Simple Life Together: Recent Episodes
Dan Hayes & Vanessa Hayes, Daniel Hayes
Designing the life you were meant to live is not only possible, it's is something you can take control of yourself and MAKE it happen. A great place to start is by making the commitment to simplify your life. As I said in the last episode, simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do.
As we bring Simple Life Together to a close, we wanted to offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. This is Part 2 of that update. Do yourself a favor and listen to Episode 78 first ;)
This is what will most likely be our final update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I'd suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 78: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 1 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It'll be worth it, guaranteed!
Thank you all so much for listening in! It has been a great ride and I'm sure we've learned much more from you than you learned from us. Please...go out there enjoy your... Simple Life Together!
Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes
Simplifying your life is one of the most impactful things you can do to ensure you're living the lifestyle you've designed for yourself. The life you were meant to live.
In this episode of Simple Life Together, we offer a little update on where our simplicity journey has taken us over the last three years. And...it has been amazing!
This is an update episode, so if this is your first time listening in, I'd suggest you go back to around Episode 65: Strategic Simple Living to make sure this episode and Episode 79: Still Simplifying After All These Years Part 2 make sense. Of course if you want in on ALL the goodness, just start at Episode 1! It'll be worth it, guaranteed!
Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes
It's been a while since our last episode and many of you said you wanted an update. So, we posted on the Simple Life Together Facebook page and the Edit & Forget It Facebook Group and asked for your questions. Since we're in the thick of the Holiday season, many of you had holiday simplicity related questions. Others were looking for lifestyle answers for their questions, and many just wanted to know what we've been up to. Well...we sat down for over an hour last night and just kinda "freestyled" it. Read More... Topic: Simple Answers to Listener Questions Update on Vanessa's S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System Course Vanessa launched her S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System course to a small list of people and it went really well! That said, we're not really happy with how the course is currently hosted on an external site. The content is proven and system works, but we’re just not happy with any platforms we’ve tried. They’re too expensive and seem clunky. So we’re considering just making the course an “in your Inbox” course, so people don’t have to log into an outside website, remember another log in, hope the site isn’t slow, etc. People are comfortable in their Inbox. They go there every day. And it would lower the cost of the course dramatically. So I’m working hard on that, to bring Vanessa’s amazing system to more people in a simpler way. If you want to be in the loop with Vanessa’s course, the S.I.M.P.L.E. Organizing System, you can sign up for updates at GetOrganizedSOS.com and you'll be the first to know when things are ready to go!
Listener Questions Simplifying The Holidays - Tips on storing your Christmas decorations and paraphernalia...for next year - Giving experiences instead of things - How to keep the holidays simple - How to be present...NOT perfect...for the holidays - Tips on simplifying cleanup after the meal - Creative non-material gift giving ideas - Favorite holiday traditions - What to tell people when they ask what gifts you'd like - Favorite podcasts, audio books, blogs, simple living role models you find inspiring, iPhone apps as gifts New Year's Goals, Resolutions - Setting goals and resolutions for the New Year or any time - How to stop procrastinating - Simplicity when no one is watching or listening What We've Been Up To - Expectations vs. Reality as we transition - Updates on our move, status of the house build, etc - How Sunshine, our son, and his mom are dealing with our move - Our teardrop camper, favorite trips this year, planned trips for next year - New business ventures/challenges for moving Vanessa’s organizing business - When we're getting our nationally syndicated talk show on HGTV and/or Oprah (we loved this question!) - Changes/updates to our exercising routines or smoothie making/juicing
Question: So, we answered your questions...how about you answer one for us? What are your plans for the New Year? How do you plan on incorporating more simplicity into your life? We’d love to know!
Announcements: Feedback: We've had lots of great comments on iTunes...thank you so much! The show went a little longer than we expected, so we'll be sure to read the comments on the next episode.
Shownotes: You can download a PDF of our show prep, too.
Resources and Links:
You can help support SimpleLifeTogether.com by using our Amazon Affiliate Link for any purchases you must make. Thanks! The Pursuit of Perfect by Tal Ben-Shahar Comprehensive list of past SLT Episodes
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There are so many reasons to simplify. But one very lucrative reason to simplify is to increase the sale price of your home and set the stage for a quick sale. So, let's talk a little about simplifying to sell your home.
To do that, we’re going to share some of our experiences with doing exactly that over the last couple of months, so if you’re selling your home...or know someone else who is...or if you’re simply looking for a fresh start in your current home, maybe we can shed some light on things that worked for us. Read More...
Topic: 4 Key Points To Keep In Mind When Simplifying To Sell Your Home Topic We recently had a fantastic sales experience when selling our home in preparation to move to East Aurora, NY. Our home went up for sale the evening of the 15th of May...and before our realtor was even able to put a sign up in the yard, it sold on the morning of 16May! The first 3 couples that looked at the home all put in solid offers. The first 2 for $10k over asking price! We accepted both and had a back-up offer throughout the entire closing period (yeah)! In the end, it sold for about $35K more than we had originally even hoped for!
Background So as we mentioned in the last episode, we’re moving from the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas to the little village of East Aurora, NY, home of America’s simplicity movement back in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Well, back in December of 2014, I was doing some backwards planning and realized that in order to build our new home on schedule, the right thing to do was sell our house in San Antonio in the Spring of 2015. So, we planned on listing at the start of the real estate season...1 May. But in the mean time, all through Jan, Feb, March and April, I had been working out all the curriculum, scripts, testing the right platform, etc, for Vanessa’s soon to be released training product, Get Organized SOS, which is an intensive online course that teaches her proven system to organize any space. All this while prepping our house for sale. Vanessa and I planned to work on things in the background during this busy time, and launch a beta or test program in the late summer. But while meeting with my marketing coach in April, he challenged me to launch the beta NOW. I insisted that now wasn’t the time... Vanessa was actually in the middle of attending her week long annual professional organizers conference... Plus we were prepping a house, listing a house, selling a house, packing to move and moving into a new place over the course of the next 6 weeks. And, while Vanessa and I had all the material ready, we had exactly NO videos done! Plus, some of the video conferencing platforms were new to us. We needed more prep time! No...now was not the time to launch! But as any good coach does, he gently nudged me (actually, it felt more like my old paratrooper days as he kicked my butt out the jump door of the plane)! I called Vanessa and she said “Let’s go for it!!” No guts, no glory, right? So we launched the beta, shot the videos, and...it was awesome! But, man, it was hectic!!! The beta lasted all of May, and all the while we were prepping our home and the World Shedquarters for sale. Our home went up for sale, sold...done! Trouble was, now we had to find a place to live.
So Here’s How It All Went Down... There were 4 key simplicity points that led to that great sale experience, our ability to to juggle a "crazy busy" schedule and still stay sane. And candidly, you could glean something from each one of these points even if you’re not simplifying to sell your home, but just looking for a fresh start or some positive change in your life. So here goes! Key Point #1: Make sure your desires are in line with your life plan, your goals are in line with your desires, and your actions are in line with your goals. Way back in Episode 32, we talked about how the choices we make impact everything in our lives. If you’ve been listening to the show for a while,
Back in Episode 65, we talked about Strategic Simple Living and shared a few great tools you can use to plan your simple living strategy. Specifically, we used the 4 Direction Ideation Tool of Looking Outward/Inward/Backward/Forward as lenses for developing your strategy. We shared how we used this tool when downsizing for trying to find the perfect area for us to live.
But when we came to a decision point, we used a different framework for evaluating our final choice...and actually choosing where we're moving to. So, armed with all we learned from the 4 Direction Ideation Tool process, we did our final analysis through the lenses of the 4 major areas of our life: Home, Work, Community, and Self. And yep, we're moving! We don't have a hard and fast timeline yet, but we actually put our money where our collective mouth is and bought a lot to build on! Read More...
Topic: 4 Critical Areas You Need to Consider When Downsizing Background So there are 4 critical areas you need to consider when downsizing, moving, simplifying, or making any other major change in life if you want to achieve and maintain some kind of congruence. They are Home, Work, Community, and Self. I borrowed and tweaked some definitions for these from a course I took through Wharton taught by Stew Friedman. But the true key is that you need to define these areas for yourself. What works for you might be completely different from what works for us and that’s fine. Again, the goal is to achieve some congruity between these areas and create what Dr Friedman calls “4 Way Wins.” A 4 Way Win is an activity that has a positive impact on each of the four major areas of your life. Again, those are Home, Work, Community, and Self.
Example Continuing on with our example of looking for the ideal place for us to live, you can listen in to the episode and hear how we looked at those 4 critical life areas and how they impacted our downsizing efforts and our simplicity journey. So the big announcement for us is that we're moving to East Aurora, New York. Yeah...we know...we're the family that is actually moving TO the Buffalo, NY area! But we know exactly what we're getting into! I'm from Buffalo and it'll be great to get back there after 31 years away, and living all over the world. And the little village of East Aurora embodies so much of what we're looking for in a small town community. If you listen back to Episode 65 you'll be amazed at what we said we were looking for, and what East Aurora has to offer. All except "mild winters," that is! "Anyhoos" (as Vanessa would say), here's a quick video of some of the history of East Aurora and it's influence on simplicity. You'll see right off why we're attracted to it! If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here. Four Areas So we've mentioned these four major life areas. Let’s address these one at a time. If you listen in to the show, you'll see how we used each of these to evaluate where we’re going to call home. The first area is Home. The home, or family, can include the people (or animals) you live with, your family of origin (parents, siblings, and others), or your family of creation (spouse, partner, significant other, children, and others). We include our physical home too. For us, we want that to be an outgrowth of our relationship with those close to us, and serve as a setting for interaction with them. The second area is Work. Now, this could be different for everyone. For most people, this is your job... what you do for a living or, if you're between jobs, what you're aiming to do next. If you're in school, then consider school as part of your work domain. You can include here the wide array of things you do as part of your career. Then we have Community. Community can mean friends, neighbors, social groups, religious institutions, charitable activities, political committees, membership in nonprofit organizations,
When it comes to simple living, we can all use a few more tips to help us along. We’re going to share 3 more simple living habits you can start using right now for a better today and tomorrow.
One of our most popular shows was Episode 55, 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity. We passed along what we feel are the top 7 habits you can develop to bring some serious simplicity into your life. That show was shared thousands of times...over 2300 times on our Pinterest page alone! Well, today we’re going to share 3 more. So let’s jump right in! Read More...
Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!
Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic: 3 Simple Living Habits You Can Use Right Now Habit 1: When searching for a solution, start with yourself first. Chances are, just like Dorothy with the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, you had the power all along. Tap into resources you already have. Shop in your own closet, pantry, etc… When you work to solve your own problems, you are exercising your innovation muscles! Too often we ask someone else for an answer. At least Google it before you ask. By looking outside yourself, automatically you established a need...a need that didn’t exist. That makes you a consumer instead of a producer and plays right into the hands of the marketing messages we’re subjected to 3-5000 times a day. Habit 2: Often, establishing a simplicity habit involves establishing a framework that helps you deal with things in a predictable manner. Try experimenting with different frameworks to see what works for you! Here are 3 we use: The W-I-N Framework: One I’ve been using more and more lately is the WIN framework. WIN stands for “What’s Important Now” and Vanessa first heard about it in Greg McKeown's excellent book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. The Eisenhauer Matrix Framework: You’ve probably seen this one before, but just imagine a simple foursquare matrix. The vertical axis plots importance and the horizontal axis plots urgency. So if you picture the four squares, the top/left square is Box 1, Urgent & Important box. The top right is Box 2, Less Urgent & Important. Box 3 on the bottom/left is Less Important & Urgent. And finally, Box 4, Less Important & Less urgent, is on the bottom/right. The folks over at Eisenhauer.me did a great little video:
Isn’t that the truth! “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” The S.I.M.P.L.E. Method of Organizing Framework: Another framework is Vanessa's S.I.M.P.L.E. Method© of organizing which she breaks down in great detail in her book Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms Here’s an outline: Strategize: • What are your needs? • How do you want your space to look, feel, and function like? Identify: • What’s working? • What’s not working? • What are your limitations of the space? • Draw or take pictures of the space. • Take measurements. Make Piles: • Clear your space one area at a time. • Work from left to right and top to bottom. • Sort into general categories…like with like. • Don’t edit yet! Make the piles first to see what and how much you have. Pare Down and Edit: • After you make piles then tackle one pile at a time…one item at a time. • Decide: Do I USE it? Do I LOVE it? Do I NEED it? • If yes…KEEP it! • If no…LET it GO! • When you’re done editing, remove unwanted and unneeded items immediately! Let's Organize: • Assign zones. • Keep like items with like items. • Put it where you use it. • Put frequently used items within arms reach. • Make sure things are easy to get to…think accessibility; open bins, simple systems, etc. • Don’t compromise safety for organization. • Use containers and containers within containers. • Label, label, label! Evaluate and Maintain: • Establish routines. • Develop habits.
Okay, folks. We had intended this episode to be more of a “finality”. It was supposed to be more of a "farewell" episode and post. But the truth is, we’re having trouble with this because Simple Life Together is such a big part of our life. If it sounds like we’re waffling a bit, that’s because...well, we are!
So I guess you could say that we're simplifying Simple Life Together. We should just jump right into the dirty work and break it all down for you... Read More...
Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!
Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic: Simplifying Simple Life Together It Hasn’t Been an Easy Decision to Simplify Simple Life Together! On the last episode and up until we went to SimpleREV in Minneapolis we intended for this episode to be our last for quite a while. Here's why:
What started off as us documenting our journey to simplify our lives, turned into something more...something better than we expected! We unexpectedly built an amazing community of supporters and like-minded people in 154 countries. We’ve gotten and continue to receive such heart felt support from that community...especially when we shared some of our toughest challenges. We’ve also made some amazing friends along the way. We were blessed with opportunities to speak about our life and our podcast at different conferences and on different podcasts. We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet many of the people who inspired us both personally and professionally on our journey. Folks like Leo Babauta, Joshua Becker, Patrick Rohne, Mohammed Tohami, The Minimalists, Joel Zaslofsky, Dan Miller...just to name a few. Some of them have become good friends. Even better...we’ve gotten to meet some of our loyal listeners and supporters...how cool is that? And, we’ve helped others in the community who are just starting out and making a real impact; folks like Dave & Sheryl Balthrop, Chris & Sarah Wehkamp, JF and Cheryl Moreau, Lara Blair, and others. We were blown away by the amount of positive feedback about the show and how we influenced others to simplify their lives too. Feedback that brought us to tears. We never thought we could impact people the way that we did...and be impacted by them, as well. The podcast helped us to really focus on what was important to us...and solidified our passion for simplicity and to live more deliberate and meaningful lives
But Producing the Show Isn’t All Sunshine Although we love sharing and teaching others, over time, the success of our podcast led to the feeling of obligation of having to produce awesome content ALL the time. And let’s face it...our lives just aren’t THAT interesting that we have some type of major topic to talk about for 40 minutes each week. Still, we started realizing that the show was shifting from documenting our journey to “having” to produce good educational content each and every week, then every two weeks. Some of which took a lot of time to either research or compile coherent thoughts. And we started to feel the pressures of the podcast from:
Coming up with content Arranging our week to fit in research, recording and editing Dealing with tension between the two of us...running out of content, waiting until the last minute to produce, the time obligation, defining roles and expectations, mistaken assumptions of who should do what, etc.
We get along really well and, for the most part, what you hear on the show is what you get with us. But every once in a while, working together on the show stretched things a little bit. Not too often, but definitely more so when we started feeling like we HAD to do a show as opposed to the times when we just couldn’t wait to share something. Hopefully, those tougher times were transparent on your end and you weren’t any the wiser. They weren’t often, but hey,
Vanessa was getting ready to throw away a magazine (because of course, she practices the "one in one out rule") and the headline on the cover was: The Balanced Life! She told me that she paused for a moment and thought, "Do I have balance?" We hear so much about it, but how do we define work life balance?
What does it really mean? Can we really achieve a balanced life? And so we got to talking about balance for a while, and thought we’d explore that a little more…. (Read more...)
Note: Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!
Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic: How Do You Define Work Life Balance? It seems like the whole "balance thing" has become a buzz word. We hear about balance all the time in magazines, on television, supposed experts, life coaches, etc. Terms like work life balance, balanced diet, and even balanced budget are pretty pervasive. But what does balance really mean in your life? We think "balanced" is different for everyone and there’s no one prescribed balanced lifestyle that works for everyone. Nor is there one way to define work life balance in a way that's universal. So, we took a look at it from our own experience. For us, work life balance includes myriad topics we've discussed on previous shows, such as:
The right size home The right amount of time spent on work Valuing experiences vs things Freedom from stuff...in exchange for more free time to do what we love Healthier living and relationships Working as part of a team, focused on a larger goal...at work and/or in the community Essentially, we define work life balance as living a fulfilling life...that will include ups and downs but overall full of happiness, joy, etc.
As we talked about what this balance meant to us, there were some pretty specific things that were NOT included in our definition of work life balance, too. Here are some:
We don’t think it means being on permanent vacation It’s not about striving to eliminate all challenges in our life...that’s part of life! Sure, balance is easier when you don’t have challenges, but that’s not real life! It’s not about eliminating everything...just all the "junk"
So what gets in our way of achieving a good balance? For us, historically it's been things like:
Putting an overemphasis on work related tasks when it interferes in other areas of our lives Over obligating ourselves monetarily through too much spending Over obligating ourselves by accepting too many commitments that sap our time Consumerism always makes you feel like you’re missing something, and if you have this item, take this pill, look this way, then your life will be complete Overindulging in one way or another, such as with:
Food Drink Technology
Speaking of technology, that deserves a deeper look. What’s the problem with technology? It’s invading every realm of our personal space, that's what! It's even encroaching on the most intimate of spaces and events:
The bathroom The shower The bedroom Family meals
When we overindulge in technology, it distracts our attention and focus, and affects our ability to communicate and deal. For the younger generation of teens, it's even impacted the way they communicate. Many rely on electronic communication versus face to face communication. In some, this has hindered their ability to deal with confrontation. Technology, when abused, hinders our ability to be present...to pause, and be in the moment; to be alone in our thoughts to contemplate. Ironically most people say they want to "give it up", but never do. How We Strive To Create Balance So here are some ways we try to maintain to ensure we stay true to how we define work life balance. We:
Review our goals Reward ourselves when we achieve our goals or reach milestones
Never underestimate the power of habit. In mid-April of 2014, I decided that I needed to make some positive changes to my morning ritual. I've talked about my morning ritual a few times on the Simple Life Together podcast, and we discussed the power of habit, routines and rituals back in Episode 30 and also in one of our most popular episodes, The 7 Habits for Highly Effective Simplicity in Episode 55. But recently I read a book on habits (well, actually I listened to the audio version) by Charles Duhigg, titled The Power of Habit.
But let me back up just a bit and talk about my positive changes to how I spend my early morning. Following a visit to the doctor and the results of some medical testing, I decided that I need to get more active. Of course, my wife Vanessa had been encouraging me to do this for years...but you know how sometimes when the "advice" comes from a spouse or other close family member you occasionally ignore it? Well, yeah...that. Moving on...
Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!
Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic: The Power of Habit I had always intended to start walking, but I never seemed to be able to fit it into my day. But as I've explained in the past my morning ritual consisted of me waking up about 2 hours earlier than the rest of the family, making a delicious cup of coffee with my Aeropress, and sitting down for some "me" time behind my Macbook Pro. I knew that had to change and I intended to not only establish a new walking habit, but to eventually turn that into a ritual as well. Vanessa and I have defined "ritual" as a mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. Think of a ritual as the sweet spot; something that probably needs to be done, that you actually enjoy doing. So as I started off to develop my new habit of walking, The Power of Habit was playing in my earbuds on Day One. As I listened and walked, Mr Duhigg explained what he calls his Habit Loop which consists of Cue, Routine, and Reward. He also highlights what he calls "Keystone Habits;" small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that carry over into other aspects of their lives. Duhigg contends that Keystone Habits have a ripple effect into other parts of your life, creating positive change unexpectedly. He used examples of exercise and eating together as a family as Keystone Habits, and I'd use our family time around the fire while camping (that "fire circle" I've mentioned before) as a prime example, too. Well, thats exactly what I was hoping to develop with my walk, a firm Keystone Habit. So I started off deliberately to ensure I did all I could do to make this work. Knowing there are many ways to interrupt developing a new habit, here are a few things I did to help ensure success:
I prepared the night before by setting out my walking shorts, shirt, my RHA noise canceling aluminum ear buds, and Vibram Five Fingers. Yes, I wear (and LOVE) those funky toe shoes! I set my alarm to ensure I walk at the same time every day. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I turn it off, and say to myself "Get up, get out!" Some days are just tough and it's easy to make excuses. But I know that once I'm out there on my walk I feel better. So I say every morning...Get up, get out! So once I'm up I go make my coffee. My ritual includes my beloved Aeropress and Cafe Bustelo Espresso. Armed with my coffee and my iPhone loaded with an audiobook or good supply of podcasts, I head out for between 1-1.5 hours and cover 4+ miles each and every day. And I LOVE it!
Sure enough, this walking habit has matured from a simple habit, to a routine, and is now a ritual that I enjoy. It has also become what Mr. Duhigg would refer to as a Keystone Habit, as well, spreading other goodness into various areas of my li...
We’ve mentioned in previous shows...sometimes simple isn’t easy. Consistent, voluntary simplicity can be even harder. Matter of fact, it can be an awful lot of work to make simple easy, but in the end we’re opting to live simply intentionally...in as many areas of our life as we can. And that’s going to take a little exploration and effort.
After our presentation at the NAPO 2014 Conference in Phoenix, we met a certified professional organizer, Miriam Ortiz y Pino, who turned out to have a little more in common with us than being an organizer like Vanessa. She’s been practicing voluntary simplicity for a long time now and after talking with her we thought it would be great to have her on the show to share her thoughts on what voluntary simplicity means to her, and also tap into some of her tips and advice to those who want to simplify their lives too.
Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort!
Buy Supermom vs Supermom Topic: Voluntary Simplicity with Miriam Ortiz Y Pino Interview Miriam Ortiz y Pino is a Certified Professional Organizer, Simplicity Expert & Coach, Entrepreneur, Writer, Blogger and Creator of The Streamlined System. For over 15 years Miriam has worked with entrepreneurs and other busy and creative people to eliminate the distractions, simplify systems and create routines so they can get it all done practically effortlessly. The More than Organized Blog was recognized as one of the top 5 Simplicity Blogs in the world and she has contributed to several books. You can check out her website,http://www.morethanorganized.net, for free articles, resources, and to sign up for her FREE "One Minute Mail (& email) Solution Kit. 1. Tells us a little more about what you do and how you make lives simpler. 2. Everyone enjoys a little backstory...can you share with us a little bit about your life before becoming a professional organizer (in other words...were you always organized or did you have to learn to become more organized, etc)? 3. Living a life of simplicity is different for everyone, can you share with us what simplicity means to you and how you embrace it in your own life? 4. In your experience, what are the most common areas people request your help for getting organized and adopting simplicity? Why do you think they struggle? 5. Getting and staying organized and embracing a life of simplicity is more than just buying organizing products, watching “how to” videos, reading books or even hiring a professional organizer. Can you share with our listeners your advice on what it takes to embrace a simpler and more organized life...and make it stick? 6. You offer more tips and advice on your blog and website. Can you tell us little more about your workshops, products and services? I know we have a lot of DIYers out there... 7. Is there anything else you’d like to share? 8. What is the best way for our listeners to learn more about you?
Question: So, what does voluntary simplicity mean to you? How are you practicing voluntary simplicity in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. We’d love to know! Be sure to leave a comment below.
Qs & Comments: Announcements:
Would You Like To Share Your Simple Life Story?
We'd love to interview you for the show! Have you started your own simple living journey and learned some lessons that may help fellow Simple Life Together listeners? If you'd like to share your story then drop us an email at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com or Vanessa@SimpleLifeTogether.com
SimpleREV Tickets:
Early Bird tickets are now available for SimpleREV! Only 50 tickets will be offered at the Early Bird pricing so make sure you lock yours in today. SimpleRev is being held on Oct 3-4, 2014, in beautiful downtown Minneapolis on the University of St Thomas campus.
The number one reason we love simplicity is that it gives us flexibility to live our lives the way we want. Sure, it takes some real effort to get to the point where we could drop what we were doing and take a 30-day vacation, but once you get to the point where you can shape your life to do the things you want to do, and live they way you want to live, you'll love simplicity too. It is so worth the effort and probably how you'd like to live your life too.
During our recent trip, we covered over 6600 miles with our tiny teardrop camper in tow. But thankfully, we didn't drag along a lot of complexity with us as we traveled. But simplicity doesn't just "happen." Some deliberate decisions and actions ensured we could enjoy our experiences together as a family without some of the misfortunes of the Griswolds!
Note: The school year starts soon! Get a copy of Supermom vs Super Mom for yourself or gift it to a Mom who needs a little "less" in her life. It's less than $5 and will save you countless hours and effort! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: Why We Love Simplicity We absolutely love the freedom to spend our time (for the most part) the way we want to. That's why we love simplicity. All the things we have done to simplify our lives over the past couple of years is really starting to pay off. So when the time came for our summer vacation, all the dividends of our efforts manifested themselves throughout every facet of our trip. Now, we always like to leave you with some solid take-aways for every blog post or podcast episode we do. So, the take-away for you isn’t us talking about our trip...I mean, who cares about that other than us, right? But rather, the things we experienced tie directly in with almost everything we talk about on Simple Life Together. No doubt you take what we talk about and adapt it for yourself, right? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll do with this info, too. And if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll even save you some time or effort by helping you avoid some of the mistakes we’ve made. So here are a few key points from the show:
How we made time to take a vacation, chose to align our work w/our Freedom Pillar, and then juggling clients to free up vacation time.
