Simplify

 “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

The complexities we form within our minds is what overwhelms us. Overthinking, overanalyzing, overcomplicating; it’s so easy to make things more perplexing. We live in a society where nobody has the time to do anything. Our attention span has shrunk. Dedicating more than a few seconds to anything seems hard. 

But why?

There is too much on our minds. We always think there is a new thing to see, to explore, to hear. With so much going on, it is impossible to focus on the task at hand.

So how do we solve it?

Simplify.

Every morning we wake up with a million things flying through our mind. We must prioritize, pick and choose what we need to accomplish first. Put all your time and effort into that first thing, perfect it, and move on. 

I am guilty of becoming more stressed on my off days than days I work. The days I have limited free time, I am more productive. It is scarcity. The time I have is fleeting and I know it, so I must make the most of it. On days off, it is hard to find where to start. There are so many things I want to accomplish but it is impossible to focus.

The steps I have taken to simplify my life are:

1. Prioritize

2. Set focus times

3. Remove distractions

4. Cut time wasters

5. Reward

Prioritizing can be a combination of a lot of things. It could be simply making a list of things you wish to accomplish, then ordering them by most important to least important. It could be thinking about what you wish to accomplish in a day, and doing every activity in order of most importance. Whatever it is for you, make sure you are distinguishing what matters. For me, making a list has been easiest because I write some things down that I realize don’t matter when they are on paper. Then I can save time by simply eliminating these things.

Setting focus times makes sure that you are blocking a time off during the day to get something done. For me it has been easiest to set notifications at times I know I will not be doing anything else, then dedicating that time to get the activity done. Make sure that during these times your focus is completely on the task at hand. Putting minimal effort into something will lengthen the amount of time it takes. Full focus until it's done.

Removing distractions might be the most important step. You can do all the other steps but if distractions are still there, you won’t get anything done. Distractions include phones, email notifications, other things going on around you, literally anything that steals your attention. You need to find a place where you can not be distracted to maximize your output.

Time wasters are the things that are not productive. Yes, rest is needed. This is not a time waster. The time wasters I am referring to are social media, video games, mindless conversations, television. Anything that is not helping you learn or recover can be referred to as a time waster. They are especially bad if you crave them. Basically everything that I listed above is addictive in some way. We crave them and they steal the precious time we have. Eliminate time wasters.

Lastly, reward yourself. In the pomodoro technique, 25 minutes of undistracted, focused work is rewarded by 5 min of rest. Our brains need time to rest. We must reward ourselves for the work we do, but not too much. Too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. When you create rewards for your focused work, make sure they are measurable. We need to create small rewards and not binge so there is motivation to reach that reward again. Scarcity creates craving. By craving the reward, we work harder to get there.

Make things easy on yourself, simplify your time. The more simple you make things, the easier it will be to succeed.

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~Thank you for reading. My goal is to help teach others ways to better themselves while doing the same for myself. This is The Exploration.~