Photo by margherita j. l. lisoni
The more I eliminate, the more I experience the joys of life.
I eliminate in business and in my personal life. Eliminating in business results in better quality and it means I have a hell of a lot more fun.
Eliminating in personal life means I have more time to do what I love and more time to spend with family and friends.
Elimination is not about being lazy, elimination is about being efficient. It is about doing things that are truly important and not doing work for the sake of work.
Don’t fool yourself that you are doing the best you can by being as busy as possible.
On the contrary you are most productive if you are efficient and effective.
You can achieve more by doing less. You can achieve even more by doing nothing.
Let’s look at some of the eliminating steps that can change your life:
Phone calls
Stop answering every single phone call. Don’t let a beautiful, creative or productive moment being ruined. You are not obligated to pick up the phone. Don’t let others rule your life.
Let your answering machine do the work for you. Give people the chance to leave a message or let them send you an email. If it’s important you can call back. If people have something important to tell you they will leave you a message, if they don’t it’s probably not that important.
TV
Watching TV is precious time being wasted. Use this time to have a good conversation with your partner or with a good friend. Play with your children or work on your passion and make a change in your life.
News
Stop reading the newspaper. It will save you time and money. Reading news doesn’t add anything to your productivity or overall happiness. News is a business like everything else. The people who are making the news have to bring something new to the table every single day to make a living.
Half of the news is speculation and creating doom-scenarios that won’t make you any smarter or wiser. If there is real important news you will hear it from your friends, family or people down the street.
Eliminate junk mail
Put a no junk mail sticker on your letterbox. Save your mind from being polluted, save time reading junk, save time decluttering, save your money and save the invoirment.
Eliminate email
Keep your inbox as empty as possible. Eliminate subscriptions you don’t read anyway. Use Gmail to block spam. Send less email, so you will receive less email. Eliminate as much as possible. Quit being unnecessary repetitive.
Declutter Gmail with the Minimalist Gmail plugin. Minimalist Gmail makes a Zero Inbox truly zero leaving you with the cleanest possible slate.
Eliminate unnecessary tasks
Whatever task is unnecessary or less important eliminate it. Only focus on things that are truly important. Every task you eliminate will gain you more time to do things you love and to do it better. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.
Eliminate repetitive tasks
Try to think of a way to eliminate repetitive tasks. Is there a way to outsource them or not do them at all? Can you change the behavior of a task so it doesn’t have to be repetitive? Can you eliminate certain elements of that task?
Try to go about it one step at a time. If you eliminate one thing, you’ll see an opening to eliminate something else. It’s a creative process that increases your efficiency beyond your wildest dreams.
Declutter
Declutter your home and office. Get rid of stuff you don’t need or don’t use. Don’t organize but simplify. Get rid of paper. Become paperless. Create a minimalist look in your home and office.
Downsize and reduce. The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to replace, maintain, clean, move and worry about. A decluttered space gives you peace of mind and increases your creativity.
Learn to say no
Be gentle, be kind, but say no if you think no.
Explain briefly but in a friendly and sincere way why you can’t meet someone expectations. Think up a great line that could be used in many scenarios.
Saying no is not a bad thing. Many people associate saying no with being impolite and negative, but the opposite is true. If you say yes, but you mean no, you are lying to yourself and the person in front of you, you are wasting your time and his or hers.
Learning to say no is a skill that has to be practiced. Once you get the hang of it, it will be a lifesaver in many cases. The more you practice it, the better you’ll feel about it. Saying no equals productivity and simplicity. Don’t try to make life more complicated than it already is.
Summary
Think about what you can eliminate in your business and personal life.
Let your imagination run wild.
Think outside the box.
Be as creative as you can be.
Eliminate in small steps.
One step at a time.
Clear out the unnecessary.
Be less dependent.
Be more efficient and more effective.
Quality over quantity.
Less over more.
and sometimes nothing is even better.
Have fun!
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak” – Hans Hofmann