Why we went where we did and a little about each stop, including:
Florida Nashville: Mastermind group and dinner with a fellow CPO, her garden, small town, etc... Other stops in the Blue Ridge area Why one of our ‘hopeful’ spots to live in ended up being a "no-go" for us Meeting some full-time RVers Stopped for an over-nighter in Shenandoah NP. Look out for lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Well, just bears, actually. A visit to Luray Caverns Why we went to Hershey, PA (duh...chocolate!) Lake Placid in the Adirondacks The Buffalo, NY area and Sprague Brook Park
Highlights from the trip:
Meeting George & Sheila Spending time with family (basically, for all the same reasons we talked about in Episode 35) Kevin & Evette’s amazing eggs! Exploring Buffalo Visiting Elvis' Graceland
We wonder what it would be like to live that lifestyle sometimes, but I’d bet Elvis would have traded with us on a few occasions. Thanks to Big Jim Sykes of Sirius/XM Elvis Radio at Graceland for letting me explore and get a photo op in the studio setup
Small space living in our teardrop, and our son in his Hennessy Hammock Enjoying simple foods and not eating too much ‘junk’ on the road
More 'Wins' and Lessons Learned
Again, we LOVE our Merino wool clothing choices and our techniques of packing light! You can't beat the good ol' fashioned fun of sitting around a campfire! In essence, we really enjoyed slacklining, fishing, time with family
For another take on spending time with family, check out the new blog by Chris & Sarah Wehkamp of ParentsWho.com
There's a big difference between "living the dream" and just "buying the dream"!
We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But we know we're not alone when it comes to simple living! We put the call out in our last episode for more volunteers to share their story here on Simple Life Together. Well...you answered the call and and today we have our second Profile in Simplicity guest who is going to share how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little reminder/background about this segment. Read more... Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles every month or so. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they've learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share:
Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way
Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails...you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world...and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have. Simplicity Profile: Liz Neighbors is joining us to share a bit about her simplicity journey. Liz and her husband Griff split their time between Connecticut and spending the summers in Cape Cod with friends. Liz worked in retail for years but stayed home to raise her kids for the past 18 years. In that time, Liz has blogged, ran an eBay business, and started getting that “it’s all too much feeling” lately like so many of us. She’s been a Simple Life Together and Edit & Forget It Challenge supporter right from the start. And get this...Liz started a mission of no shopping back in November of 2013 and is 7 months into her journey!
Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? Tell us how people can find you
Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life! We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below. Thing Segment: Vanessa: Aereo….watch tv online. It's a nice alternative to cable and allows us to watch more local channels on our laptop or on our big screen television via Air Play. It was especially nice to watch the NBA playoffs and finals where the San A...
Way back in Episode 47, Simplify Your Wardrobe, we explored our relationship with the clothes that we wear and asked ourselves some questions such as: So what things shape your current wardrobe? What does your wardrobe look like now? What would your ideal wardrobe look like? and What are some of your favorite pieces and why? We also introduced that we were going to give a microcourse called Dress With Less a try, cutting our wardrobes down to 33 pieces each for 3 months.
Well, it's been over 6 months and 20 Simple Life Together episodes since then and while we've mentioned quite a bit about our progress along the way, we thought we owed you a good, solid wrap up. So this is it! Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: Simplify Your Wardrobe Redux When your goal is to simplify your wardrobe, you don’t expect to learn a whole lot of lessons about your attachment to “stuff." But that’s just what happened with us. Over 6 months ago, Vanessa packed up most of her clothes and put them up in the attic. And then just a few days ago, we sat down and started talking about the process and what we've learned along the way. As we talked, I said, "You know what? This is good stuff. We really ought to be recording this!" So we moved on out to our World Shedquarters, sat behind the mics and just had a candid conversation. Vanessa even shared a few journal entries she did early on in the challenge. Here's a sample: Day 2: Well I woke up and and the first thing I did, even before going to the restroom was check out my wardrobe. Yup...still pretty empty...nothing really changed. So I cried again. I was grumpy all day...frustrated with the challenge...even more frustrated with my emotions. But miraculously as the day went on, I started to settle into the idea of living with less. It’s not like this was life or death….it’s a simple challenge….and one I don’t have to commit to if I don’t want to. So that seemed to brighten my spirits a little. And with that….I revisited my closet, made some final edits and settled into the fact that this was just a challenge...only a 3 month challenge. So, have a listen and consider this episode a inside look at our own personal triumphs and struggles. It was just Vanessa and me having a little one on one talk, but we thought you’d appreciate being a fly on the wall. If you decide that you want to simplify your wardrobe a bit, too, we'd love to hear some of your lessons learned.
Question: So, what are some things you’ve learned along the way as you try to simplify your wardrobe? How did you handle your struggles? Did you have support along the way? Was 33 the right number of things for you, or was it more or less? We’d love to know! Be sure to leave a comment below.
Qs and Comments, iTunes Reviews Thanks to mcevjael who wrote: "Great content...every episode. 5 Stars. It's obvious how much prep work goes into each episode. Thanks for the valuable content and the easy listening."
Announcements:
Would You Like To Share Your Simple Life Story?
We'd love to interview you for the show! Have you started your own simple living journey and learned some lessons that may help fellow Simple Life Together listeners? If you'd like to share your story then drop us an email at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com or Vanessa@SimpleLifeTogether.com
SimpleRev Tickets:
Early Bird tickets are now available for SimpleRev! Only 50 tickets will be offered at the Early Bird pricing so make sure you lock yours in today. SimpleRev is being held on Oct 3-4, 2014, in beautiful downtown Minneapolis on the University of St Thomas campus. To get your tickets at the lowest price that will ever be offered, just go to SimpleRev.com/tickets. I’ll also put a link in the shownote to the SimpleRev podcast in iTunes, as well. Or just search iTunes for SimpleRev, all one word.
Abe Lincoln said, "The best way to predict your future is to create it." When living simply, taking action now can help you shape the life you want to live. Back in Episode 38, we talked about the concept of preparation meets opportunity. You may recall a few lines from that show that went like this: “When you’re working on that Life Plan, or your dreams and goals, prepare for those opportunities you want to come along. I’m a firm believer that you can determine your own destiny if you make your own future. Shape it yourself. You’ll have obstacles along the way for sure, but you’ll also find encouragement and inspiration, too.” We want to give you a little bit of context for our journey by connecting some dots. Our goal is that it may help you form you own dots to connect later on. So, If you’ve been listening in or reading our blog posts for a while and are familiar with many of our back episodes and posts, now you’ll see exactly why we picked some of the subjects that we did. If you’re new to Simple Life Together (and we have more and more joining us each week...yay!) then this will be a great “jumping on” point for where we are and how we got here! So, the “What’s In It For You” is this...taking deliberate small steps forward from the ideation we talked about on the last show, will help you shape your own journey to live simply. "The best way to predict your future is to create it” is a great way to think about it. So thanks, Mr Lincoln, for that fine quote and the title of today’s episode. Read more... Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: The Best Way To Predict Your Future Is To Create It Like we said earlier, you’ll see how a lot of our past episodes relate to the things we are doing in the “initiate movement” step of the TLPs, to move towards our simple life goals. In no particular order, here are some of the things we’ve done, are still doing, or getting ready to do, to move us forward:
The Edit & Forget It Challenge We introduced The Edit & Forget It Challenge back in Episode 9. The Edit & Forget It Challenge has fulfilled a lot of objectives for us. Here are a few:
It helped us loosen our grip on “stuff”...physically, emotionally, and intellectually. By intellectually I mean that buying became a lazy, default “easy button” that overrode the acts of contemplation (considering whether or not we really needed something), innovation (what else could I use, how can I get access to that?), patience (do I need it now?), and appreciation (caring for what you have now so it can serve you long term). E & F helped us develop new habits toward spending. (why did I ever buy this?) It taught us to be more deliberate about what we buy or allow into our lives (things, circumstances, commitments and events). And, it influenced us to physically downsize our stuff so we can achieve the goal of living in a smaller home, customized to our lifestyle now and long-term.
Edit & Forget It Continues to Challenge Us We recently did a another full frontal assault on our garage and it felt fantastic! It helped us reach a few key objectives that we had as our goal. Namely, we:
Identified our biggest pain points with the garage and finally solved them Eliminated duplicates, triplicates and quadruplicates of hand tools. This allowed me to find what I needed so much more quickly Eliminated some “space stealers” without sacrificing storage capability. This opened up a LOT of floorspace that was formerly taken up by yard tools, etc that encroached on the main area of the garage.
We still have more to go in the garage! Not that we have so much “stuff”, but when you’re fine tuning, getting to exactly where you really want to be it takes time. I still have some files out there that we need to go through with a fine-toothed comb.
The Upside of Downsizing In Episode 42, The Upside of Downsizing,
When it comes to making long-term plans for our lives, we all go through a "dream stage"...where we just kind of day dream about what our life might be like. Seriously, we’ve all, at some point in our life, thought about what it would be like to win the lottery or be super rich...and you kind of lose yourself in the dream. While I’m sure there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it's really more productive to do some systematic ideation. By dreaming systematically, you'll likely improve your chances for success. For us, this is strategic simplicity. By going through a process of systematic ideation, you may come up with more questions than answers initially. But in the end, you'll probably be a lot closer to what you want and be able to formulate a real plan of action. Yes, truly strategic simple living! Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: Strategic Simple Living Ok, so what is “systematic ideation” and how can you use it? Well, I’m sure there’s lots of different ways to systematically come up with ideas. I’m a bit of a tinkerer...kind of a MacGyver type and enjoy product design. I even recently had a company put one of my ideas into production and they’re getting ready to release it. But years ago, I read a book (I can’t for the life of me remember or find the title) that sparked my interest in systematic ideation. But today we’re going to share one ideation tool with you that you might be able to use on your simplicity journey. We adapted this from a post we saw on Governing.com that had absolutely nothing to do with strategic simple living. Still, the tool was intriguing, so we adapted it for our use.
The 4 Direction Ideation Tool So here you go: A good way to be more systematic about your ideation is by looking in all four "directions". By that we mean, Outward, Inward, Backward and Forward. It’ll help if we give an example, so we’ll show you how we used this tool in our search for the “perfect” town or place for us to live. Of course, you can use it for any ideation exercise you wish!
So first we have Look Outward: We’re going to look at the local, regional, and national possibilities. We could even look internationally if we wanted. Next we have Look Inward: What do we really want? What are our "must haves", and what are the "deal breakers?" Vanessa will break this down a bit in a minute and share some things we consider. Look Backward: Doing a candid review of what has and hasn't worked in the past. What did we like about it, what did we dislike. Finally, we have Look Forward: What do we want it to look like, feel like, be like?
Our Search for the Perfect Place to Live Back in Episode 49, Live the Life of Your Dreams, we talked about our “Freedoms From” and our "Freedoms To." One of those freedoms to was “Freedom To Choose Where & How We Live.” So, again, just to give you an example of using the tool on our quest for strategic simple living, let's look at our search for the “ideal” place for us to live. So, before we start the 4 directions, here are some qualities we know our dream location will have:
A quality grocery store within walking distance Close to downtown shops; coffee shops, bookstores, diners, local shops, etc...oh and free wi-fi is always nice... We’d like to live near water. Not ocean...preferably a creek or river...or even a lake Small acreage to maintain; ¼ - 1 acre max! Good schools...or good home-school co-ops if needed We’d prefer an empty lot to build to our exact liking No size restrictions on home...for us that means small, not big No Home Owner's Association (HOA) would be ideal If HOA...hopefully open to green/sustainable building techniques or upgrades Reasonable tax rates...Military retirement not taxed...state taxes Local farmers markets Outdoor activities easily accessible...fishing, camping, hiking,
We hinted in Episode 63 that we've been enjoying more and more healthy smoothies. About two and a half years ago we did a 12-day juice fast. Since then, we've slowly incorporated juicing into our lifestyle at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that...juicing became a regular part of our life. We became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other ways to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods, eating smaller portions...and now smoothies!
So, who better to talk about smoothies, than our friend and someone who’s become our own personal... "healthy liquids expert," Farnoosh Brock, the author of The Healthy Smoothie Bible! Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: Farnoosh Shares The Skinny on Healthy Smoothies We asked Farnoosh a bit about simplicity and a lot about healthy smoothies and her new book. So, we'll share the questions we asked her with you here, but to get all the goodness you'll just have to listen in to the show this time.
Before we get into the book, let’s start with simplicity. You’ve really adopted simplicity into your life over the last couple of years and had a terrific guest post on Joshua Becker’s Becoming Minimalist blog that we’ll link to in the show notes. Share some thoughts on how your life has changed with your focus on simpler living. When we talk about juicing, one of the first questions we're asked is what's the difference between juices and healthy smoothies, or juicing and blending. How would you answer that? Which do you recommend, juicing or smoothies? So Farnoosh, what would you list as some of the benefits of integrating healthy smoothies into your lifestyle? How do you recommend people get started with healthy smoothies? Be honest...what is your favorite smoothie? Tell us about the process of making healthy smoothies, and share some tips on how you've simplified your smoothie making?
Major Takeaway: So the major takeaway here is this: Adding healthy smoothies to your lifestyle is a simple way to increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, certain superfoods, and even supplements into your life. While we're big juicing fans, sometimes prep and cleanup from making healthy smoothies is a LOT easier. Give it a try! You can get your own copy of Farnoosh’s Healthy Smoothie Bible today!
Question: So, you know we’re enjoying more smoothies! And if you didn’t see it, Vanessa did a post this past week about dehydrated snacks that we like to make, such as fruits and jerky. Be sure to check that out, too. But how about you? Have you adopted any new healthy changes or simple foods lately? Do you have any tips or advice you’re willing to share? We’d love to hear it. Be sure to leave a comment below.
Qs and Comments, iTunes Reviews And we got a nice voicemail from Connor Trueman from Journey To Simple and also Liz Neighbors on our Speakpipe app on the website. Thank you both so much for phoning in!
Announcements:
The SLT Facebook Page:
We have a Simple Life Together Facebook page and forum. Yeah...some of you are saying "FINALLY!"
Now, admittedly, we’re not the biggest fans of Facebook, but it seems to be where most people are. We’ve had the private Edit and Forget It page on Facebook for over a year and it’s become a wealth of information and and a great resource for everyone there. We’re hoping the open Facebook page for Simple Life Together will grow to be the same. We’ve installed a forum app there too so we can categorize things by topic. That should help a lot! We haven’t started seeding topics there yet but it is an open page and open forum so feel free to start setting up topics too!
So, we look forward to seeing you on our open Simple Life Together Facebook page
We’re building the new Simple Life Together page on Vanessa’s previous Get...
When it comes to simple living, or making any changes in life, there always seems to be plenty of experts around telling you what you should do, and how you should do it. Looking to get in shape? You can find an endless supply of “experts”...many of which will directly contradict each other...that are ready with their magic formula to help you. All you have to do is buy their equipment, take their magic pill, or follow their magic advice.
But what it all boils down to in the real world is developing a simple plan that is right for YOU, and then kicking things into gear! When it comes to simple living or simplifying certain areas of your life, there are some things that have worked for us and that you can use to start making strides in areas of your life that you want to simplify. Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too! Buy Supermom vs Supermom
Topic: Five Steps to Simple Living We're just going to offer 5 ways to help you simplify your life...at your own pace.
Okay, first… Take an objective look at where you are. Once you look at where you are now, you can figure out where you want to be and start working in that direction.
Number two...start with one area of your life. Simple living has so many different facets. But what’s one area you want to fix? Is it your physical clutter, time commitments and obligations, finances, your professional life, personal life, health? What do you want to focus on? Pick one thing first, then edit what isn't working and try to streamline ways to keep it simple...and keep it going. Here’s an example: a major area of frustration for me was our kitchen counter that became "The Clutter Zone". The first thing we did was get rid of the junk, then Dan came up with the idea of making some cubbies in the columns next to where the clutter was collecting...and it worked great! That one change had such a huge impact on our physical space that it led to more and more opportunities to simplify. And that’s what we’re talking about for our third point...
Simple living will become addictive! And once you start that one area, you’ll likely find you're ready to expand your efforts and carry that momentum into simplifying other areas of your life. So as we just mentioned regarding those cubbies...that worked so well that the idea spread to other areas of the home to control and contain our clutter.
Focusing on our finances was another area that we wanted to simplify. So we focused on selling (editing) our land which set us up to tackle other financial goals we had, and buy our teardrop trailer outright. Our Edit and Forget Challenge became a lifestyle and not just a one time event! The same thing can happen in other areas of your life, too, like health and fitness. Sometimes we try to do everything but quickly get burned out. The best thing to do is to keep it simple and work on one thing at a time. Here's an example: For us, the idea of doing a 60 day juice fast sounded great, but it just wasn’t realistic for us. Instead we chose to make it part of our weekly diet plan...slowly incorporating it at least 3-4 times/week. By doing that...it has become a regular part of our life...something we've been able to sustain for over two years. And we became addicted to how good it made us feel which led us to look into other way to improve or expand our healthy eating goals. Juicing led to eating more raw foods… and eating smaller portions...and now smoothies. Matter of fact, we’ll have Farnoosh Brock back again on the next show to talk about that! You see, when you start small or with one thing at a time, it’s much easier to implement it, sustain it, and spread to other areas of your life. So have a rough plan...a punch list, if you will, of areas you want to simplify. That way, you can concentrate your efforts and capitalize on your efficiencies.
And the fourth thing is that by doing this,
We all have clutter in our lives. Naturally, one of the first steps on the road to simplicity is to challenge what and how much you consume. The basic idea here is that, the more you consume...meaning buy, acquire, receive, etc...the more complicated your life can be, and the more clutter you have, too! The less you consume the simpler it will be.
So as important as editing is...and that’s an ongoing process...understand that just as important on the road to simplicity is your ability to slow your accumulation of stuff. Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom is digital and will help you eliminate clutter in your life, too!
Topic: Stop the Accumulation of Clutter But stopping the accumulation of "stuff"(aka clutter) is not as easy as flipping a switch. You’ve got to change your mindset, establish boundaries like we talked about back in Episode 54, and exercise a great amount of self-restraint. The reality is, most of us have been on autopilot when it comes buying and accumulating things. To consume is human. But consuming is easy...too easy as a matter of fact; which makes slowing the accumulation a little more challenging. But who doesn’t like a healthy challenge?
Ways to Stop Clutter from Finding Its Way Into Your Life Awareness The first step in slowing the accumulation is becoming aware of your own buying habits and also being aware of how marketers and advertisers work. The Stuff Cycle: On the last show, Dan introduced the Stuff Cycle as this seemingly natural 6-Phase cycle of why and how we consume stuff. You can go back and listen to that in Episode 61, but remember the 6 phases are the:
Perceived Need Phase Acquire Phase Utilization Phase Replacement Phase Edit Phase and the... Refine Phase
Let's focus mostly on the Perceived Need phase and how that influences the Acquire phase. There are a few things you can make yourself aware of that influence how you perceive unmet needs or desires which effect how you act in the Acquire phase. Marketing Strategies: Being aware of how Marketers and advertisers try to convince you that your life will be so much better if you get their product. Now...a lot of times they’re right. We definitely like some products we buy because they have made our life simpler….or added value to our lives. But more often than not, products just add clutter. Here are just a few strategies marketers will use to get you to buy "stuff":
They’ll use simplicity and minimalism against you:
Ex: Target had a commercial about minimalism with their clothing….yeah right! Ex: After saying Vanessa didn't use or need a lot of product because she takes a minimal approach to makeup, she was told at a makeup counter that the manufacturer was "all about minimalism" too.
They tout their products will make life “easier” but usually they just cause more clutter.
"If Necessity is the mother of invention, Convenience is the mother of the unitasker!"
They use "sale" terms are used over and over again but their real intent is to make you buy. Such as:
"It’s FREE!!!" Well, nothing is ever FREE. Advertisers will tempt you with quantity over quality by using “Buy one get one free” or “Buy 5 for the price of 4” strategies for example. Seriously? You only need 1 tub of yogurt. Can you really go through that much before it spoils? Just sayin'. Or... Buy one get one free but...“just pay shipping and handling”...which usually ends up being outrageous!
They capture your information for their sales funnel and hope for a later sale.
Ever put your name in a drawing to possibly win a FREE whateveryoucallit? Well, you just entered their sales funnel. Now they’ve got your email or mailing address. Your name will be added to a list for a later sales pitch at their convenience
Most likely, they'll sell your info to third parties (for profit) and those companies will contact yo...
The number one question we are asked, is about simple living with kids: "Is it possible to simplify your life with kids?" Of course it is! Now we know not everyone has kids, but even if you don't you probably have nephews or nieces, or friends with kids. So, the good news is that even if you don’t have kids yourself, you’ll probably be able to apply a lot of this to other relationships in your life.
Well first off, simple living with kids doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. Like simplifying the rest of your life, simple living with kids will take some planning, work, and positive change, but it will be well worth it. Read more...
Note: Our new book Supermom vs Super Mom will be free on Amazon all day Friday, 21 March 2014 from midnight PST to midnight PST.
Topic: Simple Living With Kids Well worth it, yes...but notice I didn’t say “well worth it in the end.” That's because there really isn’t an end when it comes to simplicity...that’s why we call it a journey.
The “Stuff” Cycle: Before we get into the different stages of our kids' lives and how that effects simplicity, there's something that needs to be addressed first. I call it the "Stuff Cycle"...for lack of a better term. If you don't realize you operate in a stuff cycle before you have kids, you will as soon as you're expecting. Here's how it goes: Perceived Need Phase:
All the things advertisements tell you you need All the things you ‘think’ you need All the things everyone else ‘thinks’ you need and don’t hesitate to tell you
Acquire Phase:
Purchase, gift, rent or borrow
Utilization Phase:
You figure out what you really need and use
Replacement Phase
You fill those needs with things that actually work
Edit Phase:
You take action to get the things you don’t need, don’t use, and don’t work out of your life
Refine Phase:
Continuously evaluate, acquire, replace or upgrade as necessary, edit as required.
Simplicity Issues at Different Stages of Our Kids’ Lives Babies:
Just making sure they are cared for requires so much (or we think it does) Amount of stuff required at home...but babies grow up so fast that it's impossible to use every toy or clothing item Amount of stuff required on the road Time and attention required
Toddlers:
First steps of independence Just trying to stay ahead or just keep up parents feel they need to buy every learning gadget or tool so they are ahead when they start kindergarten
Kids:
Starting to understand commercials and get a taste for consumerism and wanting more
Brand name toys Brand name clothes Even exposure to peer pressure
Teens:
Consumerism: clothing, gadgets, food More time commitments with extracurricular activity, work, etc. As parents now it's crunch time to teach them the life skills to be successful adults.
Adults:
Are you responsible or do you hang on to your grown kids' "stuff" as they start their adult life? Do they feel "entitled" to things beyond their income? What's your comfort level or threshold for monetary support?
Ways to Keep Simple Living With Kids, Simple!
Toys and Gifts
Family members go overboard (time for a talk) Birthday parties (manage expectations) Holidays (manage expectations)
Boundaries
Not every room is the play room (CELF study, Episode 14) Don't buy more storage for more toys...edit the old to make room for the new...create a boundaries or limit of how many toys your kids can have Limit screen time Personal chores (clean up after self) Family chores (team building, contributing)
Routines and Rituals are key to simple living with kids
They make kids comfortable and let them know what's expected of them We're creatures of habit...good or bad Morning After school routines
Snack Homework
So we talk all the time about scaling back, editing, etc. But there’s probably one thing or another that you’ve decided would be your simplicity splurge. That something that you’re just not going to scrimp on.
Well, that’s perfectly fine. We all seem to have that little something that we’re just not willing to give up. For some it’s photos, for others, it’s coffee paraphernalia. Almost all of us have our little simplicity foil...that thing or things that seem to go against our efforts to simplify. Read more...
First, A Big Announcement! Okay, we’re sharing some big news on this show...our first book, Super Mom vs Supermom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms, A Simple Life Guide to Getting Organized, Finding Margin, and Embracing Simplicity for Moms is done! Well, done enough! We’ll be updating the cover any day now, but it will be live in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com hopefully on Saturday, 8 March 2014. So, we’re posting the final draft, minus the cover art, on the Edit & Forget It Challenge Facebook page for the next 3 days, so you can have a look or download the DRAFT pdf free there. If you’re not a member of E & F you can always sign up for free at SimpleLifeTogether.com/edit. You’ll receive an email with directions on how to join the Facebook page. We ask that you do us a big favor and review the book on Amazon.com (we’ll post the link to the book on the Facebook Edit & Forget It Challenge page, and here on the website, as soon as the book is "live" on Amazon).
So here are some of our goals we had in mind with the book:
This one is “mom” focused but has great info for everyone. So, even if you’re not a mom, we’d love for you to have a look! We wanted to keep it short but packed with info! Minimal fluff. Most people aren’t inclined to read a 300 page simplicity book! Like we said, it’s the first in our series of "Simple Life Guides for Less Than a Latte”, so it’s priced at $4.99 for now...until the price of lattes goes up! We think that’s a great deal and hopefully others will too! Of course, we’re giving you complete access to the draft on the FB page for the next 3 days, but if you’d like to purchase the book on Amazon when it's available, that would be especially great! We ask that you do us a big favor and please review the book on Amazon.com, too. Amazon rankings are directly tied to reviews and downloads. So, the more purchases and the more reviews, the more exposure the book gets, and the more likely people are to find it! Again, we’ll post the link to the book on the Facebook Edit & Forget It Challenge page, and here on the website, as soon as the book is "live" on Amazon. Most people who read it won’t be current listeners or readers so the book has lots and lots of links to our shows and Vanessa’s videos. Therefore, most of the info will be new to them. So, all told there’s about 96 pages of written content, with access to around 50 hours of audio podcasts, and a bunch of topical videos related to the written content. Of course we hope for glowing reviews, but be honest. If you see any glaring mistakes, please opt to let us know personally by email, versus an Amazon review. You can reach us by email. We have plans for more Simple Life Guides, and you can read more about that in the book!
OK, so this is our first book and book launch. We KNOW we’re going to make some mistakes along the way with it but we’d really, really appreciate all your help. Finally, anything you can do to help make the book a success would be awesome and so, so appreciated! We wouldn’t have the confidence to even do this without your support! So, as soon as you have it, please feel free to share the Amazon link with your Facebook friends, tweet it out, or gift the book to a mom you know could use it.
Topic: What's Your Simplicity Splurge? OK, We'll Go First... So we thought we’d share some of our splurges with you, and maybe talk about some of the feelings that can rise up around that littl...
So now that you’ve been working on building some margin in your life, maybe it’s a good time to start thinking about how you can make the most of your margin to make your life fuller. Not fuller with with stuff, but fuller with satisfaction.
We named our teardrop "The Guidon". Maybe we should have named her "Margin"?
