5 December 2022

This week I want to continue talking to you about the concept of simplicity. But this week, I am now going to try to widen this theme still even a bit further, by now talking to you about the overall need to simplify your life!
As I have said before, these days we now live in an overly complex world, that just seems to get increasingly more complex. So much so, that we now seem to have forgotten how to just enjoy the simple things in our lives.
And the irony is that we often even complicate the simple things! As the philosopher, Confucius, once said: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated!”
Apart from just simplifying whatever you say or do in your life, you also need to step back once in a while, to see if you can simplify your life any further. You should also not get trapped in your own worries, or get stuck in your own head.
Simplicity always helps you to see things more clearly. It is not only about the present, it is also about looking to the future. True forecasting, whether on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis, must always be a simple thing to do.
Do not unconsciously confuse yourself by creating too many things for you to do or to think about. We overthink and complicate things too easily in our lives. Also, only focus on things that you can and need to do, not just on things that you want to do!
I have found that the best thing practically is to just keep a list of tasks to do, but to then try to constantly simplify those tasks, so that there are then only two to three main tasks to do on any given day, or at any given time.
You can also keep a ’Today’, ’Soon’ and ’Someday’ list, or a ‘Must’, ‘Could’ and ’Should’ list. You also have to put time for doing tasks in your diary or calendar. And remember, you usually need more time than you think something is going to take you!
There is also a real difference between putting things on your task list and putting things on your calendar. You can collect lots of tasks, but if tasks are important to you, you must also put time for them on your calendar, as you need time to do them.
So, this week, create more simplicity in your life and learn that you don’t need to always do everything in life. Just doing simple things also makes you feel better, so you don’t always have to do the major things – the minor things also count!




