but I never regret getting rid of stuff. Most of the time, I’ve forgotten I got rid of it in the first place, but even if I become interested in something two years later, I can usually replace it for cheap, and I didn’t have to store that stuff (plus a bunch of other stuff I wasn’t interested in) for two years.

Jo'el Says:

June 14th, 2007, 16:50 pm

Some months ago I wrote on my notepad:
“Surround yourself with things that inspire you! Reading material, television, music, people…! Skip that nonsensical shit!”

Since then I’ve incorporated this thought into my ’system’. I now regularly ask myself: does this article/tv show/music/person inspire me? Does it meet my standards regarding quality? Or sometimes I just ask: do I really want to be doing this, do I really want to spent my time on this?

For example, regarding music, I might listen to a cd just because I have it in my collection. I’ve been giving away quite a few cd’s lately because I concluded: this is just average, it’s not the kind of music that gives me that wow-feeling. Why waste my time on average music when there’s so much music that really touches me inside?

Same goes for watching a movie: I don’t find it so difficult anymore to turn it off after 15 minutes or so when I find it’s not the kind of movie I expected it to be and not worthy of my time. As for people, it’s worth so much to spent time with people that inspire you and help you stay focussed on what matters to you, as opposed to people you just hang around with just because you’re used to.

In short: I keep a close eye on the quality level of all things I consume and spent time on. This helps greatly in identifying the esssential.

@ HopefulGirl: these questions you pose… sounds like the questions that led me onto a quest for my self. I think it took me 7 years (from my 18th until my 25th, maybe it’s called “growing up”?) to get an understanding of what I really wanted. The key is in getting to know yourself, at least in my case it was :)

AgentSully Says:

June 14th, 2007, 23:41 pm

Well done! I think of the time I used to waste looking at catalogs, magazines that weren’t important to me, bad TV, etc. I still have to watch the tendency to waste time because it’s easier than the work I have to do (and my work is what I love!). Usually though these days, my time is so tight that I don’t have the spare time to do those things anyway.

Your last line is great: “simplifying….leaves space in your life for what you really want to do”

Isobel Says:

June 15th, 2007, 0:43 am

My grandfather always said: “You spend the first 40 years of your life collecting things and the second 40 years of your life trying to get rid of what you collected in the first 40 years. Doing the second 40 years is always more difficult than doing the first.”

Maybe we could add this idea to Leo’s blog of a few days ago in which we could read what to teach our kids for life.

Pril Says:

June 15th, 2007, 16:19 pm

Sounds great! but how do you take that and apply it to something you love EG:
i love doing web work! and there is a posistion that is open for a web master…
i never done sales but i really really want to! my problem is picking!
i love them both! i have passion for both! (even though i don’t know how well or how good i will be in sales) and (i do know i can do the web) I love a challenge! i love this challage of picking!
but picking can be hard!
BTW i’m picking sales but how does one make a choice between two things they TRUELY LOVE.
someone said you can have it all just not at the same time!
if so how do you pick what you want to do first!
any tips to simplify that!???

Leo Says:

June 17th, 2007, 8:07 am

Hi Pril … that’s a tough question, but if you really love both and want to do both, try to find a solution that incorporates both. Find a job that relates to sales and web work. For example, create a service where you do web work for people, and then sell it to people who need it. :)