Once in a while when the topic of our simpler lifestyle comes up, someone will ask, “Well what are you going to do to fill all your extra time?” It’s a valid question, I guess, but one we can easily answer. Read more...
Topic: What "Make the Most of Your Margin" Means for Us So how would you answer how you planned to fill your "extra" time"? Actually, anyone could make an endless list of things to fill their “spare time”. But I think what separates us from our former selves (our pre-simplification selves), and what makes those of us on this simplicity journey a bit different, is that we would likely answer it very similarly. We’d say, “Well, first of all, I don’t feel the need to fill my margin, but if I choose to use some of it, it will be doing things that are important to me. Things that help fulfill my Life Plan.”
First, let’s review what we mean by margin: This is how we define it: We define margin as “uncommitted time and space in your life.” Margin is what gives you options. Margin is what allows you to be spontaneous. Margin is what makes you feel more free. Just as there is a place for work and commitment in our life, there must also be a place for margin. Margin on a page helps us appreciate the written word, the content and the context. But if those written words went from one side edge to the other, and from the very top of the page to the very bottom, the written words wouldn’t nearly as enjoyable. Those margins give us a place to make a little note; to record a thought or a question. The margin helps keep the written words, the message, in focus. I know we’ve all been working on building more margin in our lives. Here are some things we've done to achieve more margin:
Decluttered Reduced voluntary commitments Streamlined our processes and systems
Setting up routines for all the must-do items Making room for the want-to-do items
But, there comes a time when we’re faced with the fact that what we’ve let into our lives has stolen our margin from us. Here are some ways margin slips away from us...
When you answer “Yes” to be on that committee you really would rather not be a part of When you say “Yes” to that dinner party invitation even though you really don’t want to go When you’re guilted into being a chaperone for the field trip…you just gave away some of your margin.
But when we decide we’ve had enough, we can vow to take that margin back. That is the first step. What follows is a stream of questions that all seem to start with “How?”
How can I get my time back? How can I have more options? How can I stop feeling like I’m juggling chainsaws?”
Making the Most of Your Margin Here are some key things you can do to make sure you do what you can to make sure you make the most of your margin:
Be careful how you fill it (Parkinson’s Law corollary)
Parkinson’s Law states: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Corollaries include:
Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity Data expands to fill the space available for storage
Well, we're pretty sure that applies to margin, as well!
Make sure you choose things that are congruent with your Life Plan
Things that don’t require too much “stuff” Things that don’t take all your margin Support as many of your Life Plan pillars as possible (no magic number here, just the more the better.)
Here’s What We’ve Chosen for Us and Why
Yours will be vastly different and that’s fine...but here’s some of ours:
Camping>teardrop vs Class A motorhome>minimal>forced outdoors>go off grid,
Maintaining simplicity is an important step in making sure your simplicity efforts don't go by the wayside. We’ve said all along that simplifying your life isn’t a one time deal...it’s a lifestyle. And as with any lifestyle or major focus area in your life, you have to nurture it and care for it, otherwise your efforts will be in vain.
So why is maintaining simplicity so important? Well, just like a car or the air conditioning unit in your home, if you do regular maintenance and tune ups on them, the less likely you are to be in a situation where you’re facing catastrophic failure...or a colossal bill to repair it! Read more...
Topic: The Maintenance Side of Simplicity The same goes for simplifying your life. Paying attention to and doing regular simplicity checkups will go a long way in ensuring your efforts to simplify your life will last a lifetime. Background: Interestingly enough, the background for this episode was Vanessa's early dandelion pulling session at 7:30 AM on a cold (41 degree) morning last week. You'll just have to listen to get the full story!
Maintaining Simplicity So, we all know what maintenance is...actions, routines or systems you put in place in order to keep things functioning smoothly in your life. Maintenance is like getting a tune up. You might even consider maintenance like getting and an extended warranty, only instead paying a fee up front to cover when systems fall apart, you are paying in terms of your time and effort to hopefully keep the systems running smoothly. And the reality is, if you’re consistent with your maintenance efforts, it really won’t cost you that much time or effort. So let's cover a few major life areas where maintaining simplicity are important.
Maintaining Simplicity in Organization. As a Certified Professional Organizer®, Vanessa deals with maintenance all the time. It's the final step in the organizing cycle. Well, it’s not really a final step because the organizing process is cyclical. After editing and organizing a space, she uses several tools and systems to help keep the space organized. Now, for some of her clients, maintenance means having an organizer (her) come back and reorganize a space…and that can work too. Outsourcing your maintenance can be a great tool too!
Maintaining Simplicity with Systems: Maintenance can be tools or habits. For example:
Setting up a desktop action file to manage your daily mail is a tool to help maintain the influx of papers. Checking the Action File on a daily basis and clearing it out on a weekly basis is a habit and routine. Practicing the one-in-one out rule for your clothes, toys or any other item you bring into your life is another tool or habit to help maintain the balance in your home. There’s a great ( and free) book and audiobook you should check out that fits right in here. It’s called “Work the System” by Sam Carpenter and you can find it at WorkTheSystem.com. Sam’s systems mindset fits right in with what we’re saying here and every time we talk about systematizing things when you simplify your life.
Maintaining Simplicity with Routines: Your routines are a key part in maintaining your simple lifestyle...they kind of go hand in hand. These immediately come to mind:
Your morning routine...this helps you maintain a smooth start to every day School routines...they ensure your family stays in a rhythm and consistent with completing and turning in homework assignments, projects,etc...with little stress. Workout and fitness routines are another example…obviously maintaining a routine will help keep your fitness and health in check. And on the job, office routines are important...setting up routines to make sure you stay on task can help counter procrastination and stress as well as help you maintain your productivity.
SOPs and job books.
Our Routines Require Maintenance Too! The natural times to evaluate your routines are:
We've been sharing our story about simple living here since the tail end of 2012. But when it comes to simple living, we know we're not alone! So, in this episode of the show we have our very first Simplicity Profile! We've mentioned a few times that there would be a few changes coming in 2014 for the show and here on the website, too.
So, last week we introduced the Qs & Comments segment where we answer questions you send in. And today we have our first guest on talking about how she's simplified her life, too! But before we tell you any more about our special guest, we want to give you a little background on this new segment. Read more...
Background for Simplicity Profiles: We're looking at doing Simplicity Profiles about once a month. We’ll start the show with our featured guest and talk with them about simple living, how they embraced simplicity, what they've learned along the way, etc. We think the talks will last anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. Sometimes longer, sometimes not. Then we'll do the announcements, sometimes a Thing segment, and sometimes the Qs & Comments segment. We told you there would be a few changes coming along, didn’t we? We think it’s great to highlight your stories, and for you to be able to share:
Your triumphs Your challenges Your struggles Things you’ve learned along the way
Each of us has our own story when it comes to simplifying, simplicity and simple living. Sharing what you’ve learned, what you’d do differently, advice you’d share, and even mistakes you’ve made on your journey, helps us all grow individually and as a community. We’re all in this together, so we’d all love to hear from YOU. When we started Simple Life Together, we kind of felt alone on our journey. We really wondered who would want to listen in and weren’t sure whether or not what we had to say mattered to anyone but us. Well, you’ve changed that for us, and we want to change that for you, too. We’ve been incredibly inspired by stories from the Edit & Forget It Facebook page, emails we’ve received, voicemails...you name it. YOUR story is unique...and if you’re willing to share it, it can serve to inspire others to follow your path. We’ve found out first-hand that something we mention in passing on the show can have a positive impact on someone on the other side of the world...and make their life a little better. Your story can do that too! The world is waiting, and we want to share our platform so you can share your story just like we have.
Simplicity Profile: Tania Ginoza is an Assistant Financial Controller who lives in Hawaii. She is also a freelance writer and blogger who shares her passion for design, a creative life and living well on her website MauiShopGirl.com. When not crunching numbers or writing, she can be found walking the beach during sunset hoping to spot a whale or two!
Tell us how you got started on your simple living journey...and maybe paint a picture of what your life was like before you started simplifying your life. What was the catalyst? Everyone struggles in some way when it comes to simplifying or editing, or making major life changes. What has been the biggest challenge(s) for you along the way? And do you still struggle with any? What does your life look like now that you've been on your simplifying journey? Can you share with us some things you've learned along the way or things that you may have learned from others on the Edit and Forget It FB page? What advice would you give someone who is "on the fence" about where to start simplifying in their own life? Tell us how people can find you (mauishopgirl.com)
Question: So, how have you been simplifying your life! We’d love to know. Be sure to leave a comment below.
Qs & Comments Segment (New): Our first question comes from April. April wrote in wondering how to cut down on the stuff coming into your home, especially gifts for her daughter?
Whether we’re hard-wired for it, or it’s learned behavior, we all fall victim to the comparison trap from time to time. Whether it’s houses, cars, paychecks, toys (I’m not just talking about kids’ toys here, I’m talking grown up toys like boats, motorcycles, gourmet kitchens, tech gadgets, you name it)...from time to time we find ourselves comparing what we have against what others have.
And it’s not just when you have less, but we tend to compare just as much when we have more than others too. Read more... Topic: Beware of the Comparison Trap How does comparison typically make us feel? Does it make us jealous, like we’ve been slighted? Are we envious, like we deserve something too? Or maybe we feel proud and superior because we have more or better quality things? Often we fall into a comparison trap that leaves us feeling anything but good. Maybe what we should strive for (when it comes to “stuff,” any way) is to try and stop comparing altogether. That’s not to say that there’s no place for comparison. When used as a tool to discern, and when used objectively, comparison can certainly be a good thing. Take for instance:
Determining who is the right fit for a job or position at a company or on a team. Comparison is ok when strictly used to determine a person’s skills and qualifications to perform a job or fill a position. Judging the quality of products or services that we invest in. Things such as comparing prices, materials used in a product, where we’ll get the best value for an education or the experience level and ratings of a service provider...those are most definitely legitimate reasons to compare. These may actually be considered healthy reasons to compare.
But we begin to fall into the comparison trap when we begin to use it to determine our value and self worth, or even worse, the value and worth of others. When we compare ourselves to others it leads to nothing but discontentment and unhappiness. And here’s why:
The comparison trap is one of the negative side effects of the hyper-consumer society. It tantalizes our subconscious with the false notion that our success is based on being rich, famous and having more, more, more. That “gotta have more” mentality automatically puts us in the race of “trying to keep up with the Joneses.” But where does that really lead us? Do we ever achieve enough? There will ALWAYS...I repeat ALWAYS be folks with more stuff. We typically turn to this set of questions regarding things and happiness:
If you’re not happy with the stuff you have now, would you be happier with twice as much? How about 10 times as much? Chances are, you’d be happier with half… The problem with the comparison trap is that it always leads to envy, jealousy, and sometimes resentment. I know I’ve often been guilty of this in the past...and even sometimes today. Back in Episode 6 we spoke with our friend Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist. Joshua notes notes in his new book, Clutterfree With Kids, that “Comparisons are always unfair. We typically compare the worst we know of ourselves with the best we presume of others." But, bringing it back to “stuff”, sometimes we aren’t much better than we were when we were kids, comparing what kind of tennis shoes we had or what kind of jeans we have. As we get older, the comparison trap just manifests itself differently if we don’t put it in check; what kind of car, boat, suit, purse, house, shoes, etc. What kind of job, what’s your title, benefits, perks…what your kids have, where they go to school… I’ve even seen adults one upping each other over what their adult kids do, drive, live...just perpetuating the cycle. The bad news is it’ll always be there. But the AWESOME news is, for us, it ends when we say it ends. But we can’t end it for anyone else, they’ll always compare. But we can end it for ourselves. There are two very simple ways to help you combat the comparison trap. They really don't need any explanation,
If you've ever ready Steve Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (one of our all time favorite books), then you know that by doing just seven things, you can be well on your way to becoming more effective at what you do. Now, if you're ready to simplify your life a bit and really need a jumpstart, there are 7 habits you can develop to bring some serious simplicity into your life.
Now, there are tons of things you can do to simplify, but we wanted to hit what we think are the top 7 things that have worked for us, and we want share them with you! So let’s get started! Read more...
Topic: 7 Habits You Can Develop to Simplify Your Life We want you to be able to take just these 7 habits...seven things you can start doing today, to have a better tomorrow, a better year, and a much better chance of achieving the lifestyle that you want for yourself and your family.
So here goes... Habit 1: Begin with the End in Mind
This one comes straight from our military planning background and also Stephen Covey’s 2nd habit in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People We call it “Desired End State” which we developed through our Life Plan process Establish Priorities...we call them our Pillars (F⁵) Once we have Priorities, we can begin working toward our goals Vanessa really hit on working toward your goals pretty hard back in the “Tips for Successful Resolutions” in Episode 008 Keep you actions aligned with your goals and priorities to stay on target:
The target is your desired endstate, or the end in mind
My rear sight is my priority or my pillar But the front sight is what I need to have in focus.
When you fire a weapon, you have to keep four fundamentals in mind: sight picture(SP), sight alignment(SA), breath control and trigger squeeze. Let’s focus on just SA and SP
Sight Alignment is Front & Rear Sights
Rear sight = Priority Front Sight = Goal
Sight picture is Front/Rear Sights and Target
Target = End State Front & Rear sights aligned with each other Front & Rear sights aligned with your target
For instance, we may have an end state in mind, and we may have a priority, but if the actions we take aren’t aligned as we pursue our goals, we’ll never hit the target. It’s the same thing I talked before about back in Episode 32...it’s All About the Choices We Make
Habit 2: Strive to Simplify versus Organize.
Our take is: Clutter is the disease, organizing steps are the cure, but simplicity is prevention! Yeah, organizing is...well...kind of reactive. We saw this when we gave our presentation at Organize and Energize a little over a week ago...and how different our message was from the different organizers who presented. Much of the talk was about how to “maximize your space” to fit more in your cabinets and closets...which is all great stuff, too...but focused more about “editing your space” to give yourself some room and margin. Now, Vanessa will be the first to tell you that organizing is still very near and dear to her heart, and is a wonderful tool to help maintain simplicity in your life.But, it’s very eye-opening when you clarify the difference between the two. Vanessa advocates decluttering and simplifying your life first then organizing what’s left. And, she's starting to think of herself more and more as a “Simplifier” than a “professional organizer”....hmmmm.
Habit 3: Embrace the idea of “less is more.”
Sounds so cliche, but the more you simplify, the more this is reinforced. One of our earliest episodes….Episode 004 titled “Benefits of Organizing and Having Less” addressed this very idea. It addresses the some of the benefits of having less. Hundreds of people have (and still are) experiencing this very concept with our Edit and Forget It Challenge. Opt for "reductivity" over productivity. Get rid of tasks instead of juggling them! What it all boils down to,
Setting limits isn't as popular in our advertising culture as buzz phrases like "No Limits". When we think of “limits”, it’s typically in a negative sense. So, when setting limits on ourselves, like when we go on a bad diet, or a too tight budget, or worse, when someone or something puts limits on us, we think of it as a bad thing.
But setting limits is actually a really good thing! Limits are a fantastic tool to help simplify your life and actually help you appreciate the things that are most important to you. Learning to accept, use, and embrace limits can help make a whole lot of sense of the hyper-consumer society we all live in. No limits? No way!
So let’s get started! Read more...
Topic: Setting Limits So I first thought about the framework of setting limits being a truly positive thing while I was watching a Tony Robbins training video. In it, he mentioned that sometimes limits were good, and the example he used was a glass. If you’re thirsty, you pour yourself a glass of water. The glass limits or contains the water so you can drink it. Without the glass to limit the water’s flow, the water would pour right through your hand. Well, sometimes the weirdest stuff will get me thinking. And, true to form, Tony’s comment got me thinking about the positivity of limits that help us on our simplicity journey. So here are a few examples from our family: Stuff We Have
"No limits" certainly doesn't work when it comes to your clutter! We've been working on setting limits on how much “stuff” we have in our house, and getting rid of excess (things we don’t Need, Love or Use) to make margin in our life.
That’s why the Edit & Forget It Challenge was so important to us last year and helped us get rid of over 3000 things, and why we’re doing it again this year! This sets us up for the much, much smaller home of our dreams someday, too. So the point is, by limiting the stuff we have, our actions are congruent with our goals
Stuff We Buy
We're also setting limits to control what we allow into our lives.
Of course we have to buy things, but we don’t need to buy everything we’re “told” we need...
What We Expose Ourselves To
This is hard to do with all the advertisements we’re exposed to on a daily basis. There certainly seems to be no limits to that!
We did a presentation together recently and shared some insight into just how much, we are exposed to consumer advertisements using Real Simple Magazine as an example (that magazine that’s supposed to make your life simple, right?):
In a 236 page issue: 111 pages were dedicated solely to FULL page ads (that’s nearly half of the magazine)! 125 pages had some form of content on them
Of these, 50 pages had ¼-½ page ads (with an additional 85 “hidden” ads) Leaving only 75 pages dedicated to “ad-free” content!
So that's 250 ads total in just one magazine! AND...you had to sift through 10 full page ads before you even got to the Table of Contents!
Our Family Time
So here’s another one--even when it comes to our Life Plan pillar of "Family," we knew we wanted more family time together, and camping was our choice for family entertainment and adventure:
We were looking seriously at a huge Class A motorhomes with all the comforts of home (more actually). But we came to our senses and limited ourselves. And, our little teardrop trailer won out. Thank goodness! The teardrop has everything we need (and more), but limits how much we can take. That said, it opens up where we can actually travel to as it’s much more cost effective to use than a big motorcoach and we can easily “boondock” in remote areas that don’t have water or electric hookups.
Media Consumption
We're also setting limits on our media consumption.
We’re not big TV show watchers (other than a slight Downton Abbey addiction, and of course Call The Midwife). Actually...
On our journey toward a more simple life in the modern world, one point that keeps hitting home is that less is more. We like to say, fewer things, fuller life. Last year, we started the Edit & Forget It Challenge to eliminate 2013 things from our lives and hundreds of you joined us. Well, we're going to keep it going this year, too! Now, we know 2014 fewer things is a lofty goal and certainly won’t be for everyone. But remember, it’s never about the numbers, it’s about your relationship with stuff. The real focus is to eliminate anything that you really don’t need any longer and to reach a point where you have truly what you need...what you love...and what you use. You’re trying to build some margin in your life and the Edit & Forget It Challenge will help you do that!
So, if you’re considering doing the Challenge...if you're ready for fewer things cluttering up the margin in your life...we thought we’d share some of the experiences we had as we eliminated over 3000 things from our lives last year. Plus, we’ll tell you how you can sign up too (it's FREE!), and and we’ll go over the “rules” (think of those rules in air quotes because you can shape them a bit to fit your needs).
So let’s get started! Read more...
Topic: The Edit & Forget It Challenge Our Experiences from 2013 Starting Out: As we embarked on this challenge I was chomping at the bit! Editing clutter has become second nature to me. Not just because of the work I do as an organizer, but because I make a regular habit of letting go of clutter in our home. I’ve also come to appreciate the concept of “less is more” and so I’ve been ready to let go of a lot more things for awhile.
We started off easy by editing our own clothes first. We’ve mentioned before that starting the Edit and Forget It Challenge by editing your own clothes is a really good place to start simply because, for most of us, we don’t share our clothes so its usually easier to make decisions on them. What’s interesting, is we started the challenge knowing we really didn’t have much clutter in our home to begin with, but I knew once we got to the garage it would be a different story. The cool thing about the garage project was that Dan...well...he let me take over. He decided “hey...she does this for a living...I need to let her lead the way.” That was cool and it worked out well. But there were a few other reasons why it worked out well other than me leading the charge:
We set a date...actually we set aside an entire weekend just in case we couldn’t finish in a day. We shared the same goal. We both wanted less stuff overall… and to make room for our car (or future teardrop camper) to fit in. We worked as a team. The beautiful thing about working together is not only do you have additional manpower...but you’ve got someone to help guide or keep you in check. Like asking tough questions to really get you to think about if you should keep an item or not. Or knowing when to take a break when the other is tired or struggling to make decisions.
So, we were able to meet and exceed our Edit and Forget It goal once we edited the garage. And it felt AMAZING!!! You know how cool it is to set a goal and then achieve or surpass it...it’s AWESOME! And that’s what you are going to experience. But there are a lot of other things you’ll experience along the way which I’m going to go over with you in a moment. But first let me break down what our actual stats were for you:
Our Results: We edited 2920 things (a little more because I lost count and forgot to record a few things...plus we didn’t count all of our garage items).
Of those 2920 edited items: over 2300 were donated or given away Over 130 were recycled Over 150 items were sold 50 were digitized (keepsakes and manuals) The Best Thing...was that only 190 items were TOSSED! It felt so good that we had better options of letting go than to dump it all in the trash!!!! Another cool thing….
If you’re like most people you probably have intentions to make some serious changes and make this your best year ever, right? Well, we want to help make 2014 YOUR year to simplify! And even if you’re not listening to this at the beginning of the year, or heck, it might not even be 2014 anymore when some of you listen to this, the fundamentals are timeless and perpetual.
So, if you’ve fallen short of your goals in the past, like probably all of us have at some point, we have 5 steps to help you build a more solid plan, and hopefully set you on the road to success.
So let’s get started! Read more...
5 Simple Steps to Make It Your Best Year Ever Step 1: Take some time to do a review of the past year.
Figure out what’s working for you and what’s not. As you list out what's not working, are there any “repeat offenders”? You know, things you swore you'd stop doing but somehow find yourself still doing them? Yeah? Us too! Keep track of these bad habits that keep working their way back in. You can find more about this in Episode 37.
Step 2: Make a conscious effort to prioritize, then change or eliminate THINGS that clutter your life...and establish new goals.
Get help if you need it! Maybe it takes an outside set of eyes or ears to help you see things better.
Maybe some coaching or mentoring could get you on path quicker than just doing things yourself.
Use S-M-A-R-T goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-focused, Time-bound). Instead of saying "This is going to be my best year ever! I'm going to be healthier this year!", make sure you incorporate SMART goals. Here's an examples for each part of a SMART goal:
Specific =Juice daily, eat more raw foods (½ small meals are raw fruits, veggies and nuts), cut down on sugar and processed foods (keep count of number of grams/day), cut down on alcohol (only 1 glass of wine per day) Measurable = If losing weight maybe a goal of losing 2 lbs/month; or for your health, maybe measure your blood levels for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.; body fat percentage vs. weight, etc. Attainable = Can you actually do this? Audacious goals are great...but they have to be realistic for you. Results-focused = Lose X amount of weight, make X amount more money, save X amount of money, give away X number of items...etc. Time-bound = Daily, weekly, monthly or annual goal
Some positive reinforcement sure helps! Partner up with someone or make your intentions public. Sometimes an accountability buddy or expectations from someone else is just what we need to give us that added positive peer pressure to stay on target. Track your progress...it really helps! For us, the Edit & Forget It Challenge is a great example. It really felt pretty amazing to see the numbers add up and watch our numbers goal get closer and closer. Even though it wasn’t truly about the numbers for us, tracking our progress gave us a quantitative gauge that we were on the right track. Plus, it was a SMART goal; it was a specific goal of editing 2013 items, it was measurable since it was a quantitative amount, attainable in that it wasn’t an unreasonable goal, results oriented in that we not only could see the results in terms of space we cleared up, but mentally we felt a weight lifted; and time-bound in that we had weekly, monthly and an overall annual goal.
Step 3: Take control of your time.
If you really want to make this your best year ever, you need to: Define your responsibilities, joys and dreams. Align your commitments with your responsibilities, joys and dreams!
To the extent possible, change or eliminate commitments that don’t align with your responsibilities, joys and dreams!
Accept that you won’t get it all done! Remember, there are only 24 hours in the day, 168 hours in the week. Make yours count.
Don't worry, we all get sidetracked. Here's a recent example for us:
What we planned to do during the month of December:...
We always call what we’re on a “journey” because we always seem to be learning new things, paring down to less and less, and finding ourselves in new circumstances along the way. But in the beginning, it sure helps to have a little bit of a roadmap. We’ve never been the types to tell you “this is what you need to do” or claimed to be “The Expert” in any particular area. Your journey is up to you.
But, it sure is nice to have a general idea in mind, isn’t it? So, we wanted this show to serve as a sort of a Simplicity Quick Start Guide for your journey. You know how when you're working on a puzzle you check the cover of the box from time to time to see if you're on track? Well, that's what we hope you do with the episodes listed here. Check them and gauge your progress once in a while. Read more...
Simplicity Quick Start Guide So we broke our Simplicity Quick Start Guide down into 5 categories and listed some of our most popular topics in each. This way, you can go back and listen to those shows you may have missed, or re-listen to them based upon your simplicity goals. So here are the 5 categories we used:
Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify Simplifying Everyday Life Organizing What You Have Designing Your Lifestyle Your Digital Life, Simplified
Part 1: Starting Out...The Decision to Simplify
Beginning Our Simple Journey Edit & Forget It Challenge Becoming Minimalist First Steps on the Road to Simplicity How Typical is Your Home?
Part 2: Simplifying Everyday Life:
How Clutter Effects Your Life Power of Saying No Simplicity for a Lifetime It’s All About the Choices We Make Your House is on Fire! What 5 Things Would You Save? How Routines Can Simplify Your Life Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year
Part 3: Organizing What You Have:
The Benefits of Organizing and Having Less How To Organize Any Space Organizing Your Clothes Closet Helping Others Edit & Organize Why We Can’t Let Go of Our Clutter How to Organize Your Photos Organizing Important Document
Part 4: Designing Your Lifestyle:
Creating Your Morning Routine Difference Between Being Frugal and Being Cheap Juicing with Farnoosh Brock Life’s Spam Filter Busy is the new “I’m fine” Live the Life of Your Dreams
Part 5: Your Digital Life, Simplified:
Sun Tzu and the Art of Inbox Warfare Gateway Gadgets Living Without a Printer: Evernote Simplified, Part 1 and Part 2 Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions Going Paperless Managing passwords with 1Password Backing Up Your Digital Information
Takeaway: So, there you have it! A great Simplicity Quick Start Guide and the perfect resource to help you get a head start on simplifying your life in the coming year. Why wait for the New Year to make a resolution? Start now and get ahead of the pack.
Question: So, are you going to get a jump on the New Year and start simplifying now? What are some of your favorite episodes? What did we miss that would make our Simplicity Quick Start Guide more complete?
THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Road time! Sleeping in the truck & teardrop, Hudson Bay Point blanket, Thoreau’s Walden (Librivox.org for..free) , seeds, lemon water and the occasional Tabasco Slim Jim! Had a great 2558 mile road trip so far! Made new friends, visited family, saw old friends (some after 25 years). Enjoyed seeing more of this beautiful country. Vanessa’s Thing: Free kid's Kindle Books from Amazon.com! All the joy of reading for our little girl but none of the clutter...woo hoo!
Announcements: We'll be taking the month of December off to concentrate on some writing projects! So, you'll have PLENTY of time to catch up on previous episodes of Simple Life Together! Enjoy the holidays!
Consider signing up on our email list! If you’re not on our email list you’re missing out on one or two blog posts we do per week, and the occasional video, too.
It's our 50th episode and we wanted to pass on our Top 20 simplicity websites, and also our favorites for minimalism, lifestyle and more! You know, we have so many resources available to us these days that sometimes it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, as the saying goes.
It’s nice to have one source that you can go to in whatever interest category you have. So, we wanted to put together an episode and talk about some of our favorite websites and blogs that helped us on our journey, and still do...our Top 20 websites!
Main Topic: We’ve talked about many of these before and even had some of the authors on the show, but we want this show to be a tribute to them and a resource for you. We decided to break them down into 4 different categories to simplify things (go figure...that's what we do here): Minimalism, Simplicity, Lifestyle, and Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech...and we threw in a couple of bonus blogs too! So here they are, our Top 20 simplicity websites: Minimalism:
Becoming Minimalist: Joshua Becker (listen to our interview with Joshua on Episode 11) Zen Habits: Leo Babauta The Minimalists: Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
Simplicity:
Midway Simplicity: Mohamed Tohami (Tohami interviewed us! You can see it here) Value of Simple: Joel Zaslofsky (we talk with Joel in Episode 33) Be More With Less: Courtney Carver learn more about Dress With Less) Simple Life Reboot: Sheryl and Dave Balthrop Slow Your Home: Brooke McAlary Unclutterer: Erin Doland and staff iHeart Organizing: Jen Jones
Lifestyle:
The Simple Year: Kerry Reifel and now Kandice Bridges (listen to our interview with Kerry in Episode 25) Prolific Living: Farnoosh Brock (hear our conversation with Farnoosh in Episode 19) Tiny House: Alex Pino Rowdy Kittens: Tammy Strobel Apartment Therapy: They did a story about our office, aka the World Shedquarters) 48 Days: Dan Miller
Lifehacking/Productivity/Tech:
DocumentSnap: Brooks Duncan (Brooks talked about going digital in Episode 6) 4 Hour Work Week: Tim Ferriss Lifehacker: Staff Lifehacker had Vanessa on TWICE for the ASK An Expert series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2) Digitwirl: Carley Knobloch and staff
Bonus Sites:
(Tech) MichaelHyatt.com Mike Hyatt and team Real Simple: Staff On the Green Road: Cece Reinhardt + Brenda Daugherty
Takeaway: So, there you have, the Top 20 simplicity websites and blogs that have helped shape our journey so far and that we still look to for information, inspiration and motivation.
Question: So what are some of your favorite websites and how do you follow them? Do you subscribe to email lists, RSS feeds, etc? How often do you share content from your favorite websites, blogs or podcasts with a friend? Maybe it’s time to spread the love, huh?
THING Segment: Dan’s Thing: Community...especially the Simple Life Together and Edit and Forget It Facebook communities. We learn so much and appreciate how everyone supports one another in their pursuits to simplify. Vanessa’s “THING”: Dymo LabelWriter. This label maker has made life so much easier for Vanessa, especially when it comes to labeling file folders! It's fast, easy to use and very versatile with its many different sizes of labels.
Announcements: We still have a couple slots open for Washington DC area meetup. We'd love to have you come join us for some great conversation, pay as you go snacks and drinks, and the chance to connect with others who are looking to lead a simple life in the modern world. We’ll be at La Tasca in Rockville Town Square at 7:00 PM on Sunday, 24 November. There are just a few spaces left. It’s a free event and really just a chance for us to meet you and get to know you face to face, so make sure you grab a seat before they’re gone! Just go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/dc to sign up or search for Simple Life Together at Eventbrite.com
So, if you’re anything like us you want to live the life of your dreams, right? Well the life of your dreams is different for everyone, but the one common thing is that we all need to set up some mileposts to guide us along the way.
Maybe you’ve heard the saying that 'A goal without a plan is a dream'. So, maybe live the life of your dreams should really be 'Planning your life to meet your life goals!' Naw...that doesn’t sound nearly as good. But sometimes it’s better to face reality and not sugar coat things. Whatever terms you want to use...life plan, desired end state, retirement plan...they are all planning terms to living they way we want to live. Continue reading...
Main Topic: We totally buy into the thinking that you can live the life of your dreams. It's really not a dream at all, but an attainable goal that needs to be planned for, and the plan needs to be flexible and well executed. The foundation of our plan is what we call our 5 Pillars. When we first started the show, and on a few episodes along the way, we talked about the 5 pillars that guide us on our journey and give us focus for our decision making. Here they are: The 5 Pillars That Guide Us
Faith Family Finances Fitness Future
Since nothing is set in stone and we like to keep our journey under continuous review, we often challenge ourselves and even question ourselves to make sure we’re on track. Those reviews have been pivotal to us, and make sure we keep stretching our simplicity muscles on a regular basis. That’s why we’re doing Courtney Carver’s Dress For Less and Project 333. That’s also why we like to do an occasional digital fast, and that’s exactly why we’ve changed our 5th Pillar from focusing on “Future” to focusing on “Freedom.” Having Freedom as one of our five pillars gives us the lens to view and evaluate things we let into our lives to ensure they really do make it simpler. That “thing” we purchase today will have ramifications tomorrow, so we strive to make sure it fits our long-term goals. That commitment we reluctantly make today, or make in haste, can also keep us from doing what we want down the road. Taking the time to establish your pillars and deliberately making decisions based on them can keep you on the path for your simple journey. Here's Why We Changed From 'Future' to 'Freedom': One of the best books I’ve read in the past few years, and then bought the audiobook as well, is The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco. Now, don’t be fooled by the title! It totally sounds like a cheesy “get rich quick” book, but honestly it’s anything but. I would recommend it to anyone who’s thinking about their financial future, setting up a side gig, or even just while considering how your finances affect how you want to live your life. All of this directly impacts your ability to live the life of your dreams. Essentially, MJ describes three different paths that most people follow regarding money:
The first path is the “Sidewalk”, where people are basically living from paycheck to paycheck and buy lottery tickets hoping for the big payoff. That’s their actual plan. I think we all know someone who falls into this category, and heck, I’ve had bouts with this myself in the past! The second path is what he calls the “Slow Lane”, which is basically the deferred retirement model we’ve talked about on lots of past episodes: work hard for 40 years, save money in your 401k, and hopefully you have enough saved up to retire at 65 and hopefully are still healthy enough to enjoy your golden years. That’s a lot of 'hopefully'! Then there is what he calls the “Fast Lane” where you take matters into your own hands, develop the wealth you need to live the lifestyle you want. My take on MJ's main point is that you should gauge your wealth by time and what you need to support how you want to live your life. Here are a couple of quotes from the author:
“Time is the most important asset I have,
Let’s face reality...we all have To Do lists. And while they seem to be never ending at times, To Do Lists can be a good thing. It kinda means we’re still alive! If you don't have any in your life, then you’re probably dead! So, knowing that we’ll always have To Dos, maybe we should have a plan for how to keep track of them and get them done!
So what's the best To Do list? Well, the best To Do lists are the ones that works for you! Whether you prefer an analog or digital solution...anywhere on the spectrum of tying a string around your finger, pencil and paper, or the latest To Do app...figure out the tool or tools that work best for you and stick with it/them. Continue reading...
If you’re not sure which tools work best for you, don't worry. Just take some time to think about, research and maybe even test a few tools for yourself before committing to one...or a TON of To Do list management tools. But before you get started, there are some things you should know or consider.
Main Topic: To Do Lists in Four Simple Steps We have lots of different types of To Dos: personal, professional, work, projects, etc. But no matter what type of To Do you have, there are four simple steps you have to focus on to get your tasks or To Dos done: CAPTURE them, CONTAIN them, ASSIGN a date and EXECUTE! 1. CAPTURE your To Dos. There are different ways you can do this (you may need to use several ways to capture your To Dos):
Write them down. On scratch paper, a post it note or in a notebook. You can also record a voice memo. We use Dragon Dictation and Evernote. Send an email to yourself. This is convenient when you're on the road or out and about away from the office. Or directly input your task on your To Do list if you have immediate access to it.
- CONTAIN your To Dos. This is WHERE your To Dos are kept. One of the best things you can do to manage your To Dos is to capture them in ONE PLACE!
Paper notebook: Use one you can easily carry around with you or keep in your purse/backpack to take to meetings, on errands, etc. Digital: Google Tasks or spreadsheets are an easy tool to use when it comes to editing and not having to re-write your lists when they get messy on paper. Mobile apps: There are tons! Try searching for "best To Do apps" for your mobile device and try a couple out.
Note: Containing your To Dos usually requires some sort of a routine, like an end of work routine before closing up shop or a nightly routine at home where you gather all of your To Dos and put them in the proper "container." 3. ASSIGN a date and time to get them done!
Before you decide on WHEN...you need to first determine category (personal, work, projects, etc) and the priority of your tasks. Note: Priorities may change….that’s why you need to have a routine of systematically reviewing your To Dos. Then plug it in on your calendar. Remember...To Dos are pointless unless you assign a date and time to get them done!
- EXECUTE your To Dos. Putting them on the calendar doesn’t guarantee they’re going to get done but you can use control measures to get help get them done like:
Use reminders like on Google Calendar where you can set up email, text and/or pop-up notifications to remind you of your To Do item. Set alarms on your computer or mobile phone for To Dos you need to get done each day. Start a nightly routine where you review your To Dos for the next day. Use post it notes (strategically placed) as an additional reminder for those To Dos you just reviewed during your nightly routine. Create and put up checklists (again...strategically placed) to help remind you of recurring To Do items. These can be posted on paper, dry erase boards, large post it notes, glass boards, etc.
Takeaway: We all have To Do lists and it can get pretty overwhelming trying to manage all of the myriad tasks associated with them. But if you keep it simple and take a different approach to how you manage you...
Is it time to simplify your wardrobe? Think about it, what is it that dictates how big your wardrobe is or how many clothes you have? Is it fashion and changing trends? Is it utility? Is it the weather or the climate? Is it an expectation of society or your social circle? Is it the activities that you do that necessitate what you wear? Or is it simply the size of your container...be it an overnight bag or walk-in closet? The answer to all of these is probably YES! That’s the thing about clothes, we all wear different things for different reasons.
But, sometimes it’s like cable TV...500 channels and nothing on, right? You go into your huge walk-in closet and you can’t find a thing to wear! So what’s the real problem? Is it analysis paralysis...just too many decisions? Well, let’s dive into that. Read more...
Main Topic: We all have different reasons for what we wear and how big our wardrobe is. It’s a pretty personal thing and each of us is unique, but maybe it is time to simplify your wardrobe a bit? Our ancestors certainly lived with a whole lot less than we do...and there are those who choose to minimize what they keep in their clothes closets. We decided to ask ourselves some very pointed questions about what we wear and why, and some others questions to see if there was an opportunity to edit our closets and drawers to a point that feels more like "enough" and less like "too much." Question: So what things shape your current wardrobe?
Vanessa:
Work: professional business attire and hands-on organizing work attire. Climate: mostly warm weather clothes needed here in San Antonio, TX. Culture: cowboy, Western, relaxed. Lifestyle: fitness and travel dictate need for lightweight and versatile clothing...nothing to iron! Personality and Image: pretty tomboy look...fun yet put together...balance of attractive yet conservative clothing.
Dan:
The look: going for that “guy in shorts” with a little bit of “guy in tee shirt” look (ha-ha!). Mostly comfort: work from home so commute is only 19 steps...like to stay pretty comfortable. Uniformity: think of clothes as a uniform with everything capable of mixing and matching. Weather: the San Antonio heat really does dictate my wardrobe.
Question: So what does your wardrobe look like now?
Vanessa:
A lot of fitness clothing. Closet: 40% work and professional attire, 40% casual and 20% travel/merino wool and coats. Few accessories: 8 purses, 6 belts, 6 scarves...but only wear or use half of each! Shoes are my weakness! I hate to admit this… but I have 40 pairs, half of which are for professional attire which I wear maybe 10% of the time if that!
Dan:
8 of the same identical black short sleeve shirts, 4 identical long sleeve shirts, identical calf wool socks and SmartWool ankle sock...a lot of the same! Very few “accessories”...a few baseball caps, 3 cowboy hats and only my wedding ring for jewelry. On the “dressed up spectrum” most of what I wear is on the lounge around at home or very casual end. Only have 1 or 2 options for business attire. “Business casual” however is a little slim.
Question: What would your ideal wardrobe look like?
Vanessa:
Nothing to iron. Everything is comfortable. Everything fits or is tailored to my shape. All clothing is attractive and flattering. Can coordinate pieces into different outfits. A variety of colors other than black and brown (can be a limitation though). No dry-cleaning. Be able to pack everything I own in 1 piece of luggage or large duffle bag!
Dan:
Very casual wardrobe that doesn’t show sweat. Drapes well and doesn’t bind or make me feel self conscious. Mostly black or brown . Favorite clothes are ones I can wear and feel comfortable in 70 degree weather. I wish I could pull off keeping my shemagh around my neck like in the desert...they’re very functional.
Today… we’re going completely random on you! We have a bunch of short, unrelated topics that have been simmering for a while or just been on our minds and we figured it was time to put them out there. So we figured that maybe a few short bursts of ideas or tips might be helpful. A lot of these things we’ve been wanting to discuss but they aren’t something that would fill our usual topic segment length. But, we still wanted to get them out there. So, Vanessa suggested “Let’s do a completely random show and call it The Random Show!” Uh, OK...why not!
Well, the cool thing for you is you get a bunch of random tips...all solid in their own right, but boiled down into a few simple points! It’s like a pot luck dinner! Read more...
Main Topic: Dan: It’s not the tools, it’s the work: Every once in a while I have to remind myself of a lesson I first learned long ago from my older brother, Kevin.
Our big job in the Winter time growing up in the Southtowns of Buffalo NY was shoveling snow. Kevin always seemed to be getting lots more done than me! We had 2 shovels, the long push-type shovel that plows the snow and the typical square type shovel for shoveling the snow. Didn’t matter which one Kevin had, he always got more done than me. I was convinced it was the shovel and always asked him to switch. He always chuckled, but always switched with me. It didn’t make a difference. What Kevin was teaching me was that it’s not about the tools, it’s about the work. Occasionally, as a gadget guy, I have to re-learn that lesson. Once it sinks in though I realize it’s my big brother teaching me the lesson again, 40 years later and 1600 miles apart. Thanks Kev.
Take Away: Next time you go to buy that new tool, that fancy new laptop, download that next app that will supposedly solves all your problems...consider whether or not you need a new tool, or just need to master something you already have. It’s natural to nest…yes, even for guys. But it can easily get out of hand and then it’s time to draw the line. Eventually, it’s time to simplify.
So, over the years I’ve spent over:
2 years living in tents. I’ve lived in abandoned/bombed out buildings. About 6 months living in wooden huts. And 8 months living in a shipping container.
Each time, I and everyone that I lived with in these places, went through a bit of a nesting phase. I’ve seen guys/troops:
Build complete dressers and nightstand sets out of MRE boxes. Leave extra stuff home so they could fit hanging canvas shoe organizers in their bags to hang up. Fight for foot lockers. Or meticulously pack their rucksacks to the point where the seams were ready to burst.
There was also a certain “hierarchy of needs” that Maslow might even find puzzling. Of course it differed by your job specialty, but the order of precedence I typically saw with my guys was this:
Make sure combat gear was organized to grab and go (#1) Ruck/pack (#2) Evolve from sleeping on the ground to sleeping off ground (#3) Find a spot to hang your toiletry gear since you’ll be using that every day to wash your squishy parts or dangly bits (#4) Pogey bait, gedunk, lickey chewies (#5) Comfort/chill gear (#6) (music, cards, books, etc). Depending on how long it took you to get to your destination and the immediate tactical situation...this could go up as far up the list as #1!
We’ve talked before about learning to “embrace the suck”. I think that’s a skill that everyone should be able to call on any time they deem it necessary. But like a pendulum, sometimes we overcompensate for those moments of suckage and let things get a little too comfortable. I always force myself to remember that too much of any positive yields a negative. Some of our parents and grandparents dealt with living through the Depression by saving everything for “Justin Case.” Sometimes when we feather our nests too much we lose ourselves in the fluff.
What are your most important things? We talk a lot about getting rid of “stuff” on the show, and in our lives that’s what we’ve tried to do. We’ve gotten rid of just about 3000 things this year alone and have a couple hundred people who’ve joined in on it by accepting the Edit & Forget It Challenge. While we have opted out of following the mass consumerism that most in our society hold dear, there are still some things we ourselves hold dear. We created a scenario: "What 5 things would you grab if your house was on fire?" and then put ourselves to the test to figure out what possessions, out of our entire home, are the most important to us.
As we went through this exercise it really challenged us and realized that by spending some time thinking about your most important things...those top 5 things that you would grab out of your burning home, it greases your mental gears to:
Identify the your most important things. Things that mean the most to you and why.
Contemplate whether you’re giving those things the attention they deserve day to day.
Identify ways to keep those things safe now and ready to carry out if necessary.
Condition yourself to more easily part with things that didn’t make the list.
Get you thinking about being prepared in case of an emergency.
Read more...
Main Topic: Your House Is On Fire, You Can Save 5 Things...What Are They? The first time Dan thought about this was over 10 years ago when a colleague of his lost all her possessions when her apartment caught fire. She was devastated when she got the news and came home to find everything gone. He's been saying for a while now that we need to sit down and talk about what we’d do in an emergency. What would we take with us if we had the opportunity? What are our most important things? In the military we use lots of different techniques to teach lessons....like Attention to Detail...a skill that could be transferred and applied to other things. We also talk about planning. To use our own corollary to Dwight Eisenhower’s quote: “Plans are worthless, planning is priceless.” It’s in going through the exercise thoughtfully that will give you the most value. The Plan isn’t as important as the ability to narrow down what’s important to you and why. That is priceless, and something we should do on a continual basis. Sure, the exercise was all about discerning those 5 things that are really important to us, but the real benefit of the exercise comes from following the natural course of things and asking some follow on questions like:
Am I giving this the attention it deserves right now? What are some ways to keep this safe now and ready in case of an emergency? Am I better prepared to part with things that didn’t make the Top 5 list of your most important things? Am I better prepared for an emergency? And will I feel less stress if an emergency did occur?
Conducting the Exercise:
Assumptions: Obviously in a real-world situation, you and your family's safety is the first priority. But in order to alleviate a lot of "what if" scenarios, we thought it best to establish some basic "assumptions":
You, your kids, your loved ones (including beloved pets) are safe, sound and out of the house. Following the “fire” all your basic survival needs will be met (food, shelter, etc…). You can choose 5 things that you can carry out of the house (not a couch, bed or pool table).
List your Top 5 things and ask the following questions:
What is the Thing and Why? Am I giving this the attention it deserves right now? What are some ways to keep this safe now and ready in case of an emergency?
And then ask 2 final questions:
How has going through this exercise helped condition you to more easily part with things that didn’t make the list? Do you feel better prepared or better able to plan for emergencies? Do you think that by doing this you might possibly feel...
Way back in Episode 10, we’ve talked a little about communication and how it can make your life simpler….that is if it’s effective communication. Ineffective communication on the other hand can can make your life a lot more complicated and often leads to confusion, stress, resentment, anger and even some dangerous situations. That's why simple communication is essential at work, at home and apparently in the prison/corrections field (see clip below).
But, you don't have to be in a high-stress, dangerous job to tap into all the benefits of simple communication. Matter of fact, you might be causing some stressful situations yourself. Have you ever tried to replay a conversation in your head or share it with someone else only to fumble through it because you couldn’t remember the details or what was said? Or have you said “yes dear” or “sure”, or uh-uh” after your significant other asked you to do something but you didn’t hear a word they said because you were thumbing through your Facebook feed? Read more...
Or have you had your spouse raise an eyebrow with that “are you kidding me look...because this is the 10th time I told you”? I'm sure you can relate. What about if you are the one that wants to be heard? Have you ever felt like no one is really listening to you? It seems like people are either so self-absorbed and busy with themselves, or too distracted by all the buzz going on around them and in their head that they’ve forgotten to be present and listen.
Main Topic: "What We Got Here...Is A Failure to Communicate!" How To Become A Better Listener We spend close to 50% of our time listening, but there are A LOT of barriers to effective communication. Part of the reason we have so many barriers to effective communication is because of a lack of understanding of:
WHAT listening actually is…
WHY it’s so important, and…
HOW to become a better listener...all to make communication more simple.
WHAT listening actually is:
Hearing: is simply the receiving of sound.
Listening: is an active process of receiving and constructing meaning from spoken and nonverbal messages and can involve 2 types of attention:
Automatic attention: which is instinctive attention...such as responding to a stimuli like a sudden sound or movement.
Selective attention: where you are focused on something because it’s important or interesting to you.
And this is where it gets difficult, because often times the two of these compete and conflict with one another. For example: when you are engaged in a great conversation or lecture but your attention gets diverted to the sound of the “ding” on a phone.
WHY being a good listener is important:
It’s how we cooperate and get things done...as humans!
It’s how we build a better understanding of problems that we face as individuals or members of a team or as a family.
Helps us to be more productive...and not waste time figuring things out or having to re-explain things.
Helps us to have better interpersonal relationships...by showing genuine concern for those who are trying to communicate with you.
Helps us gain knowledge which in turn can help us influence, persuade or negotiate with others on things that we are passionate about or believe to be really important matters.
Prevents stress, anxiety, resentment and potentially dangerous situations.
HOW to become a better listener:
As we were doing our research, we came across a lot of great articles about barriers to communication and how to become an effective listener.
There was one article written on Poynter.org by Jill Geisler, who is a Senior Faculty member of Leadership and Management at the Poynter Institute that really stood out to us.
The article is titled “10 Lousy Listeners And What We Can Learn From Them.” She basically describes 10 types of lousy listeners...all of whom we could totally relate to!
So,
It can be way too easy to just go along in life and keep your head and eyes straight forward, just plowing ahead. But when we do that we often miss out on the importance of the experience’s life offers us along the way. Wouldn’t it be great if these experiences could make our journey simpler, more enjoyable, easier...and best of all, more fulfilling?
Well, that’s exactly what we want to touch on today. We want to go over some of our recent travel experiences from our summer trip to highlight 3 specific takeaways for us, and hopefully, you too! Specifically, we’d like to share some perspective in 3 areas. How:
Sharing your story is important to help you & others grow
The simple things in life are the most satisfying
Capturing “lessons learned” sparks continuous improvement
Read more...
Main Topic: Hayes Family Adventures and Tapping Into Lessons Learned When we picked up our rental camper and before we headed out, we were given specific instructions to share our stories in a journal (a journal that belonged with the rental camper). Specifically, we were not allowed to write about how awesome the camper was. Instead, we were asked to share our adventures!
As we reflected on our adventures, it got us to thinking about how humans have been telling their stories and experiences for thousands of years and it's the experiences we have...not the stuff that matters. And it's through our experiences...where we learn life lessons. So...we wrote! Below are some excerpts of the journal entries we made on our 3-week camping trip along with some lessons we learned: 1. All Hooked Up And Ready To Go….Or Maybe Not
On day one...our car battery died just as we hooked up the camper!
Lesson: Don’t let a bad situation damper the rest of your plans.
Lesson: It’s all about your attitude.
- Menacing Mosquitos
Mosquitos were vicious in Wisconsin, but we didn't let it deter our attitude. At first we were miserable, but then we just had to adapt...MORE BUG SPRAY PLEASE!
Lesson: Little things can make a big impact...but yet again...it's all about your attitude!
- Who Brought The Heat?
We left Texas to get away from the heat but then found ourselves stuck in a heat wave in Western New York! The temperatures were no different than in San Antonio, but we were in a new element and still had fun!
Lesson: Same type of conditions but in a new place = different perspective. Sometimes you just need a new venue to give you a different attitude and perspective.
- Simple Fun Tubing On The Lake
Probably the best day of our entire trip!
With family, enjoying the outdoors...everyone was having fun and working together from prepping the snacks and the boat...to encouraging cousins to take a jump off of a two-story dock...and teaching first-timer's how to tube behind the boat…total teamwork!
Lesson: Experiences vs Things will make you happier.
- Jellystone and “Help...We’re Surrounded by McMansion RV’s!”
Jellystone was a great RV park...but it had more than we needed. As it turned out, we hardly spent anytime enjoying all the "extra" ammenities. We had more fun just running around and hanging by the campfire telling stories.
We also experienced a lot of attention! In a sea of huge RVs we got tons more attention with our little camper. Matter of fact, a lot of the big RVers were drawn to the simplicity of the small trailer (they looked a little envious actually ;o)
Lesson: Don’t be fooled by all the bells and whistles.
- Flicks In The Sticks
We brought along a little Pico projector and set up an outdoor movie screen. There's something nostalgic and just plain cool about watching an outdoor movie (we used to love going to drive-in movies as kids).
Funny thing is, the big RV kids wanted to join us instead of being inside their own RVs (with all the bells and whistles and probably 2-4 televisions)!
Downsizing is a word we hear a lot about these days, and I’m surprised at how often it’s talked about in the negative sense versus the positive. If you’re not familiar with the term, typically, we hear “downsizing” being used in one of two contexts: the first is as a business term, used when business are scaling down & people are getting fired or laid off. The second context is the one we're focusing on today. It's often when people are facing retirement or decide it’s time to make some lifestyle changes and "scale back" their personal econoomies. Heck, sometimes the business downsizing leads to personal downsizing!
In the end we think you'll agree that downsizing can be a very positive thing. Armed with some information, downsizing tools, and a plan, you too can benefit from the "upside" of "downsizing." Read more...
Main Topic: Are you missing out on the benefits of downsizing now? Why wait for retirement?
How downsizing is perceived
Reasons to downsize
Some benefits of downsizing
Planning to downsize on your own terms
Background: But before we address those 4 things, first let's look at the starting point...downsizing from what, exactly? Well, most articles about downsizing are home-size centric as opposed to stuff-centric. They focus on going from a big house, to a smaller one. Most articles end there. And home size is certainly relevant. OK, I’m going to throw some numbers at you:
According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the average household size (meaning members in the home) in the United States has dropped steadily from 3.67 members in 1940, to 2.58 in the 2010 census.
The average size of new houses increased from about 1,100 sf (100 m2) through the 1940s & 1950s, to 2505 sf in 2012.
That’s about 290 sf (or 27 sm) per person in 1950
That’s 970 sf (or 90 sm) per person in 2010
Everyone has to figure out for themselves what size space is right for them. I just wanted to put those numbers out there. But I think it more than just the size of the home that matters. In Episode 4 we mentioned Parkinson’s Law, which states: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. You may recall I discussed some corollaries to Parkinson’s Law, one of which is: "Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity." Want that big house because you’ll enjoy the extra space? It’s not likely to last long...it’ll fill up. Here’s why we say it’s not likely to be spacious for very long:
Back in Episode 14, we talked about a study conducted by UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families that focused on how much stuff is in the typical middle-class American home.
They sent a team of professional archaeologists, anthropologists and other social scientists to conduct a systematic study of home life in 32 middle-class, dual-income families in Los Angeles.
Four highlights of what they found:
With Family #27, they found 2,260 visible possessions in the first three rooms recorded (two bedrooms and the living room),” and that didn’t include “untold numbers of items tucked into dresser drawers, boxes and cabinets or items positioned behind other items.”
In another home, Family #1 they looked at a display shelf in a girl’s bedroom and found: 165 Beanie Babies, 36 Human/Animal Figurines, 22 Barbie dolls, 20 other types of dolls, 3 Porcelain dolls, 1 Troll, 1 miniature castle
The average refrigerator front panel in the homes studied holds 52 objects. The most crowded refrigerator was covered with 166 different objects. In most cases there was a direct corollary to the amount of stuff on a fridge and the amount of stuff in the home (ie: a more cluttered fridge = a more cluttered home)
Only 25 percent of garages could be used to store cars because they were so packed with stuff. One article called this, “The New Junk Drawer” and rightfully so because that’s exactly what it’s become...
Are you losing focus? We’re in what could easily be called the Age of Distraction. Between all the media sources we’re exposed to, all the forms of Social Media, instant communication and technology at our fingertips...we’ve just become inundated with ready-made distractions to keep us from meeting our goals and threaten the very simplicity we’re trying to build in our lives.
So today, we’d like to talk about some simple ways to get your focus back, and beat the distractions that keep us from focusing on what’s important to us. We’ll go over a few personal examples of distractions we face and share a couple of tools we use to help keep us on track. Read more...
Main Topic Types of distractions:
Internal distractions are your subconscious thoughts that get in the way. And it may not be negative self talk (like fear and self-doubt) that gets in the way….euphoric thoughts can be just as distracting!
External distractions can be a phone call, a loud noise, a FedEx delivery at your front door, or all the ads you see online and on FB!
Some problems we face that lead to losing focus:
We’re constantly “switched on”: Camille L. Preston owner of AIM leadership and author of Rewired explains how an overuse of technology and its lingering effects--being overwired--is damaging our brains, our bodies and our personal productivity. She talks about the dopamine effect and its correlation to our addiction to technology
Smartphone addiction (aka the “Crackberry”) and instant access to email is one of the biggest distractors.
Too many apps that are constantly updating and the constant search for hot new apps.
Social media
24 hour news cycle
"The Resistance” that Steven Pressfield’s explains in his books the War of Art and Do The Work, which prevents you from getting the important work done.
Immediate (if not instant) gratification: like consuming short form information in blog posts as opposed to reading the entire article.
Solutions:
Taking some time to analyze “always switched on” habits. If you're always switched on...guaranteed...you'll find yourself losing focus!
Taking a “digital sabbath” or unplugging time: some of your best thinking and productive moments may happen when you're unplugged.
Designate times (schedule) times for things that distract, such as social media and email: Lifehacker and many other productivity specialists recommend not checking email first thing in the morning! There is a much much greater chance of you derailing your important project if you allow yourself to get distracted with emails and the unforeseen and unplanned tasks that are buried in them.
Check your work mail only during work time and personal mail during personal time.
Disable automatic download of emails. Instead download them manually during a “pre-determined” that you've set on your calendar to check them.
Turn off your internet or use an app like the Self Control App or Rescue Time. An app that lets you block your own access to distracting websites, your mail servers, or anything else on the Internet. Just set a period of time to block and you will be unable to access those sites--even if you restart your computer or delete the application.
Evaluate what apps/programs really work for you. No need to have cool new app if the ones you have are working. Our favorites are Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs/Drive and Google maps to name a few.
Plan out your day. Even Ben Franklin had a Daily Schedule...it's amazing what he accomplished in his lifetime!
Set aside time to read...actual books!
Identify your triggers or what’s causing your distractions. By identifying your triggers you become more aware. And being aware will in turn move you from subjectively looking at a problem to objectively looking at it and help you take ownership to control them.
So, we all go through bouts of losing focus.
Be honest. If you're like us you probably have thousands of photos, digital or print photos that are totally disorganized! You have the best intentions, but you probably have no idea how to organize your photos. Welcome to our world! We were thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Cathi Nelson, Founder and President of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) to help answer one of the most asked questions here on Simple Life Together: "How do I organize my photos?"
The interview was fantastic! Cathi offered up a wealth of information on how to organize your photos, both your physical and digital photos. We highly, highly recommend listening to the interview! Before you do, here is little more information about Cathi and some of the questions we asked her on the show: Continue reading...
How To Organize Your Photos: An Interview With Cathi Nelson: About Cathi Nelson: Cathi Nelson is the founder and president of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers™ (APPO), and her own photo organizing business, Photo Simplified. Cathi Nelson has been helping people organize their photos for over 17 years. Through Appo, Cathi is now teaching others to do the same. Appo provides support and education for entrepreneurs looking to build a photo organizing business, and educates the public on the need for photo organizing services. Cathi is also member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). She was a speaker at the 2011 NAPO annual conference and the Independent Photo Imagers Annual Conference, and frequently speaks on photo organizing at libraries, continuing adult education classes, and photo organizing retreats. If you want to know how to organize your photos, you won't find better answers than from Cathi Nelson! Interview Questions: 1. Tell us a little more about who you are and how you make people's lives simpler. 2. What is the biggest challenge you see with folks and organizing their photos? (Lack of routines...taking too many pictures...not letting go or deleting bad ones…unclear idea of how you want to store and enjoy them?) 3. Organizing hard copy photos can be a daunting task. For those with hundreds or even thousands of physical/hard copy photos, do you have a recommended process of how they can organize them? 4. How do you recommend people categorize their photos? Chronologically or by person, place, event? 5. What are some ways and products people can use to store their printed photos and negatives? Any special considerations for storing old, fragile, sentimental, or historical photos? 6. With mobile devices, it’s so easy to take hundreds and even thousands of photos before we even think to download them. Do you have any recommended strategies for managing our mobile device photos? 7. I heard you say on one of your tutorials: “Don't let your kids grow up to be JPEGS.” Can you explain what you meant when you said this? 8. Do you have any preferred software to organize digital photos? What about creating photo books? 9. How can one alleviate their fears of losing hard copy or digital photos? 10. What types of habits or routines can people adopt to manage and keep their photos organized and prevent it from becoming a big task in the future? 11. For the do-it-yourselfers or those looking for help, what are some online resources to help people learn about organizing their photos?
Additional Photo Organizing Resources and Information: Other popular services:
Picasa/Google+ auto backup on iPhone Flickr Snapfish Photobucket Shutterfly
There is a great comparison of these services on CNET Main things to consider:
Pricing Storage capacity File types File size Bandwidth limits Resolution of pictures
Announcements: Michael Hyatts' Platform Conference 3 - 5 November 2013, in Dallas TX at the Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West:
We're both attending this top-notch conference to help you build your online presence/platform.
Let's face it, there are some situations in life that cause us stress that we just don't need. The bad kind of stress...the kind that holds us back. Not the good type of stress, the kind that propels us forward. Two things that came to mind for us. The first was meals and how we overlook some simple meal planning techniques that lead to fueling us to take on the day ahead. Another was the "excess baggage" we carry through life.
So, let's take a look at simple meal planning and paring down some excess in our lives to see where we can makes some changes, and hopefully, improvements! Read more...
Vanessa’s Topic: Simple Meal Planning After Dan talked about doing a Personal Review in Episode 037 it got me thinking about doing one of my own. As I was doing this self-reflection, I discovered a couple of things I was doing that were causing undue stress in our lives: 1) My waiting until the last minute to get dressed when we were going out or had to meet someone for dinner causing us to be a couple or so minutes late. 2) Not having our dinners very well planned out. So, I decided to work on those two areas: being early and having a meal plan ...which is what I decided to talk about for this episode.
The number one key to simple meal planning is to…well…plan! Yup...as much as I wish it was the case...that dinner isn’t going to magically make itself. Here are some ways to make meal planning a little easier:
Plan 1 week of meals at a time. That includes breakfast, lunches, dinners and after school snacks. Yes...take the time to plan all of your meals...it will save you time and stress in the long run!
Review your calendar for the week ahead to see if there are any nights where you won’t need to or be able to make dinner. Maybe there’s too many activities and it would be better to eat out than to try and make a meal for the family. Or maybe you can make a simple crockpot meal on those busy nights where it’s a “self-serve” dinner.
Plan for a leftover night. Some meals are easy and cheap to make in bulk so why not make a little extra for lunch the next day?
Pick 1-2 theme nights and have the same meal every week on that night: Mondo Burger Monday, Taco Tuesday, Nacho Ordinary Wednesday…etc.
Shop only 1 – 2 times per week. I’ve said this multiple times before, but for consistency, pick the days you want to go shopping and block that time off on your calendar.
Speaking of shopping….shop only at your favorite grocery stores...1-2 max! Don’t waste time going to different stores just to get 1-2 items or to get the best deal!
Keep a grocery list in open view so that you and your family can write down items to get when they run out. Dry erase boards, sticky pads, and magnetic notepads stuck on the fridge work great!
Organize your grocery lists by Store and then by Category. For example: Walmart List: Dairy, Meats, Produce, Canned Goods, etc. A cool way to create multiple lists in one spot is to use Grocery Gadget
Batch shopping with other errands if possible. Let’s say you’ve got to go to the post office, then gas up the car and drop off dry cleaning. Maybe you could finish up your errands with grocery shopping.
Get into a routine of making your lunches the night before. Please, please, please don’t stress yourself out by trying to make lunches in the morning!
To piggy-back on the lunch routine, you may also want to review your meal schedule the night before too so that you are prepared to make tomorrow’s dinner. This is very helpful especially if you’ll need to pull out items from the freezer to thaw out overnight.
Get kids and/or significant other involved. Have them plan the meals they want for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In line with getting the family involved, be sure to define roles and responsibilities as well as when dinner is expected to be ready.
For years, I would tell my students that the most exciting moments in life are lived at the intersection of Preparation and Opportunity. It’s that mix of thrill, the crescendo of anticipation turning to fulfillment...when something that’s been building is finally imminent. And sometimes it lasts an instant, but typically the way I’m talking about it, it lasts longer...it’s a season or milestone in your life. And it feels awesome!
While 'preparation meets opportunity' is a great tool to guide our lives and how we live them, sometimes its simple things that make the day to day more enjoyable. One area we're trying to make strides is through eating more "simple foods." Read more...
Preparation Meets Opportunity and Making Food Simple Dan’s Topic: Preparation Meets Opportunity Dan's History with Afghanistan:
When I was a young man working in DC, the Soviet-Afghan War was going on. This was the mid-1980s so the Cold War was still in full swing. I became interested in Afghanistan and its people, so I studied up on this remote place.
My Afghan interest was renewed in 1997 during a briefing I attended about the status of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the devastation that was occurring. My job back then was essentially doing antiterrorism work & training.
Following 9/11, I quickly found myself leading my men as part of the initial US forces in Afghanistan, and working with the Northern Alliance.
For me it was the ultimate in Preparation meets Opportunity. I was where I was meant to be, leading men who I was meant to be with, doing what I trained mind, body, and soul to do. It was an amazing season of my life’s journey, with a feeling of fulfillment that I bet most people never have the chance to feel in their own life.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not talking about the war or conflict or glorifying any of that. I’m talking about doing what you are meant to do.
Another personal example of Preparation Meets Opportunity for me was being a panelists on a Social Media board:
About 3 years ago, the local chapter of professional organizers was hosting a panel on the importance of social media for small business. One of the panelists was forced to cancel and they had a hole in the panel they needed to fill. At the last minute Vanessa offered me up for slaughter!
So what the heck does a newly retired Air Force guy know about social media for small business? In my mind, these business ladies where a whole new, but still very real, threat! But, reading and studying about social media and technology had become a principle hobby for me for the last couple of years up until then.
I devoured thousands of blog posts, articles, podcasts, and books about these subjects because it was something I was interested and wanted to do as a “side gig” some day.
But when put on the spot I thought, “Not now...I’m not ready, what do I know, what qualifies me?”
I just counted on all the hobby reading I’d done in the last two years and went with it. And if the feedback I got was honest, I think I did pretty damn good on that panel!
And that’s another example of Preparation Meets Opportunity. On a much different scale, but still a solid example.
So recently we’ve gotten a lot of feedback, and a common theme of much of it falls along the same lines. People, like you and me, who are becoming the change they want to see, and preparing for opportunities. So here are some examples:
Maria who after living a life of simplicity was inspired to start a blog called 'Minimal Author' (www.minimalauthor.com) that has been very rewarding.
Dayis, who along with her husband have decided to live a simpler life and travel. They too had been setting the stage for a simpler life and decided to seize their opportunity (and maybe after getting some inspiration from Episode 35) to put their home on the market to pursue their dreams.
Emily,
Let's face it, we all suffer from procrastination once in a while. Sooner or later we need to deal with. Ironic right? If procrastination is something you've struggled with, there are a few things you can do to help overcome it.
Along the same lines, as we go through life we all pick up bad habits, get into negative routines, and generally get off track from how we want or intend to live our live. It really helps to stop once in a while, contemplate your life, and do a personal review. Read more...
Procrastination and Doing a Personal Review Vanessa’s Topic: Procrastination Dan and I just came off of a 1 month working vacation (Episode 35). It was so much fun I really didn’t want it to end, but I was actually looking forward to getting back to work. My transition has been a little bit tough though. It’s not that I lack the motivation...I’m just having problems getting started. And I know I’m not the only one who struggles with procrastination. Even the most productive of us struggle at some point or in a particular area of our lives where we tend to procrastinate. So as a firm believer that you can control your environment and that you are responsible for your choices (SLT Episode 32)...I wanted to discuss and share some reasons why I think we tend to procrastinate and perhaps share some strategies on how to overcome it. Read more... When you can pinpoint the cause, obviously you’re better able to tackle the issue or obstacle if you will. Some causes of procrastination?
Too many “new” things to tackle....new routines, new habits, new projects, new schedules.
Fear…of failure or success...or not achieving perfection...or being disappointed!
Unpleasantness of the task.
Becoming overwhelmed with major life events.
Being overextended with family, friends and work obligations.
Being indecisive.
Failing to prioritize what is important in our lives.
Tools that might help with procrastination:
Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. List your priorities and compare them to your goals. If something you think is a priority but doesn’t line up with your goals...consider dumping it.
Use the 4 Ds as a guide: Can I Delegate...Delay...Delete...or do I need to actually Do a task? Delegating is nice but you may have to pay to outsoursce the help. Delay is an alternative but you’ll still have to do it. Deleting or saying “NO” is one of my favorites! And of course you can decide to do it.
Break down big projects into smaller tasks. This helps you stay focused instead of getting burned out trying to get it all done at once.
If you’re having trouble deciding where to start...Just do something...anything! Sometimes that’s all it takes.
Establish uninterrupted time. Mark on your calendar when you want to work on a project and don’t let yourself get interrupted. Turn off the TV, mute your email, don’t answer your phone, and tell the kids and family not to bother you. It’s really that simple. Try this at work too.
Establish regular routines for your recurring tasks. Block off time on your calendars solely dedicated to your recurring tasks like, checking email, calling family, exercising, grocery shopping mowing the lawn, etc. This will prevent you from trying to get these things done when you should be working on another project.
Visualize the finish. Instead of looking at all the work it’s going to take, get motivated by visualizing the end state (Episode 30) of a project. That can be motivating in and of itself.
Do the tough stuff first. Get the not-so-fun and difficult tasks done first…then the rest will feel like a breeze.
Peer pressure. Ask a friend, coworker or significant other to help keep you on track and accountable.
Imagine the feeling of completion. How are you going to “feel” once the task is complete. Proud? Accomplished? Relieved? Less stressed? Happy?
Tune out negative self-talk.
Busy Is The New “I’m Fine”, & Back To School...Simplified! Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources So what's your default response when someone asks you "How's it going?"
I've been noticing that the most common response is…"Busy!" I've even found myself guilty of it from time to time. I'm not sure if people really are that busy, just think they're supposed to be that busy, or just perceive themselves as that busy. I'm also not sure what my reaction is supposed to be.
But I have to admit, when I hear people use the automatic response to “How’s it going” is “Busy”, I’m skeptical. So, when I hear it I wonder, is it: Read more...
Really a mini head-trip? Are they saying “I’m so important...people rely on me!”? Is it a defense mechanism for “Don’t give me anything else to do”? Are they justifying their poor prioritization? Is it an excuse for not taking action on things that really matter?
So, I began to wonder if I was the only one this bothered and did a little searching. I found a great article on Lifehacker by Janet Choi called How to Escape the Cult of "Busy". It starts out: People who often say they're "too busy" or "crazy busy" sound like buzzing busy signals. And when you start sounding like an appliance, it makes it hard to connect with you. I couldn’t agree more. So if you’re like me and find yourself falling into the habit of replying “Busy” when someone asks “How’s it going?”, take some time to evaluate whether you’re just making excuses for something else. If you truly have let yourself become too busy, then find out why. Because being too busy is a problem and will stand in the way of simplifying your life. You may want to use one of my favorite tools for getting to the root of the problem. It's called "The Five Whys".
Using "The Five Whys" is easy, you simply ask "why" after each reason and continue to ask that for each answer. For example:
Why am I so busy?
Because I go from meeting to meeting during the day and don't have time to "do my job."
Why do you go from meeting to meeting?
Because for some of them, I'm just expected to be there.
Why are you expected to be there?
I'm not too sure…it doesn't have much to do with my job.
If it doesn't deal with your job, why haven't you discussed with your boss that you may have a better use of your time?
Because the guy I replaced was used to go, too.
Why did he go to the meetings?
Because he had a personal interest in the program.
When I’ve used the 5 Whys to get to the root cause of why I’m not getting work done, more often than not it comes down to one root cause...FACEBOOK!
Actually, Facebook is just the tool, really it comes down to what Steven Pressfield calls “The Resistance” in his books The War of Art and Do The Work.
It’s that internal force that allows you to be distracted from what’s important. It’s following the rabbit down the rabbit hole. It’s the little guy on your shoulder that...when you’re working on something really important, like solving world hunger, that little guys says...”You know, you should check Facebook!” Fellow WDSer Adam Baker from Man vs Debt has a great interview with Steven Pressfield that focuses on The Resistance if you want to learn more about it. I’ll link to that in the shownotes as well.
OK, so back to the Five Whys. Now, despite the name "Five Whys", you're not limited to 5 nor do you do you have to go 5 whys deep in order to find your root cause. Five is simply the typical number of times it takes to get to that root cause. Further, The Five Whys doesn't "solve" your problem, it simply identifies it. In my experience the best way to solve problems are to 1-Identify the problem 2- Determine whether the situation fits in with your long term goals 3- Decide/commit to eliminating the problem, and what action to take 4- Take action These 4 steps sound alot like the OODA Loop we talked about b...
Living in 50 Square Feet…Vacation Simplified! We've had a standing dream: More time with family, and way more time to enjoy the outdoors! We've mentioned on the show that have been trying to sell our 4 acres overlooking State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country. Well, we sold it, and it freed us from other debts and allowed us to pursue 2 of the pillars we live by, Family and Future.
So, listen in as we talk about out summer adventure, some things that made our trip awesome, and some things that you can do to help simplify your vacation time, too! Read more...
Background:
Before we started podcast…last year around this time we decided to simplify our lives Commitment to simplify and live with less Reshaped our life plan and lifestyle First decided we didn't need big dream house…but then we started looking at Class A RVs to build this new life plan and lifestyle Actually had one picked out…35 ft Bounder Classic..with 4 TVs…everything gadget and accessory you could imagine…that cost more than our current house and gets about the same miles per gallon!!!! What were we thinking? We even started planning our new 900sq ft home around storing this monster!
Decision on getting the CampInn:
Forget the Class A motorhome Dan started looking around…and stumbled across the teardrop community…Dan explain Talk about the trailer Talk about trip to Austin to visit Tim and Cindy's camper Decision to buy dictated by selling the land Land sold…next day we put our order in! So…we planned our first big trip
Trip forced us to simplify:
3 week road trip Most of our family in NY has downsized or didn't have room for us…and we didn't want to impose Decided to rent a Camp Inn camper Got to rent it for free! Forced us to simplify our packing because we didn't have our camper to store stuff in…we had to pick it up in Wisconsin
Things we did to simplify camping: Yeah, we bought stuff...but we're going to be doing a LOT of camping and we wanted it to be (you guessed it)...simple! (links to all these are below)
Set of 4 metal plates and utensils: pizza tins…trying to keep down on waste with plastic cups and utensils Berkey…will come in handy next time Quick dry and small thin towels Crank and USB LED lanterns Toiletry squeeze bottles…great for camping and flying for TSA regulations Packed light clothing…Van: Merino Wool Clothes Dan…NMX/washing ranger panties (SOFFE shorts) Table with benches that tuck under it Self inflating Thermarest mattresses instead of a blow up mattress that doesn't hold its shape or bulky cots Aeropress Pop up trash can that can fold flat Camper pros: Well designed…we love efficient design Easy to tow…little effect on gas mileage on highway Compact…can have access in practically any campground or an off-grid location. Can fit in our garage at home Serves as a separate room/guest bedroom Can be a great Bug-out van ;o) Weather proof! Huge/severe thunderstorms didn't put a damper on us! Kitchen galley was awesome…and acted much like a kitchen at home…it was the "hub" Keeps it's value better than many other campers/RV Able to let go of other items no longer needed for camping: sleeping bags…big tents…big air mattresses…big cots…extra coolers…separate camping stove and propane tanks No more hotel rates…. No more big packing jobs…everything will be stored in the camper. Hook up and go! Even in remote campsites with no electrical hook ups…we didn't use up the battery.
Camper cons/challenges:
No shower…which made for tedious trips to common shower facilities (Van seriously considering no-poo and going "au naturale" instead of hauling toiletries around) Can't bring our juicer! Well we could...but it would be a hassle.
Pros of living in a small space/camping:
We don't miss a lot about our home and material things (juicer) We've been able to disconnect and unplug most of the time!
Let's Talk Money, & An Interview with Bonnie Dewkett, The Joyful Organizer Whether we like it or not, many things in life boil down to relationships. We all have a relationships with money and we all have relationships with the "stuff" in our lives. Again, just like many other things in life, our relationships can be positive or negative experiences. But often it just depends on how we frame them.
So, let's take a look at our relationship with money and our relationship with "stuff". To help us look at money, we're going to discuss a recent article by Seth Godin, one of our favorite bloggers. To help us look at the things we surround ourselves with in life, we'll talk to Bonnie Dewkett, Certified Professional Organizer from The Joy of Organizing podcast. Read more...
Combined Topic: Let's Talk Money With Seth Godin In this episode, we talk about an article by Seth Godin. If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, he’s written fourteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. And every single one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Candidly, his blog post is typically the first thing in my Inbox in the morning. Seth is also a fellow Buffalo boy, like me. So, Seth recently wrote a post titled Thinking About Money. He said, "Many marketers work overtime to confuse us about money. They take advantage of our misunderstanding of the time value of money, of our aversion to reading the fine print, of our childish need for instant gratification and most of all, our conflicted emotional connection to money. Confusing customers about money can be quite profitable if that's the sort of work you're willing to do"
He makes a few interesting observations about money that we thought was interesting and so we picked a few of them and discussed our thoughts:
The amount of money you have has nothing to do with whether or not you're a good person. Being good with money is a little like being good with cards. People who are good at playing cards aren't better or worse than anyone else, they're just better at playing crazy eights.
Money spent on one thing is still the same as money spent on something else. A $500 needless fee on a million-dollar mortgage closing is just as much money as a $500 tip at McDonalds.
If you borrow money to make money, you've done something magical. On the other hand, if you go into debt to pay your bills or buy something you want but don't need, you've done something stupid. Stupid and short-sighted and ultimately life-changing for the worse.
To go along with #3: getting out of debt as fast as you possibly can is the smartest thing you can do with your money. If you need proof to confirm this, ask anyone with money to show you the math. Hint: credit card companies make more profit than just about any other companies in the world.
There's no difference (in terms of the money you have) between spending money and not earning money, no difference between not-spending money and getting a raise (actually, because of taxes, you're even better off not-spending). If you've got cable TV and a cell phone, you're spending $4,000 a year. $6,000 before taxes.
If money is an emotional issue for you, you've just put your finger on a big part of the problem. No one who is good at building houses has an emotional problem with hammers. Place your emotional problems where they belong, and focus on seeing money as a tool.
Like many important, professional endeavors, money has its own vocabulary. It won't take you long to learn what opportunity cost, investment, debt, leverage, basis points and sunk costs mean, but it'll be worth your time.
Never sign a contract or make an investment that you don't understand at least as well as the person on the other side of the transaction.
If you've got a job, a steady day job,
An SLT Update, & the Value of Simple w/Joel Zaslofsky Well, we're a little over 6 months into this "whole blog/podcast thing" and we figured it was time for an update. Actually, we're probably way overdue for an update! There are some things upcoming that you may be interested in and we'll also be taking a little bit of a break as we head into our summertime family working vacation.
But the highlight of this week's episode is an interview with a good friend of ours, and fellow simplicity aficionado, Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simplicity blog and the amazing Smart and Simple Matters podcast!
Simple Life Together Update: We wanted to let you know some things that are going on with us and the show: Photo organization: We’ve talked about this in the past and it’s probably one of the most requested topics we get. We’re still researching and asking the pro’s for some tips, so you can look forward to that in the next couple of months. Dan will be doing an Evernote tutorial, too, at some point. He's been waiting for the dust to settle and now is ready to start working on it. If you have any special requests regarding Evernote, drop Dan a note at Dan@SimpleLifeTogether.com. Finally, we’ll be on the road a bit for the next month or so...we’ll be in Portland for Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit for the 3rd year in a row and then we have some mixed business & fun time with family throughout July and early August. We typically release shows every Thursday but for July we'll have shows on the 4th and 18th and then pick back up in August!
Interview with Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simple We had an amazing interview with Joel Zaslofsky...creator of the awesome Smart and Simple Matters podcast and the Value of Simple blog. He’s incredibly open about his journey from a six-figure corporate job to carving out a niche online, while shaping his simple lifestyle. He offers tons of tips and free resources on his website to help you "liberate your time, money and talent."
We were thrilled to be his guests on Episode 15 of the Smart and Simple Matters show back in January and we’ve been dying to have Joel on our show. Well, we finally made that happen and it was fantastic! You don't want to miss this interview! Here are some of the questions and things we talked about: - So Joel, who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? - So, you talk about your “Personal Renaissance.” Can you describe what that is, what it’s been like for you, and how it has led to a simpler/more focused life? - Can you tell us a little about the backstory of “liberate your time, money and talent” as it relates to you, your clients and your people who follow your work? - Tell us about your love for spreadsheets and some ways you use them to simplify your life. - How would you define curating, what do you curate personally, and how do you think others could benefit from curating? - Batman has his Batcave, the Super Friends had the Hall of Justice, and you have the Refuge of Simplicity! Can you share what goes on there? - Can you give us any tips about “keeping it simple” with a family? - For a lot of people, the whole “investment thing” is complicated. You address simplifying that in your online course “Start Investing with $100.” Can you share a little about that? - So Joel, what have we left out that is “must know” info for our listeners? What have you got going on these days?
Thing Segment Dan’s Thing: Our upcoming trip to WDS Vanessa's Thing: Passing her BCPO Exam and all the support she got from friends, family, colleagues....and even YOU...our listeners!!!
Links from our Interview with Joel: Research:
How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers (this is the 100,000 words a day research)
Your Memory is Like the Telephone Game (this is the reference to how much our memories suck, even if we think they rock)
Smart and Simple Matters:
iTunes
It's All About the Choices We Make! It's true. There's no getting around it. Generally speaking, the way we end up is all about the choice we make in life. Now certainly there are some cases where, as the bumper sticker says, "Things Occur", but for the most part the course we choose to take along life's path lead to conclusions that we help form.
So what are some of the choices we make in life that have major impact on our path toward simplicity? Well, there are a lot of them, and most of them are well within your control. Read more...
Dan's and Vanessa's Combined Topic: It's All About the Choices We Make Most things in life boil down to the choices we make. Grant it, there are many things in life that we can’t control, but most things are the result of choices. So...disclaimer up front...we’re talking mostly about adults here. Sure, kids have choices too, but as Vanessa and I were discussing this topic she reminded me that when it comes to things like education and opportunities, some kids don’t have the support systems as others. What’s normal for one child may be completely foreign or unavailable to another. I think she nailed that so we’ll keep our discuss limited to adults. Heck even adults have constraints on some of their choices, but like I said “most things boil down to choice”...not all. So, disclaimer done...this is more about introspection and choice we make ourselves as individuals, not judging others’ choices...let’s move on. But just because we choose something, doesn’t mean we get to choose the effects or the ramifications of that choice, too. Our choices have natural and sometimes inevitable effects. Some choices are causation for things down the road and not just correlation.
When we choose to buy things beyond our means using credit, the consequences are merely delayed. But we will face them down the road. We borrow from our tomorrow. For some reason we believe in the future we’ll have more time, more money, more resources...but that’s not always (or usually) the case. Poor credit choices today are literally writing checks that our future self has to cash...or face the ramifications for. I have to ask myself, “Does stuff make me THAT happy that I’m going to bet money I don’t even have yet on it?” I don’t think so!
The Choices We Make That Effect Our Path Toward Simplicity What we do for a living: This is often the result of a series of choices we make, not a single decision. A brain surgeon doesn’t just choose to be a brain surgeon one day. It’s a series of choices that likely began in high school or before. When our parents told us we can “be anything we set our mind to” that didn’t mean we could decide it and then it would happen. We had to make lots of decisions along the way. Sorry, but the “Law of Attraction” only goes so far. It takes the right choices, and working hard to support those choices and enable follow-on choices. Like when you play billiards or pool, the best players plan their shots to set themselves up for the next shot. Where we choose to live: Now, we’ve mentioned that dream home we had been planning but thankfully we decided to change that choice. We saw ourselves working just to support what we thought would be our dream. The more we contemplated it the more we realized the home would own us and not the other way around! Here’s a portion of a comment we received recently from Dayis on Episode 29 that reinforced that for us: "Becoming a slave to your dream home – how I wish you were speaking to me a year ago! We moved into our “dream home” last summer and it has become a nightmare…so hard to keep up with its needs, which is now the focus instead of the desert beauty that surrounds us. Hard to find time to just sit and enjoy the views. After your podcast, we’re confident that selling our home is the right thing to do. And thanks for sharing the fisherman tale…it so wonderfully defines what we want to achieve.
Simplicity Resources & Learning Styles in Organizing Wow! There is so much information out there to simplify our lives that some times it can get pretty complicated!!! Isn't it great to have a resource you can go to to find most of what you need on a subject in one location. That's when a site move from being just entertaining to become a real resource. Same goes for books, or any other type of information for that matter. We have lots of other great links on our Recommendations tab at the top of the site, but we wanted to highlight a few here.
Which resource work best for you are often dictated by your learning style. Each of us is unique in the way we prefer to learn. When it comes to organizing, the same thing applies. Which type of learning style works best for you? Read more?
Dan's Topic: Simplicity Resources So a couple of episodes ago we talked about the start of our journey toward simplicity so I thought I’d share some resources that influenced me as I started the journey, and still do. Like most things, when someone asks you "how you know something" or where you learned it, often times the first thing that comes to mind is “Well, I dunno...I just learned it.” Which is typically true! We each have our own unique path that we travel and you do just pick things up along the way. So it can be hard to say definitely where along the path you picked up a skill, a tidbit of knowledge or, harder yet, philosophy. The other problem I had while putting together this list is that many of these won’t seem like “simplicity” resources at all. Matter of fact, lots of them are straight out business resources. But our business is a big part of our lives and has influenced ability to simplify our lives immensely so I couldn’t just leave those resources, or that part of the story, out. Things don’t happen in a vacuum...they’re intertwined, with lots of cause and effect going on, with actions and reactions. I also need to preface this: For all my adult life my day to day existence was focused on doing my duty; to leading learning and doing things you’d expect from a career military guy. I was starting a transition. There’s a saying from Benjamin Franklin that goes- "Most men die at 25... we just don't bury them until they are 70”. I never wanted that to apply to me. Luckily, I was able to shape my service to where I could always be where the action was...doing things others didn’t want to do. I loved it! But as I prepped for my transition, I knew I wanted to do things on my terms. So that’s how I framed things...that was my lens. So, consider that as I go through the list. So what I’ll do is, for each resource, I’ll give a good portion of the 5W&H...the Who-What-When-Where-Why-How that I talked about way back in Episode 10 when I revealed some Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques I’m going to focus on Books, Blogs, and Podcasts that influenced me in the beginning.
The first one I’ll cover is...
Who: Tim Ferriss’s What: 4HWW When: I first read in 2008 Where: Amazon Link to 4HWW Why: This was the first book that really opened up the whole idea of not following a “deferred retirement” lifestyle. A main premise of the book focuses on numerous “mini-retirements” throughout your life versus waiting for the deferred retirement plan followed by most. In the book, Tim guides you through developing what he calls a “muse” or a side business that supports the lifestyle you want to live. Now, I talked quite a bit about deferred retirement in Episode 29 and in our About Us video so I won’t go too deep into that here, but I took that and adapted that a bit. Essentially for us it’s a little different. We always have my retirement pension from the military to back us up, but that has allowed us to develop our lifestyle businesses around what we truly love to do versus having to worry too much about it being our sole income source. That’s certainly an advantage we have because we can take our time,
You've Got Plenty of Time, and Where Do I Start? You can't buy time. Some may want you to think you can, but you can't. Time is most likely the most democratized asset we have. As we live our lives, it doesn’t matter who rich or how poor you are, we all get the same amount: 24 hrs in a day 168 hours in a week, 365 days a year...and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re the wealthiest person in the world, none of your wealth can buy you one more minute of time.
So how do you get on track to really making the most of the time you have? Knowing where to start sure helps! Well, it's time to take charge! Read more...
Dan's Topic: You've Got Plenty of Time So again, you can't buy time. Sure, there are ways to pay others to do things you don’t want to do, and we all do that. We buy our vegetables already picked, our meats butchered, and some foods prepared. And that does allow us time to do other things, but that time is filled with something else. And that’s where I’d like to focus today...how we choose to structure that time. We certainly structure how we spend our money, but often leave how we structure our time to chance. So, today I’d like to share some of my own definitions about time and how I’m trying to be a bit more careful with how I spend and structure my time in case you were considering that yourself. So, I’ll put a few things out there for you to think about if you’re looking at being a bit more mindful of your time as you simplify, as well. So, since we can't really buy "more" time, we should certainly allocate how we spend the time we do have. And as we go through this I'm going to define some terms that I set up for myself as a framework. Now these are my definitions so they're not set in stone. You can certainly opt to define them more stringently or more loosely or however you want. It's your time, your world, right? So, I’ll go through my definitions first, and then we’ll break things down just a bit, OK? The first term is HABIT: I think of habits as simple tasks that have become almost completely automatic. Do you really think about how you brush your teeth in the morning or in the evening? Probably not...you just do it automatically. But there was a time when you did have to think about it, right?
Remember when your Mom or Dad first let you brush your own teeth?
Or those little red pills that highlighted plaque? We got those from the hygienist at school
Measured your effectiveness at the task
Quickly became automatic
Well, lot’s of things we do, we do out of habit. And we’ll get back to habit’s and all these definitions in a little bit. The next term is ROUTINE: Like a habit, a routine is also automatic, but often a system of many habits. If brushing your teeth is a habit, the things you do to “get ready for life” life in the morning is probably a routine. A typical morning hygiene might consist of:
Showering
Brushing and flossing teeth
Doing your hair
Putting on makeup
When I was in the military, at the unit level when we were in the field, we also had “routines”, such as “Routines in Defense” where it was scheduled when weapons were cleaned, camouflage was replaced, communications were checked, etc. OK, the next one I want to cover is RITUAL: Mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. I think of a ritual as much like a routine, but something you’re much more mindful and appreciative of, and where you derive some benefit or satisfaction by doing it. In my opinion, the ritual is the sweet spot...it’s something that needs to be done that you enjoy and are better for doing. My goal is to see what routines I can convert into rituals. Some personal examples:
Making coffee used to be a routine when we had a drip coffee maker and merely a habit when we had a Keurig
With the AeroPress, it’s become a ritual that I enjoy
For over 20 years, I spent an hour a night ironing a uniform and spit shine m...
Honestly, we had other plans for this week’s show, but we got a bit sidetracked. Here’s how: We finally got around to doing our “About Us” video for the website! When we first started the show 6 months ago, we put in a placeholder that said something like “we’ll be doing a About Us video soon.” Well,“soon” apparently is relative!
If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.
We had a “found” day this week as we were supposed to close on selling our land but the closing date fell through...now we’re scheduled for tomorrow. So, we figured, let’s do our About Us video! And as we worked through what we wanted to talk about, the whole back story of how we got to this point came flowing out.
Our Combined Topic: Beginning Our Simple Journey Now, we’ve talked about some of this in some of the really early episodes of the show, but we thought it was time to cover the whole back story. We thought maybe some of you would find it interesting to know how we got here and maybe some of you would see your story as a lot like ours, in some ways. Besides, as much fun as we have with the show, we want it to be more than just “The Tech Guy and Organizer Show.” That stuff is great and has its place, but there’s more to living a simple life in the modern world than that. And there’s more to us, too. So we figured, let’s tell our story. The “Lead Up” So, this is how it goes:
We’re a retired military family
That included lots of moving, our schedules dictated to us by the mission, etc
That said, we wouldn't change our lives in the military for anything!
We both have experience in the corporate world
We were living the typical American consumer-driven lifestyle. You know....that typical “deferred retirement” lifestyle where you work until you’re 65+ then hopefully are still healthy enough to enjoy retirement. You work 5 days or more straight to pay for your 2 days off...dreading Mondays so much you get the Sundays night blues. Note: Learn more about "deferred retirement" and planning your lifestyle from Tim Ferris's fantastic book The 4 Hour Work Week
Started our lifestyle businesses: Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, Dan does business development for select clients. Still, we were on that deferred retirement track. But in the meantime, we subconsciously had been downsizing and simplifying our lives based on life events...like getting married...having another child....going to a single income household by choice so I could stay home with the baby...moving twice...etc.
Beginnings of Change: But even though we were making some positive changes...
We were still following the deferred retirement rules.
We had dreams for our big Dream Home
We even bought the perfect lot to build it on overlooking a state natural area! It was going to be big and beautiful!
And it was going to have all the latest stuff...we were going to do our part to help boost the down economy!
But in the backs of our minds the wheels were already turning.
It’s Out There! And it all changed one day on a trip to Portland last year for a conference.
As we were on final approach into PDX flying right over the river by the airport, I leaned over to Vanessa and said...."I'm not sure what we'll take back from the conference this year, but I know this... I really, really want to simplify our lives."
And there it was....verbalized...out in the open....and we were both on board!
From that point on we really started to question and evaluate our life together and what it could look like.
And that’s why we shot our About Us video in Bandera, TX along the Medina River.
We love to go there and just float in the river, with the cypress trees providing us a little shade and a cold drink to quench our thirst on a hot Texas day.
One day as we floated in the river we decided we wanted more days like this...
The Cost of Clutter and Managing Your Passwords with 1Password Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Google Drive Tutorial Yay! The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing documents using Google's free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it's a bargain! In this introduction, you'll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don't wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan's 1 hour+ windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you're not completely satisfied I'll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk...simple!
Vanessa's Topic: The Cost of Clutter In preparation for my Certification at the end of June, I’ve been doing a little bit of reading, studying and freshening up on my professional organizing skills. Well, during my studying I came across some articles and books that talked about the cost of clutter. I’ve talked quite a bit about clutter in previous episodes and I’ve mentioned here and there some of the costs of clutter, but I thought I’d bring all those thoughts and some additional ideas about the cost of clutter together in one discussion. Now, as a reminder let me define what clutter is: Clutter is anything we don’t need, want or use that takes our time, energy or space and destroys our serentity (Clutter’s Anonymous definition). With that definition and with the various things I’ve read, I think there are 4 Main Areas Where Clutter Costs us:
It can cost us in regards to Money It can cost us Time It can cost us our Health And it can cost us our Sanity
Let me explain a little more... In regards to Money:
10% of American households rent storage units which can cost between $600-1000/year. 23% of Americans are late paying their bills because they lose the statements or just plain forget to pay their bills altogether. And of course, late payments result in late fees. Even worse, repetitive late payments can even cost you your credit score! (Which by the way can cost you time as it may now take longer for you to pay off your debts)....oooh...clutter can be a vicious cycle!
Let’s talk about food:
You know what happens to us when we don’t have a plan for our weekly dinners? We end up going out to eat right?! Which cost 2-3 times more than if we ate at home! Food can also cost you at the grocery store when you don’t know what you have at home because your pantry is a mess and you end up buying duplicate food items or throwing things away because they’re expired! That’s one of my peeves at home....I do not like to waste food!
Ok...so this also happens with other things in the home like office supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, light bulbs, batteries etc.
When your home is cluttered and you don’t have homes for these things, it often results in them being misplaced....and increases chance of duplicates being purchased....because you can’t find them! At work, clutter has the potential of costing you a promotion because clutter can result in disorganization, missed documents, missed deadlines, and so on.
Now, let’s not forget about digital clutter:
Having to buy more memory for your computers, or more storage space on the cloud...or what about apps that you purchased and never use? All that digital clutter can cost you money!
And of course, another way clutter can cost you in regards to money, is having to pay an organizer to help you get organized! Although I’d like to think of a professional organizer as more of an investment.....
Organizing Important Family Documents and an Intro to Google Drive Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Important Family Documents I read somewhere, that “family and home office filing systems are a lot like snowflakes...each one is unique and different.” And it’s so true! With that in mind...I’m going to share some basic concepts and things to think about when it comes to preparing your documents so that you are prepared and less stressed if and when an emergency or major life event occurs. So, why organize and be prepared?
If there were a major life event or emergency...let’s say a fire, flood or tornado...would you be able to grab your important files and paper within a moment’s notice? Well, there’s one good reason to get organized.
70% of Americans die each year without a will (Forbes.com 3/30/12). So that means...someone will be appointed by the state to handle all matters of your estate...possibly including guardianship of your children. And it could end up being someone you would never want to handle your estate or care for your kids! So that’s another pretty darn good reason.
It’ll save you time searching for documents in the event of an emergency or major life event. It’ll also save your family member’s time in the event of a death in the family.
It’ll spare unwanted or additional emotional stress and frustration.
It’ll save money on funeral homes, services and other last wishes if those things are planned and prepared for in advance.
Cut down the chances of missing out on survivor benefits and decrease chance of financial hardships of surviving family members.
What constitutes important family/life documents:
Identification papers: birth certificates, social security cards, citizenship, passports, etc.
Family documents: marriage certificates, divorce decrees, adoption papers and custody or guardianship papers, death certificates
Deeds and titles: vehicles, homes and other property
Military records: DDForm 214
Wills
Living wills
Last wishes
Cemetery plot registration
Power of Attorneys: general, medical, durable, etc.
Trusts
Safe deposit records
Investments
Retirement and pension plans (IRA, military and other death/survivor benefits)
Insurance documents: life, property, casualty, homeowner’s, auto, health and disability (VA disability letters)
Business papers: incorporation, DBAs, partner contracts and agreements
Bank accounts
Loans and debts
Note: You don’t need to have all the monthly statements for all of the financial documents I mentioned. You just need the basics of what accounts you have and what are the terms of the benefits or of the loan/payoffs, etc. Some food for thought and clarification on your important documents:
A will is the single most important legal document you will ever sign. Dying without a will can incur unnecessary taxes, expenses and hardships on your heirs.
It’s highly recommended that you update your will in the event of marriage, divorce, or birth or a death of a family member as the beneficiaries may change. Review it periodically to make sure it is current and up to date.
If you move, make sure your will is valid in your current state of residence.
Once you’ve prepared a will, consider discussing it with all those involved so that there is clear understanding behind your decisions.
Other directives should also be thought through like: living wills and advanced directives which will help family and loved ones make critical end-of-life decisions if you are unable to do so.
Also think through Powers of Attorney: There are different types like, General, Special, Durable and Medical POAs, etc.
Regarding last wishes.. they aren’t a formal legal document; however it’s a great way to let t...
Spring Cleaning Your Home, Life & Tech Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Vanessa Topic: Spring Cleaning Your Home and Life Spring cleaning is all about de-cluttering, deep cleaning, and prepping for the summer!
ceiling and floor vents
ceiling fans and baseboards
gutters
washing the windows and window sills
clearing out and wiping down the inside of drawers
de-funkifying the inside of your oven and degreasing the stove vents
sweeping and moping under appliances, couches, beds, etc.
decalcifying your water fixtures
Spring cleaning can also include other things like:
switching out seasonal clothing and home decor
testing fire alarms and replacing batteries Fire alarms
checking fire extinguishers for their expiration date
service your lawn and gardening equipment How to prep lawn equipment for Spring
service your vehicle and stock up on vehicle emergency supplies before a summer road trip.
get your AC unit serviced too
I also like to include a little planning and prepping for summer and fall:
Sign your kids up for summer camps Summer Fun Activities for the Kiddos
Plan out your trips and vacations (Vacation Travel Preparation)...you can use Travel Checklists to keep you organized.
Enroll your kids for school; get their records, immunizations and physical taken care of now! Or at least have it on your radar. Back to School Tips
Sounds like a lot of stuff right? Your Spring Cleaning List is manageable if you keep these things in mind:
You don’t have to do it all at once! You can do a little bit at a time everyday
First: Identifying ALL TASKS you need or would like to do in priority order
Second: Assign a reasonable amount of time to complete each task
And finally....make a date and don’t break it!!! That means schedule it on your calendar. Remember...A TO DO item is actionless unless you attach a date to it!
Book your priority tasks first. Save big tasks for days that you have more time to dedicate to them. Smaller/easier tasks can be listed on a daily basis.
Now, if your list is still looking too long then consider spreading your tasks out throughout the year instead of just at springtime!
And don’t forget about delegating tasks to family or other members of the household...
Or even hire someone else to do it for you! Sometimes it’s worth outsourcing help!!!!
I mentioned getting others involved...but what if others in the family aren’t “into it”? Well, here are some tips to help get Spring Cleaning “buy in” from others:
Communication is key. Explain why certain tasks are important to get done and that you really need their help.
Start with a small task. Then move to a team oriented task. Keep it fair too...everyone should be involved not just the oldest child.
Give them ample notice of a cleaning project...don’t just drop it on them at the last minute!
When all else fails bribe them or threaten them! That’s what I do! Just kidding.
Let’s talk about some popular spring cleaning projects around the home (Note: I'm just going to mention the more unique tasks)
Kitchen: clean out ovens and vent hoods; edit and organize your pantry tossing all expired items; clean out the inside or your fridge as well as sweep and mop under it; may need to defrost your freezer and wine fridge too; and decalcify your coffee maker
Living Rooms: clean sofas and chairs; wipe down remotes; edit and organize media like DVDs, CDs and video games; edit magazines and newspaper collections
Bathrooms: wash shower curtains and shower mats; dust vents; throw away old and expired jams n jellies and medications; srub away lime deposits on your water fixtures.
Garage: service lawn mowers, move winter supplies,
"Someday" Isn't On The Calendar & An Interview With Kerry Reifel of The Simple Year Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Dan and Vanessa's Topic: "Someday" Isn't On The Calendar As we traditionally do when we have a guest interview on the show, the two of us will do a joint topic. We've hit our 25th episode, and so we thought we'd reflect back on where we started and throw some ideas out to our listeners about where we might be headed with Simple Life Together. Here are the things we reflected on and discussed:
Made the decision to simplify our lives and for us that meant somewhere between consumerism and minimalism...not exactly sure how to define it other than “simple”, but now we know it’s not consumerism, not minimalism, not raising our own chickens and sewing our own clothes. Nothing wrong with that...just we’re not at that level!
We looked for a community but couldn't find one!
Dan wanted to start a podcast for years and said he’d do it "someday." Well, no matter how many times he looked on the calendar, he never found “someday” there.
We decided that maybe the community we were looking for was looking for us, too. So, Dan floated the idea to Vanessa for a sanity check and she was all for it...and Simple Life Together was born.
Dan brought some tech simplicity and military techniques to the mix while Van brought the organizer background to the mix.
We’ve been amazed at the number of people who felt just like we did and joined us!
Not that episode 25 is some magical number, but we’re having some pretty strong feelings about the show and the future of the show. We think a lot of people listen to the show and take some positive steps in their lives...not because of anything we say or do, but just because they know they’re not alone in the fight. We’re thinking of some logical next steps and we really need some help and advice from all of you on where we go from here:
Considering a community site for more interaction, videos, tutorials, forums to share experiences, arranged by topic, etc.
We’re also considering doing products for the community, too. Dan has already been asked numerous times to do a video screencast to go along with his Evernote Simplified Parts 1 & 2.
It will be an investment on our part if we do it. If there is enough interest in the community, Dan may stop doing client work or seriously draw down on it to support the community
In the end, it’s not about what we want, it’s about what you want! If you just want the podcast and that’s it, that’s fine, but if there is an interest on a full community then we’re considering that too.
Dan create a survey that we ask you to please take 1 minute to click some boxes so we can gauge the level of interest.
No commitment on your part or our part...yet...but we wanted to ask you what you’d like to see.
So, please go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/survey to take a 1 minute survey to share your thoughts with us. We won’t make any decisions about the community’s future without your input. Heck you ARE the community! So please, share your thoughts with us. It’s just 4 Questions, 4 clicks and and one block to share anything else that’s on your mind. We really need your help on this one! Thanks so much and we look forward to your input, thoughts and ideas as we go forward with SimpleLifeTogether.com! Guest Interview: Kerry Reifel Of The Simple Year We were so lucky to have Kerry Reifel here on the show! Kerry is a middle class, working mother of two young girls and wife to an active duty military officer. One year ago on April 24th 2012, just as her husband took off on a 6 month long deployment overseas, Kerry set out on her own exciting adventure of not buying anything new for one year. Although her family had the means to buy the things they needed and wanted, she realized much of it they really didn’t need.
Simplicity Can Be Complicated & Tackling Piles of Files with Smiles Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Dan's Topic: Sometimes Simplicity Can Be Pretty Complicated One of the major topics people talk to us about is how it seems that a good portion of society has given up or lost their way when it comes to choices they make and and even seems like they’ve given up on taking responsibility for shaping their lives.
On last week's show I mentioned Stephen Covey's classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey addresses at the beginning of his book that responsibility is our "ability to respond." When it comes to living out our decision to pursue a more simple life, we exercise our ability to respond in the choices we make.
Choices on what to let into our lives, and choices on what to let go of. In doing that, we exercise that responsibility at many levels..first in our choice to live simply and then with each decision we make to support that choice.
Simplicity is a completely personal choice. No one, including us, has all the right answers on how to make your life simple. Like most things in life that are truly important, there is no:
magic pill definitive blueprint roadmap or treasure map to find the simple life that perfectly suits you.
The answer can only be found by truly contemplating your desires, formulating your life plan and tweaking it along the way as you get wiser. Matter of fact, listening to gurus and experts will often run contrary to your goals because it limits your ability to respond…to be response-able.
Responsibility is a like a muscle, if you don't exercise it, it will atrophy over time and you won't be able to use it.
That is the path a huge part of society has chosen to follow these days and their decision muscles become more and more atrophied every single day.
So how did this happen? Well, I’ve thought a lot about it and wanted to share some things with you.
So, as you've heard me mention before, many sources tell us that the average adult is exposed to as many as 5000 advertisements per day. Now, I think this number might be a little high, but who knows. I've done some research on it and to me there's definitely a ballpark figure range from 1800 to 5000. Still, the crux of the matter is that we're inundated with advertisements, and heck, traditional media for that matter, that are designed at their best to influence our decisions, and at worst, to replace our decision making process all together! Advertising tells us what we’re supposed to drive, what we’re supossed to look like, wear, live, what medicines we need to take if we want to be 70 and hold hands with our significant other as we sit in separate bathtubs after a long day’s motorcycle ride.
If you're new to simplifying your life, I just want to reinforce the decision you've made to give this a shot. I wanted to start out by just going over what decision making was like back in the day and what it's like now. I'm not going to get into what's better and what's not…just sort of present some realities and how our options have changed. Like "stuff" in our lives, more options isn't always better. So let's compare some available options of a few things between an era we'll call "back in the day" to now:
First off, television.
Back in the day we had about 3-4 TV channels to choose from.
If you’re like me and lived near Canada, maybe you were able to pull in 2 more, and maybe your town had a VHF channel to watch reruns of shows that were off the Big 3 here in the States of ABC, CBS, and NBC. If you lived outside the States, then maybe you have even fewer options. If you wanted some advice about what to watch, you asked your friends. The sample was small and just by asking a handful of friends would give you all the info you needed. The advertising model was a holdover from the radio days.
Simplicity "Traps" and There's an App for That! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Vanessa Topic: There's an App for That! I often get asked about how I stay so organized...a natural question I suppose since I am a professional organizer and all. Well one of the things that keeps me organized is using technology via my iPhone and iPad. As a matter of fact, I affectionately call my iPhone my “Mini Command Center.” It’s got everything I need (or think I need) right at my fingertips. Like Dan has discussed in the past, our iPhones have replaced so many other physical gadgets...a camera, a vehicle GPS system, a Garmin wrist watch, an iPod/MP3 player, and a calculator just to name a few things.
I thought I would discuss some of my favorite apps. My main purpose it to get you to think about apps that may help you too. You may not pick the ones I discuss and use, but hopefully when you're wondering if there's a better way to track or do something you'll say, ”Well, I bet there’s an app for that” and then go I searching for one.
Let me first talk about apps that Dan and I both use. Now, he’s already mentioned them back in Episode 21 when he talked about Menu Bar apps on his desktop but I figured I would share with you how I use them on my iphone and ipad.
1 Password: This is a password management program that does more than store all of your passwords. You can also store other important information like ID card numbers, membership numbers and credit cards. It’s also very helpful when you need access to a variety of other important information...like a family member’s social security number, a student id number, bank account and routing information, business EINs, etc. We even have our bike locks combinations in there!
Evernote App: Yes...I am a fan too. Maybe not as big of a fan as Dan being that he’s done two back to back Episodes on Evernote in Episode 17 and Episode 18. On my phone, I use evernote to capture pictures, notes, emails, etc. It’s especially handy at meeting and conferences. Speaking of conferences...I save all pertinent information (notes) regarding my conferences in a notebook where I can quickly reference it....like flight information, emails, itineraries, conference programs, e-handouts, slide presentations, contacts, etc.
Dropbox App: I’ve been using this one more and more. Especially since Dan downloads our episode recordings for us to listen to before posting on iTunes. We share our dropbox account and so we also store things like our eBooks, etc.
Google App: I pretty much do everything in Google....GMail, Google Plus, Google Calendar, YouTube, Google Drive, Picasa, and Google Reader (although that’s going away soon..boo). I’m a huge fan of one-stop shopping and so this app allows me to access all of those programs instead of cluttering up my iPhone screens with separate apps for each of them.
Other apps that I use and love:
Biz Expense Tracker: Actually I used to love this one but have been having issues lately. It tracks my mileage, expenses, and time. Although I was totally in love with this app...we’ve been having issues with syncing and sharing. So...we’re still using it but we’re keeping all of our receipts until we figure out a better app or get better confidence in it.
Pandora: Music app where you pick a favorite song or artists and they build channels with similar music around it. I use it when workout...we also listen to it in the office. Only bummer is the commercials but honestly...they’re so short that I don’t find them a nuisance at all. I’m sure there are other music apps out there but I picked this one and have been happy with it.
Nike + Running app: Running app that tracks all of your runs by distance and time. It even calculates your fastest and longest runs and keeps a running tally of the total miles you’ve run.
Life's Spam Filter and Simplicity For A Lifetime Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Before we get to the topics...we wanted to let you know that we had a terrific Skype visit with Mohamed Tohami of Midway Simplicity not too long ago and he posted it up on his website, MidwaySimplicity.com. Of course we have links to Tohami’s site in the Simple Living Blogs section of our Recommendations page here on the website. You can also go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/midway and that will take you right to our Skype video. We had such a good time talking with Tohami and if you like to see us in video action, check it out! Heads up though...Vanessa’s face is cut off in the video. It rendered full screen during the interview but for some reason Skype software cut her off on the final render!
Dan's Topic: Life's Spam Filter Alright so you know I love my Gmail, and I have all of my email accounts setup come into my Gmail account. I’ve had my Gmail account since it first came out in ‘by invitation only’ Beta back in 2004... and it’s done nothing but get better and better, and more powerful. One of the best things about Gmail is its incredibly efficient spam filter. It’s very seldom that I get spam in my inbox because long before I check it, my spam filter has already done what it does best...keep all the junk that I don’t need to deal with out of my inbox so I can focus my attention on the emails that are truly important to me, including the ones that you send (which we love to get, by the way). Occasionally, I do go back and check my spam folder just to see if something got filtered out that shouldn’t have been. I’ve only had this happen a few times and I can tell you that in none of the cases was this catastrophic. It might have been a minor inconvenience to me, or more importantly, to the sender. But it never really caused any issues that couldn’t easily be resolved. I also go back and check my spam folder from time to time...not regularly...just once in awhile, out of curiosity. It’s interesting to see the junk that goes in there! As of today....I have 3,576 junk emails in my Gmail spam folder. That’s from less than 30 days ago. Apparently I’m missing out on all sorts of opportunities! Loans, inheritance from afar, opportunities to help the Nigerian Finance Minister with that country’s accounts...countless pharmaceuticals to make some of my body parts bigger and others smaller, and apparently I’m pretty irresistible to foreign women from lots of different countries (but especially Russian women) and the ideal candidate for instant credit! And adding up just the totals on the first 2 pages I have almost $450 dollars of unclaimed Wal-Mart gift cards. I have so many offers for Lasik surgery that I’m starting to think they’re from listeners of last week’s show who heard me tell my story about petting ODC’s tail, aka the watering can. Suffice it to say, I really appreciate all the hard work my Gmail spam folders do for me. It’s just something that is too easy to take for granted but really saves me a lot of time and effort. Well, you might be thinking this topic is about Gmail or tech. But the reality is, as I checked my spam folder the other day, something hit me. As I scrolled down...and saw the thousands and thousands of things that I didn’t have to deal with anymore because my filters did it for me, I realized that SIMPLICITY is the spam folder for my life! Simplicity helps us deal with the physical manifestations of the spam emails we all get. If we let it, it helps us immediately discern what’s important and what’s not...what’s in line with our life plan and what’s not...what’s congruent with our faith, our morals, goals, aspirations, dreams and relationships. Just as spam filters protect us from following links that lead to trouble such as scams, malware, viruses, deception...so simplicity protects us in our everyday lives from the false promises of...
Some things just make life easier. When it comes to working on your Mac or PC, menu bar apps and browser extensions are like little superpowers that give you lots of additional capabilities. We'll share some of our favorite with you to make your computing experience a little simpler.
Speaking of superpowers, being organized can be a superpower in it's own right! Vanessa shares some tips on how you can help others get organized. it can be a little tricky, so this is some good stuff! Read more...
Dan's Topic: Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions I thought I’d cover just few tools in my toolkit for working on my Mac and in the Chrome Browser. Even though many of the Apps are Mac specific, the Chrome extensions I’ll tell you about work across the Chrome Browser platform. Apps that I operate in my Mac’s Menu Bar:
Text Expander
Text Expander is a Mac only app, but there are other programs for PC that function similarly. Just Google “Text Expander for PC” and you’ll find some. Check out the reviews for these as I don’t have any experience with any text expander programs for PC. Automatically expands text using little short codes or “snippets.” From a single line signature to paragraphs or a full page of text, just make a little snippet and you’ll save tons of time as you type! Use it for signature blocks, code, email addresses (D.D), web addresses (for instance our SLT.C our HSLT.C snippets)...you name it! I even use it for common spelling mistakes that I make! For some reason, every time I type podcast it comes out podca-t-s! So, I made a snippet that automatically corrects that with Text Expander! Available through this link in the Mac App Store for Mac at $34.99, and through this link in the App Store for iPhone and iPad at $4.99
Dropbox
It’s available for Mac and PC. Adds another folder on your computer that acts as a virtual drive. Use to supplement a good backup plan by storing docs there. More about that in Episode 3. Load it on your PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, etc, and have everything synchronized on every device. If you change/edit a document in Dropbox while working on your laptop, it will automatically update everywhere else. If you're on someone else's device, you can log in to your Dropbox account on the web and access your information. My service of choice for synchronization of other programs, too. I use it to sync the Text Expander account, our BizExpenseTracker app and our 1Password account. You can even share documents or folders with others so they can have access, too. Done seamlessly...on the Cloud. Free and they give you 2Gb to start out with. You can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Dropbox.
Evernote
Brand new to the Evernote arsenal is the new Quick Note function. Quick Note feature lets you create a note at any time, no matter what you’re doing on your computer, by clicking the elephant in the menu bar at the top of your screen or using the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-N. To create the quickest Evernote notes ever, simply pop open Quick Note and start typing. Once you’re done with your thought, click Save to Evernote or Command-Return, then continue doing what you were doing. If you don’t save to Evernote, then your content will stay in the Quick Note window waiting for you to add more stuff. Create audio notes and screenshots by clicking on the relevant icons in the Helper. Just mouse over the icons in Quick Note and you’ll see text that explains each icon’s function. You can also add images or attachments by simply dragging them onto the elephant icon in the menu bar. Every new item will be added to the same note until you save it to Evernote. As Evernote says, “It’s the perfect on-the-go complement to your normal Evernote use, and once you get the hang of the keyboard shortcuts, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.” You can get Evernote in the Mac App Store for Mac,
Organizing Your Clothes Closet & Mentoring Our Younger Selves
Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Vanessa Topic: Organizing Your Clothes Closet
Since we started the Edit and Forget Challenge, there are a couple of things that I’ve noticed:
A lot of folks love the idea of editing, but they’re having a tough time convincing their significant others to jump on board. So the biggest piece of advice we give them is to listen to Episode 11 With Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, where he shares some tips on how to work with your loved ones. Basically he recommends to start with your own stuff first.
I also noticed most folks start with editing their clothes. I guess it just seems like a natural place to start because most of us have our own clothes that we don’t share with anyone else. I also think folks start in their closets because you can make a significant impact visually...letting go of 20 pieces of clothing frees up a lot more space than 20 pieces of paper or 20 paper clips.
Well one of the side effects to all this editing that we've encouraged, is that I've gotten a few questions about what to with the clothes that are left behind and how to organize these newly freed-up closets!
I’ve already talked about how to organize any space back in Episode 12 As a quick recap, I use a four step process: N...A...P...O
- Determine your Needs - Assess your space - Edit your space - Organize your space
For the folks out there who have already edited...I recommend going back to the previous two steps: Decide if your NEEDS have changed....and Re-ASSESS your space to decide how you’ll now utilize it.
If you haven’t edited yet, then you may want to listen to Episode 12 to learn about my 4 step process before you start organizing your closet. Or go simplelifetogether.com/organizeanything to get access to my Organizing Series of blog posts.
Ech closet is different and each person has different needs for utilizing their closet.
Here are some TIPS on how to organize your clothes closet:
Sort your clothes:
- By FUNCTION: work clothes, dress clothes, casual, seasonal
- By TYPE: t-shirts, polos, long sleeve, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses, jackets
- By COLOR use the colors of the rainbow as a guide when sorting your colors ROYGBIV...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (with white in front and black at the end)
- Or a COMBINATION. For example, I sort by type and color within each type (sleeveless shirts from white to black)
Dedicate space for each person. After you edit and have a better idea of how many clothes you have left, you can better establish the space required for each person.
Don’t get too hung up on hangers! I prefer to use the same type of hanger to keep a streamlined look in the closet. For example...I don’t like plastic tubular hangers with my non-slip felt ones. But my felt hangers aren’t the easiest to use especially on cotton crew neck tee-shirt. So here are some tips with hangers:
- If you want a streamlined look but need to use different hangers...try using the felt hangers along with the clear plastic hangers like you get from a department store. Both usually have a silver metal hook, which is mostly what you see as you look across the clothing rod. - For heavy jackets and coats...use wood or thick, wide plastic hangers specifically made for sport coats, and blazers etc. - To save space and/or prevent your clothes from sliding around, use the slimline/felt/flocked hangers. I like these but because they are so thin they tend to break easily...not recommended for heavy coats and pants. They work great however for spaghetti strap shirts and keeping light pants from sliding. - For slacks and skirts....I find the clear plastic hangers with the metal hook and clips work best.
Juicing Simplified w/Farnoosh Brock & We’re Taking You On Vacation!
Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks! Dan and Vanessa Topic: Just a Few Travel Tips From The Road....Literally! Well, if the show sounds a bit different it’s because we’re on the road. That’s right, we’re taking you on vacation! It’s actually a “working trip” for us.
We’ve never recorded on the road (we literally recorded our segment in the car). The sound quality is just a bit off from our normal audio but not bad considering the circumstances! The interview however is excellent! Just sayin....
Anyhoos...typically when we have a guest interview we do a combined topic. Since we want you to enjoy the entire interview, we decided to do a shorter segment for our topic.
Additionally, when we know we are going to be out of town for a week, we try to record an episode in advance. Well, we ended up having such a busy week with clients leading up to our trip, that we simply ran short of time to prepare two episodes in only 3 days!
It may not seem like a lot of work but each episode takes at least 16 hours to prep, record, edit in post-productions, post show notes, post in iTunes, etc. We are still on our journey to simplify this process...believe us we are! Thankfully it is a labor of love...truly!!!!
So, speaking of simplifying and in keeping with our philosophy on most things in life...we decided to keep our segment...well, you know...simple.
And since we're on a road trip we decided to share a few travel tips with you. Here are the things we discussed:
How we were able to pack 9 days of clothes for 3 people in just one piece of luggage.
How we make sure we never run out of outlets to charge our ever so precious gadgets by using a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger.
How to easily travel with electronics using the Grid-It system by Cocoon.
How to ensure you'll actually get to listen to your podcasts even when the 4G network gets 'patchy.'
How bringing our little Apple TV replaced old school slide projectors to enjoy family slideshows and videos!
Interview with Farnoosh Brock of Prolific Living and her newly released book, The Healthy Juicer's Bible. We've mentioned on the show before that we like to juice. We started juicing a little over a year ago in December of 2011 after Dan was completely and totally inspired by Joe Cross’s film, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (this is an Amazon affiliate link but the movie is available for free on Netflix if you're a member) which he saw on Netflix over 20 times since.
Dan decided to try juicing and Vanessa decided to jump on board too and we've been hooked ever since.
So, we thought it would be great to invite Farnoosh Brock (a friend we met at the World Domination Summit in 2011) who just published and released her new book, The Healthy Juicer's Bible. It was released by Skyhorse Publishing and is selling out everywhere!
Farnoosh is amazing, talented and a such a delight to talk with. We think you'll really love the interview! Here are some of the questions we asked! 1. So Farnoosh, who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? 2. Do you remember your first fresh juice? If you can, tell us where and when that was, and what went through your mind before you drank it? 3. When we talk about juicing, one of the first questions we're asked is what's the difference between juices and smoothies, or juicing and blending. How would you answer that? 4. So Farnoosh, what would you list as some of the benefits of juicing? 5. How do you recommend people get started with juicing? 6. Dan's been a member of your Green Juicing Clinic for almost a year now…since the start...and I love it! Tell us how you came up with that concept and a bit about the clinic. 7. That leads us to your brand new and beautiful book "The Healthy Juicer's Bible." We love this little book!
This week we continue with Evernote Simplified, Part 2, and Vanessa shares some awesome time saving productivity tips! So many people tell me that they love Evernote, but sometimes don't "get" exactly how to use it. Sure, there's lots of "technical" references out there about Evernote, but what their really looking for is Evernote simplified!
So let's get started! Read more...
Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 2) Yep but before I start I just wanted to remind you that although we don’t try to push you to buy more stuff, if you do use Amazon.com like we do, you can helps support a charity that we support, Charitywater.org, simply by using our link. Anything the show earns through that link or from our resources page goes to support CharityWater. You can learn more about them at CharityWater.org
Alright so in Episode 017 I covered all the basics of how to get information into Evernote and how to retrieve and use it. So…the the "ins and outs" if you will.
Well today I want to take you on a little audio windshield tour of the Evernote interface for the desktop version of Evernote. I'm on a Mac so if you're on a PC the appearance may vary a bit, but the functionalities are generally the same.
Now, as much as I LOVE Evernote, the interface isn't gonna win any beauty contests…but it does have a great personality! And that's what counts, right?
But the recent update of Evernote does let you adjust Evernote to fit YOU! So in Evernote 5 you can design the layout that works for you.
A Dashboard Tour:
The desktop interface of Evernote beginning in the top Menu Bar.
In the menu bar from left to right you have the Forward/Back buttons, a menu with your account information, the circular arrows are the manual sync and sync indicator, then we have the little satellite dish looking thing thats for notifications and recent changes. In about the center of the top menu we have the New Note selection drop down for adding new notes, then finally, the ever powerful search bar.
Left Panel. Moving on the left side we have what Evernote calls the left panel. Top to bottom in the left panel we have Shortcuts, Recent Notes, the Notes view option, the Notebooks view option, the Tags view option, the Atlas view option and the Trunk option.
Shortcuts. Lets you store shortcuts that you can set yourself. This is great for notes you access on a regular basis.
Recent Notes area. This area holds links to your 5 most recent notes for easy, but temporary access.
Notes area. The area you'll probably work in the most. You have some options on how you view your notes. You can choose between 4 different views:
Card Expanded card Snippet and List view My personal favorites are the Card view and the the Snippet View. In all views you have additional sorting options in the center panel called the
Notebooks area. Lists your Notebooks and Notebook stacks.
You can stack Notebooks by similar subjects to make your Notebooks easier to find, and just plain old more simple visually on your desktop and in mobile versions. To stack, just click and drag Notebooks over other Notebooks. To make life easier, you may need to retitle your Parent Notebook to make sense Child Notebooks stacked under them.
You have 4 view options for Notebooks. you can sort by:
Owner Name of the Notebook Count (number of notes within the notebook) Last Updated
Tags view.
Tags can be sorted by:
Name and... Note count
Atlas view. You can see where your notes were made.
You see click and zoom on these cards and view exactly where your notes were made.
Evernote Trunk.
In the Evernote Trunk you can find:
Lots of other Evernote products Compatible apps and hardware T Evernote Blog How-tos Lots of other stuff!
So, now you have a quick layout of the desktop and know that you can change HOW you see your info just by ...
Today's show is about focus...from two very different perspectives. First, we're going to focus on how to use Evernote, and then shift the focus to fitness.
Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 1)
OK so unless this is your first time listening to the podcast, you might know that I'm an Evernote fan. And one of the most requested things I'm asked to talk about is Evernote. So, by popular demand, my topic for this show and next week's will be Evernote! Read more...
Today I want to cover the basics and next week I want to hit some more advanced tips and some use cases. Like most things, it takes a little playing around with Evernote to get the full hang of it, so after this show you can dive right into Evernote if you haven't already, and then you can send in some questions that I can cover on next week's show. Here’s what I’m going to cover today: What is Evernote, Why I like Evernote, some Evernote Basics, Searching in Evernote, and finally Sharing in Evernote. So let's get started.
So what is Evernote?
Well, you've heard the saying "an elephant never forgets" right? Evernote is that little square green app you see almost everywhere with the elephant in the middle. Most often you hear of Evernote being described as your "external brain." Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. With Evernote, you can take in info in tons of ways and it synchronizes it across all your devices so it's there when you need. So..think of Evernote as a synchronized database of all your important information that’s there for you when you need it and how you need it.
The Evernote app is free for your desktop and all your devices, and so is the Evernote program on the web itself.
You can also upgrade to an Evernote Premium premium account for $5 per month or $45 per year. We've been Premium users for about 4 years now and it is worth every penny. There really is very little difference between the free and paid versions, but we wanted to support the company, and I'll get back to that in a minute. So some of the benefits of a Premium account are increased ability to share, bigger file sizes, some other faster functions that I'll cover later. If you're just a casual user, you'll be fine on a free basic account. But if you're a power user or just want to support the company, you'll want to upgrade to Premium.
Why I Like Evernote
Ubiquitous Capture…
One of the tenets of Getting Things Done, by David Allen. Very simply, ubiquitous capture means capturing all your important thoughts or "things to remember" thoughts in a way that you can recall them when needed. Don’t let them float around in your head, where they will likely be forgotten. Capture it now, before it's gone. I'm not a user of GTD…but ubiquitous capture is a fantastic habit to cultivate…if you're into that sort of thing, like me.
Get info into Evernote by…
Typing text Recording your voice Dragging in files Email it to your account (even video) Taking pictures Scanning things in Using the web clipper Even use automated ways to get things in. We'll talk about that next week.
Evernote strives to be a 100 year company
Tech companies and their products come and go Many like to bring a product to market, then sell for the big bucks Evernote plans to be a 100 year company and make a difference in the world. I heard this directly from their CEO, Phil Libin when I was at Evernote in San Francisco at their first ETC…and I believe him. It was a pleasure talking with him and everyone I met at Evernote.
There's a great community around the Evernote product line (links in the show notes)
The Evernote Life Google+ community The Evernote blog The Evernote Community
They even have a podcast in iTunes which I think is hilarious!
Security concerns?
Making Decisions Like a Fighter Pilot & Frugal vs. Cheap
Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Dan's Topic: The OODA Loop Our Decisions, Our Future
You'll recall that the 5 pillars we focus on for OUR simple life together are Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness and Future Well, our Future is determined every single day by decisions that we make We make decisions all the time...daily in fact…most of them without any effort whatsoever But isn't it funny how simple these "automatic" decisions are when other decisions lead us to hours, days, and sometimes months or years of contemplation and struggle and hemming and hawing?
Introducing the OODA Loop
Today I want to talk about decision-making and a very simple framework that you can use to help with your decision-making This process is called the OODA Loop, as in O-O-D-A OODA stands for Observe-Orient-Decide and Act. The OODA Loop is a recurring decision-making process…a cycle, if necessary...developed by Col John Boyd, who was a fighter pilot and later a Pentagon consultant after he retired. Col Boyd is also credited with being the key planner for Operation DESERT STORM While Boyd's OODA loop concept began in fighter pilot circles, its also pretty popular in other combat ops units, too. It's become so popular, in fact, that it has since spread to the civilian word...becoming popular in business, sports, and becoming quite popular with attorneys in the litigation process So, if you've never heard of the OODA loop before and are wondering how this little tool can help simplify your life…well, I'm here to share that with you.
What's the Scoop on the OODA Loop?
The premise of the OODA Loop is that through a recurring cycle of OBSERVE-ORIENT-DECIDE-ACT you can "get inside" an opponent's decision making cycle and gain the advantage. But it's not solely for use against what would traditionally be called "opponents". In business, competitors would be a more appropriate term than "opponent' or "enemy" and even more generically, in life, "situations" can be our opponent when we're trying to achieve our goals. And, well, we all know that clutter and complexity are our enemy, so I cover how the OODA loop can help you out there, too! So, with the OODA Loop, if you can get through the observe-orient-decide-act cycle quicker than your opponent or faster than the situation unfolds, you'll come out on top! So, let's break it down...
OODA Loop Phases
First, let's talk about the phases of the OODA Loop The first step is OBSERVE. Essentially, this is when you notice a situation that is a potential problem. It's simple, you see something, you observe it. No judgements are made in this phase. The next step is ORIENT. This phase is the biggie…this is where your entire past comes into play. We have to put what we're seeing into a context so we can later make a decision. In the ORIENT phase, we use our hard-wired instincts, intuition, our history, our knowledge, our experience, new information, split-second analysis...even our mental predictions of what the outcome or impact of potential decisions could be…all to orient ourselves as to what we're observing Once we've OBSERVED and ORIENTED, we can then DECIDE. We make decisions every day, and when we do, our decisions aren't just based on the current situation, as I just mentioned in the ORIENT phase, they're based on everything we've soaked in over our lifetime. But our decisions are often limited to a reasonable, limited set of choices. We'll get to that in a moment. So…now it comes time to ACT. Acting is just following through with your decision. Simple as that. But the OODA loop process doesn't stop there. Remember, it's a loop so it can be repeated over and over again until there's a final outcome. Of course, in Colonel Boyd's model, this would likely take place at altitude with two pilots dogfighting until on...
Wouldn't you love to simplify your morning routine? What? You don't have one? Well, in this episode Vanessa shares some tips to help you create your morning routine so you can start of each morning on the right path.
But even if you start out on the right path, sometimes little things can become big irritants, can't they? One thing that can be really frustrating is printer problems. Do you think you could digitize your life to the point where you don't even need a printer? Well, Dan shares his thoughts on that very subject! Read more...
Vanessa's Topic: Creating Your Morning Routine Are you feeling a little rushed in the mornings? Are you stressed out? Do you find yourself getting distracted from completing your important tasks? Well, you’re not alone. One of the most popular posts on my GetSimplifized.com website is about how to create a morning routine. I talked about routines in general way back in Episode 2, but I thought I’d get a little bit more specific here and share some tips specific to a morning routine. When you establish a routine for you or your family, you are creating an environment of consistency. With consistency comes known expectations of roles and responsibilities, known outcomes and a happier, calmer family. Think about it like this…we are drawn to certain businesses, products, bosses and friends because they provide consistently good food, products, leadership and friendship, right? Well, if we expect and value consistency in those things…why not value it in our own lives? A morning routine is just the thing to give you order and calm. Now, before you jump into creating a daily routine, remember to keep the following in mind:
Specific tasks: You’ll need to identify your specific morning tasks and how long it takes to do them. I suggest writing everything down and be specific about the exact times it takes to complete a task. Sometimes tasks take longer than we think!
Specific order: Figure out the most logical sequence of events for you and schedule each event in a time slot. I highly recommend writing this schedule down on paper or on your calendar. Electronic calendars are especially wonderful because you can rearrange your tasks without wasting time rewriting and erasing events.
Consistency: This is key! Once you’ve figured out your tasks and order, now you’ve got to stick to it. There’s no point in going through all the effort of creating a routine if you’re not going to follow it.
Here are a few suggestions and typical tasks to think about incorporating into your morning routine:
Wake up. Take 15-30 minutes to wake up, enjoy your coffee, check out the news or read. Check out my morning coffee routine post on prepping your coffee the night before. Having a fresh cup of joe already made first thing in the morning makes all the difference!
Review your daily tasks. Refresh your memory of the tasks and important “to-do” items you need to get done that day.You might also consider preparing this list the night before as part of a nightly de-clutter routine.
Make your bed. Simply taking 5 minutes or less to make your bed will instantly make your room look cleaner plus you’ll feel much more relaxed when you come home to a tidy room. If you don’t like the process of making the bed, consider cutting down on the amount of pillows you have and use a duvet cover over your comforter that doubles as a top sheet too!
Prepare for dinner. Make sure all of your food items are defrosted and that you have all the necessary ingredients for the evening’s dinner. That way you can pick up any missing items later on in the day. I actually like to refer to my weekly dinner menu and look at the next day's meal too so I know to take out things from the freezer to give them time to defrost.
Empty the dishwasher or dish rack. Put your dishes away first thing in the morning so that you and your family can fill it up after breakfast and throu...
How Typical is Your Home? And...A Gateway Gadget Intervention
Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Website guide update: The way, the Simple Life Guide to building your “Side Gig” is ready and we’ve had a bunch of people sign up. So if you're ready to start on the path to shaping your life a bit more by starting a lifestyle business on the side and you don’t have any experience starting a website, well this guide and the video links will lead you through how to set up your site, step by step, and it even includes some fantastic branding information, too! It’s completely free and you can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/websiteguide. Vanessa's Topic: How Typical Is Your Home?
Dan and I were interviewed a couple of times last week and during one of the interviews we were talking about how much stuff we have in our homes. Dan started talking about a study conducted by UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families. They sent a team of professional archaeologists, anthropologists and other social scientists to conduct a systematic study of home life in 32 middle-class, dual-income families in Los Angeles. Based off of this study they created a book: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. UCLA also created 3 short video ethnographies for their university television station which are now on YouTube. The book and the videos highlight their major findings which I thought were absolutely fascinating! The pictures and videos may not be as mouth-dropping as what you might see on the show Hoarders...but I think it does hit a little closer to home because it’s not highlighting those extreme cases of hoarding....it’s highlighting what is becoming...or rather...actually already has become the “norm” in the middle class America. So I reviewed some of the major findings and then discussed my thoughts. Findings in relation to stuff:
With Family #27, they found 2,260 visible possessions in the first three rooms recorded (two bedrooms and the living room),” and that didn’t include “untold numbers of items tucked into dresser drawers, boxes and cabinets or items positioned behind other items.”
In another home, Family #1 they looked at a display shelf in a girl’s bedroom and found: 165 Beanie Babies, 36 Human/Animal Figurines, 22 Barbie dolls, 20 other types of dolls, 3 Porcelain dolls, 1 Troll, 1 miniature castle
America has 3.1% of the world’s kids...yet it owns 40% of the world’s toys. As a matter of fact, toys were found everywhere in the home. It’s as if the home had become primarily child-centered.
The average refrigerator front panel in the homes studied holds 52 objects. The most crowded refrigerator was covered with 166 different objects. In most cases there was a direct corollary to the amount of stuff on a fridge and the amount of stuff in the home (ie: a more cluttered fridge = a more cluttered home)
Only 25 percent of garages could be used to store cars because they were so packed with stuff. One article called this, "The New Junk Drawer" and rightfully so because that’s exactly what it’s become.
They found mountains of clutter in many of the homes. One family even had to resort to using a bathroom shower stall as a laundry hamper.
They also observed a huge trend in shopping at “big box” stores (like Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s) and how the items bought at these stores actually created more clutter and required a second refrigerator or freezer.
Findings in relation to the effects the stuff had on these families:
Managing the volume of possessions was such a crushing problem in many homes that it actually elevated levels of stress hormones for mothers. Ironically, it rarely affected the men because they didn’t have to clean it up!
There are several ways in which items come into a home but few processes on how to get it out.
Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle, and First Steps on the Road to Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Main Topics Dan's Topic: Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle "Indoor" jobs have never been a good match for my personality. I did well at them…the tasks, anyways, but I felt like that "staff work" was slowly sucking the life out of me…stealing my soul. Plus, I've always been a pretty fast worker and some would say I'm a great time manager, and that's how it may look. But the truth is, I just have an ability to get crazy focused and knock out some really quality stuff really really quickly. Some people think that's a gift…but I always said it was a curse. So, the reason I say it's a curse is because I vividly remember…so many times...sitting at my desk, looking at the clock, it's 2:30 pm, I'm not only caught up on my work but I'm way ahead. Yet there is no way I can leave. That's just not how it worked. I'm essentially a prisoner….to a cubicle cell, and my master is $7 clock. A really, really slow clock that I swear sometimes ticked backwards, just to spite me.
It was in those times that the seed was planted that someday I would build a future for myself, us, and our family,where our lives were designed purposefully around what we love. And I'll get to that in a bit.
But I'm just guessing that as you simplify your life, shaping how you work is important to you, too. You probably dream about creating a simpler life that includes a lifestyle business…you know, not a business that you work at 24/7 for a few years hoping someone buys you out…I'm talking a situation where you do something that helps other people, that you love doing, and that affords you the chance to live life on your terms. So, I wanted to share a couple of adages that will give you something to ponder this week as you listen to podcasts in your car or cubicle. Maybe they’ll prod you just enough to take some action.
The Frog in a Pot of Water: The adage goes that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to jump right out. But if you place it gently in a pot of warm water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death. Crazy huh? Now don't run out and try this. Be nice to frogs or they'll keep you up all night when you're camping. Seriously though, haven't you felt like this at work some times? I know I did. You get to the point where you'll put up with anything because you're comfortable with the "security", "predictability", whatever. But is that as good as it's supposed to get? Crabs in a Bucket: So the story goes that if you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket, most of the crabs will just clamor around at the bottom of the bucket making a fuss. But what happens when one of the crabs tries to climb out of the bucket? Do all the other crabs join in to help him escape? Nope. They pull him back down into the bucket. Now, I'm not going to draw any direct conclusions to your life, but how many times have you wanted to do something new, different or adventurous and all those around you who supposedly "care" about you say “that’s crazy”, or “no” or try to talk you out of it, or tell you how bad things could get. Now it's certainly not because the they don't want you to succeed. I think it's because they DO care and just don't want to see you fail. But sometimes, just like the crabs, they don't know that if they just give you a lift then you might actually make it! That's the crab mentality. Sure, there are some who might think "Well if I can't have it then no one can." But, I tend to trust in humanity, and I'd bet most cases are just people who care about you but are too scared to take action themselves,
The Art of Inbox Warfare, and How To Organize Any Space Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Main Topics Dan's Topic: Sun Tzu & the Art of Inbox Warfare We've had a few other listeners out there who have been struggling with their email inboxes lately, so I thought I'd take some time to give you some tips on how you can declare war on Inbox clutter and reclaim the calm to this part of your digital life. The key to email management is the same as it is to physical things in your simple life: limit what you allow into your life. If your inbox is full of messages that don't add value to your life, eliminate them now and put systems into place to eliminate them permanently.
Why do we get so much junk? Sometimes it's just that your email was on a subscriber list that was sold to marketers. But it’s also affected by what type of things you sign up for. So, if you really want to cut down on junk email:
Be a bit more careful who you give your email address to Signing up for every little contest or offering that comes along is like saying, "Please spam me!" Get over what’s called FOMO or the fear of missing out. There's good info and junk info…bringing more junk info into your life doesn't make your life better or more simple. It makes it cluttered and hectic. Trust me, you’re not missing out.
So, here are some steps you can take to shape a more simple email experience: - Unsubscribe from newsletters, feeds, updates, lists and other streams that don't enrich your life. If there’s no link to unsubscribe, you shouldn't be at all uncomfortable about marking the message as spam. Gmail has a built in function that marks the message as spam and automatically attempts to unsubscribe you from the sender's list but you can also do it yourself by clicking the little stop sign-shaped icon with an exclamation point inside in your Inbox panel. - Another way to deal with unwanted emails is by using filters. Most email programs allow you to set filters to weed out messages based on your inputs. You can easily set filters in the settings area of your Gmail account, or if you have an email message open in Gmail, just click the "More" button and choose "Filter Messages Like These". Then just follow the prompts. So that covers stopping the deluge of inbound emails. What about the “Occupy Inbox” movement that’s already camped on in your email? Here's how to handle what you have right now in 3 Steps: 1-Pick the dozen or so emails in your inbox that must be handled now to avoid an emergency, overcharges, severe embarrassment, or a close relationship and deal with them now. That alone will leave you feeling better. 2- Make the rest of the not so urgent emails (and yes, for many people that numbers in the THOUSANDS) and put them in a temporary folder or Label (Gmail). You'll deal with them later. This does 2 things… First, it gets what appears to be a major obstacle, stumbling block, and barrier to progress out of the way. Second, it allows you to set up new habits and systems. 3- Tackle that Temporary folder or Label full of old emails. If you have so many that you can't tackle it in one sitting, pick a time, set a timer for 15 minutes, and go to battle. Make time in your schedule for the next session, and keep at it until you’ve dealt with all of them. BUT...big but here...NOT at the cost of your inbox. You've got to commit to staying on top of your inbox. So, now that you’ve kindly asked the spammy squatters to move on and you have your Inbox back...let’s move on to those habits and skills. Here are some things to master for a solid email routine: - Don't Over-Do the Folders or Labels: Keep it simple by trusting the search function in your email system. So, set up a few folders (called "Labels" in Gmail) that match the major areas of your life such as work, family, home, your passions, taxes, etc…and then just use the Archive function for the...
Becoming Minimalist With Joshua Becker and "But Wait, There’s More!" Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thanks!
Main Topics Interview with Joshua Becker of BecomingMinimalist.com We had an amazing interview with, Joshua. He shared so much information with us! He is truely an inspiration and has fantastic advice on how to simplify and get more out of your life by living with less. Here is a list of questions we asked Joshua (believe us...you definitely want to listen to the podcast!): 1. So, Joshua...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? 2. Could you tell us about the "catalyst" that helped you decide to become minimalist and if there were any other factors or events leading up to your decisions? 3. Tell us about how you approached your wife about your idea to pursue minimalism...her reaction...and your collective decision to move forward. Was there any “pushback?” 4. Can you describe how long it took you to get to a point where you called yourself a 'minimalist'? Can you explain the process? 5. How do you define or explain minimalism? What does it physically look like to you...how does it feel? 6. Does minimalism for you also include letting go of mental and digital clutter? Bad relationships, overcommitment? Do you have any recommendations for doing that? 7. In your book Inside-Out Simplicity you talk about healthy relationships. I know from personal and professional experience that it’s usually easier when couples are on the same sheet of music, but what advice would you give if couples have different ideas of what simplifying is? 8. In Living With Less: An Unexpected Key to Happiness (Simply for Students) you tell a story about your son and his birthday money. I think every parent has experienced that at some point. Could you describe that experience and give some advice to those of us with kids about how to deal with the constant consumer pitch of "more, more, more" and "bigger is better" from every aspect of the media? 9. In your book Simplify, you say that living simply is "the real secret to financial freedom." How have you found that to be true in your journey and do you have any financial pointers for us? 10. If someone asked what the benefits are to a lifestyle like yours, what would you tell them? 11. How can people learn more about you? 12. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Dan's Topic: "But Wait, There's More!" The 2013 Consumer Electronics Show Alright, so this past week I was in Las Vegas for the 2013 New Media Expo and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and I thought I'd discuss some of my experiences there. So, I'll let the irony of that sink in for a moment…a guy trying desperately to fight consumerism and simplify his life…at the CONSUMER electronics show...the LARGEST Consumer Electronics Show in history with over 100K people in attendance. Yeah...trust me...the irony wasn't lost on me either! I was actually there on business because I help my clients with tech for their businesses and even some individuals who just want tech coaching. So, first off, I walked the show with a couple of friends from morning until dinner time and let me just say that the show was pretty amazing! It would be impossible to cover everything but I thought I would summarize my experience including the good, the ridiculous and some thoughts I had on the whole experience: - We walked 9 miles, and still didn't see it all. If I had to guess, I'd say we saw maybe half, if that. Other folks tracked in over 15miles! That's a lot of consumer products! - Companies from every country on the globe were there selling their wares. All the new lines of gadgets and even super hi-tech robots. - Joshua eluded to the fact that we are bombarded with about 5000 advertisements a day. Well...think of the CES as that on steroids…like full blast, no holds barred, in your face, just a crazy consumerism extravaganza....
How Clutter Affects Your Life, & Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there!
Main Topics Vanessa's Topic: How Clutter Affects Your Life So, what is clutter? Here’s how some experts define it:
Princeton University's WordNet defines clutter as:
"a confused, multitude of things" "to fill a space in a disorderly way" "a confused, disorderly, jumble of things" "filled or scattered with disorderly accumulation of objects or rubbish"
Clutterers Anonymous defines clutter as:
"anything we don't need, want, or use that takes our time, energy or space, and destroys our serenity"
Clutter is more than piles and piles of stuff.
It's a combination of new, old, unused, forgotten, misplaced, and emotionally (or coerced into being emotionally) "attached to" items.
Clutter is more than just a physical item...clutter is also about how an item is or isn’t being used. For example, a magazine in-and-of itself isn't clutter...it's just a magazine. But when that magazine hasn't been read for two weeks, two months, or even a year and is just sitting on top of a stack of other magazines that are several years old, and that stack is on top of your desk preventing you from being able to use it...that's when that magazine is now considered "clutter."
So for the rest of this topic, let’s just consider clutter as "anything we don’t need, want, or use that takes our time, energy, space and serenity"
Examples of clutter:
Things that are expired (food, medicine and toiletries for example) Duplicate items (3 coffee makers, 4 vacuum cleaners, 3 punch bowls, 3 of the exact same North Face jackets...all the same color and style...you get the idea) Things that belong to someone else (stuff you’ve borrowed and never returned) Broken toys Broken dishes Broken appliances and tools Outgrown toys Clothes you’ve grown out of Knick knacks that don’t serve any purpose Gifts that...let’s face it...you never really liked ("in a million years I wouldn't be seen dead in this" kinds of gifts) Hand me downs or inherited items that you’ll never use Just in case items...for emergencies "Don't know" (no idea why it's there or how to use it...but darn it, I'm keeping it!) Stuff that causes safety concerns (pose a hazard such as fire or physical harm) Stuff that can cause health concerns...old food sitting around the house, trash lying around attracting bugs and rodents, etc. Obsolete / outdated papers Piles of papers and mail that have never been opened or are waiting to be opened and sorted
Other not-so obvious clutter items aren’t necessarily physical items, but impact your lifestyle
Overcommitment Meaningless activity / duplication of effort (activity that is unfulfilling or serves no real purpose) Old resentments and ill feelings / unresolved issues Unsatisfying relationships Unsatisfying work (paid work, work at home, volunteer work, etc). Digital clutter (emails, photos, online documents)
So those are a few examples of what clutter is, but how do you know if clutter is affecting you? You see...the truth about clutter and accumulating more, is that eventually you'll be overwhelmed by the physical clutter which in turn will overwhelm you emotionally in terms of stress,
Our Edit & Forget It Challenge and The Power of Saying No Happy New Year! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!
Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 Am to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics Dan's Topic: Introducing the Edit & Forget It Challenge! 2013 Fewer Things in 2013 We're kicking things up a notch right off the bat this year and really stretch our commitment to simplifying our lives. We're challenging ourselves with what we call Edit & Forget It, 2013 Fewer Things in 2013. We'd love it if you'd consider joining us!
We know this is a lofty goal and certainly won't be for everyone Our true focus is eliminating many things we truly don't need any longer and reach a point where we have what we need, appreciate it, and be able to enjoy some margin in our lives We don't really have "clutter" in our home since Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, so eliminating 2013 things will be a real challenge!
It's good to have an accountability buddy when challenging yourself…and all of you that listen to the show will be our accountability buddies to keep us on track!
We'd like to be your accountability buddies, too! If you'd like to join us for the challenge, just sign up on our Edit & Forget It List. Here's a direct link to that list on SimpleLifeTogether.com. Those who sign up will will get emails from us from time to time as a little bit of encouragement along the way No, you won’t get a trophy at the end of the Challenge, but in the end you'll probably have a place to put one if you did!
Some Background:
We were amazed when we heard it quoted in a presentation that the average American home has around 300K things in it! In raw numbers, 2013 things is just under 1% of that! That doesn't sound like much of a challenge does it? Truth be told, we think that figure counts each and every item
So if you had a 250 piece Lego set it counts as 250 pieces That doesn’t seem too realistic to us and kinda makes getting rid of 2013 things no challenge whatsoever So we established some simple guidelines for ourselves
To eliminate 2013 things from our home in 2013 the numbers work out, rounded up, anyways, like this:
About 6 things per day About 40 things per week About 170 per month
We're also including going paperless because that is a great way to eliminate paper clutter from your home.
So, you may want to re-listen to Episode 6 and our interview with Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap. We'll put some links in the show notes for the scanner we use and the one Brooks recommends.
Edit & Forget It Guidelines: Note: We may have to come up with some additional guidelines for ourselves along the way based on any new discoveries or unanswered questions we run into. But we're starting with these:
Things that normally go together or that you originally purchased together count as one, e.g. a pair of shoes counts as one (not 2), a deck of cards counts as one (not 52) a puzzle counts as one (not 150). Donated packaged food counts, thrown out food does not. Scanned documents count as one original if disposed of. A document is a document whether it is a single page by itself or a ten page document. Each scanned document counts as one item. Things that we don't ordinarily keep in our home (like junk mail, catalogs, etc) don't count for us as we recycle those immediately upon receipt.
Things To Eliminate in the Coming Year and Tips for Successful Resolutions Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!
Main Topics Dan's Topic: Some Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year I'm not a big "New Year's Resolutions" guy, so in keeping with the Exupery quotation I've discussed in previous shows and use to guide me on our simplicity journey, I thought I'd give resolutions a little twist. If you recall, Exupery said, "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away." So let's resolve to remove some things that add no positive value in our lives. Only you know what applies to you and what's right for you, but here are some suggestions for consideration…
Stop wasting opportunities:
Opportunities to grow are all around us
Grow by Learning...Education is a great way to invest in yourself
Take a class (online or in the real world)…lots of places offer Adult Education classes Or teach yourself! Check your local library to see if they have how-to or self help books
Other Great Resources:
Also check http://www.khanacademy.org for classes I watch CreativeLIVE.com for free courses given live by experts. After the live class is over the classes are available for purchase. Screencastsonline.com has great tutorials for Mac and iOS-based platforms. Run by Don McAllister Lynda.com has all sorts of courses, from business, photography, videography...the gamut of software for Mac, PC and others (you can also get 7 days free unlimited access here) Izzyvideo.com for video tutorials If you're a podcaster, Cliff Ravenscraft's classes are great! Find them at PodcastAnswerman.com and use discount code SIMPLE for up to $500 savings on Podcasting A to Z!
I have or had paid memberships in all of these and see them as an investment in me and our businesses
Grow by Experiences such as
Volunteering Getting active in your children's school or after school activities Mentor someone in your chosen profession or a student studying for your profession If you belong to a church, see if your church needs help with something you're skilled at
Stop letting what you already have go unused:
The first thing that comes to mind is Experience and Expertise and that ties in with the opportunities to grow we just mentioned
Look around and see if you are using technology to your advantage
If you're not sure how to use some of your tech, there are tons of free How-To tutorials on YouTube to help out.
Stop "holding on"…some stuff is just not necessary any more:
If you have unnecessary "stuff" you can donate it, sell it, give it away to a friend or post it on freecycle.org (complete listing for all countries where Freecycle operates at SimpleLifeTogether.com/freecycle
But there's probably more than "stuff" you need to get rid of...
Bad habits Same old routines- If they're not working for you it's time to let them go Work situation: If you're ready for a change than check out Dan Miller's 48 Days Podcast
Stop Letting Others Dictate How You Use Your Time:
DVR your shows or "cut the cord" and watch online on sites like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, in the US.
Outside the US, just Google TV Steaming sites to find those available in your area, such as the BBC's iPlayer. Don't forget to check your local network sites to see what streams they offer, too.
Another way to control your own time is to:
Choose Podcasts over radio. Podcasts allow for time shifting your favorite content. You can listen to podcasts as your walk, run, work, commute, travel, do chores…whenever you want? Break free of the 10 to 20 minutes per hour devoted to advertising on commercial broadcasting stations. iTunes University has free college-level classes, tying into the education suggestion mention earlier.
Organizing Tips From An Unlikely Source & A Few Life Lessons From The Playground. Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!
Main Topics: Vanessa's Topic: Organizing Tips From A Toddler Vanessa realized the lessons that we have been teaching our daughter since she was a toddler are also great lessons that adults can apply to their lives when it comes to getting and staying organized. Here are the lessons/tips that were discussed:
Limit the number of toys (or projects) that you are playing with or working on.
Too many projects gets overwhelming and cause you to loose focus. Multi-tasking isn't all that great. Having few toys or projects also makes for easier cleanup.
Clean up after yourself.
Make cleanup part of your project. Whether you're baking in the kitchen or working on a craft project, part of the project should include cleaning up after yourself. Don't let it all pile up to point where cleaning up your home is an all day affair!
Designate a spot for everything.
Try using the same concept that preschool or kindergarten classrooms use...create zones and homes for everything. By creating zones in your home and having "a place for everything and everything in its place," cleanup and finding things will be a heck of a lot easier!
Make cleanup easy.
Using open containers to store things is a key ingredient to having kids clean up after themselves. Same thing applies to adults. It's much easier to toss an item into a basket or bin than having to lift a lid. Bins are great inside drawers, on shelves and in cabinets. Hooks are another great tool to use to hang up coats, backpacks, scarves, belts and purses.
Create rules and routines.
We've previously dedicated 1/2 a podcast to this very topic. Creating rules and routines helps establish expectations so that you and other family members know who, what, when and why certain tasks need to be done and how. Knowing what is expected prevents you from wasting time, duplicating effort and trying to figure out who does what...which cuts down on bickering as well!
Limit the amount of stuff you own.
It’s pretty simple...the less stuff you have the less you have to clean and maintain. You can control the amount of things in your home by practicing the "one in, one out rule," editing your possessions regularly, controlling impulsive buying habits and thinking long and hard about how making a purchase might affect the harmony in your home.
Reward yourself.
If our daughter wants a snack or to go outside and play, we make a deal with her. She'll get the treat if she cleans up first. Her motivation to clean up is all based off of that reward. You can reward yourself too. Tackle your most important tasks...then treat yourself to a little reward like a movie, reading time or extra time running (yes...Vanessa loves to run).
Dan's Topic: Life Lessons Learned on the Playground Flashback to Episode 5
LEARNING: "Knowledge makes everything simpler." Do you capitalize on things we've already learned? How do our kids learn life's lessons in today's fast-paced world?
Life Lessons Learned on the Playground. For each, ask yourself two things:
Do I still use this lesson today? How are today's kids learning these lessons?
Lessons:
SeeSaws or Teeter Totters: Teach us balance and leverage. Use Pareto's 80/20 Rule for leverage.
Swings: Teach us to take action, coordination, and how to harness & use momentum. Swings also teach us situational awareness, looking out for trouble, timing our actions.
Monkey Bars: Let go in order to make progress. Sometimes you have to stretch. You can't move forward without letting go of the past and the now and reaching for tomorrow.
Jungle Gym: How to meet a challenge, overcome fear, and enjoy the view. Be careful of others' fingers as they climb to the top with you.
Going Paperless & Making the Most of a Small Living Space Main Topics: Going Paperless: Guest Interview with Brooks Duncan from DocumentSnap Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! We had a fantastic interview with Brooks. There's no doubt he's way out front as a lead expert in the field of going paperless. Here is a list of questions we asked Brooks (you definitely should listen to the podcast because he gave some great answers and advice!): So, Brooks...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? Is it really possible to go paperless? What about...
Tax paperwork (Brooks sent IRS guidance, too. Links below.) Receipts Contracts Other docs that people have been "married to" forever?
How do you recommend people get started with going paperless? What does the workflow look like, or are there lots of different workflows? Your article "We Are Our Own Worst Enemy When Going Paperless" is fantastic! Can you describe some of the challenges people face when going paperless? What equipment do you recommend and why?
Mac PC Scanners Mobile device/apps Etc...
Your Paperless Document Organization Guide and it's an amazing value...do you have other courses? How can people sign up for your newsletter? What is the best way for people to reach you? Website: documentsnap.com Twitter: @BrooksDuncan and @DocumentSnap Facebook: facebook.com/documentsnap
Dan and Vanessa Discuss Tips for Small Home Living
Planning Our "Dream Home"...five years of planning Taking Action...designing, saving, paying it off and then... Oooops! Rethinking Our "Dream Home"...reasons for our change of plans: affordable green living, time to travel and visit family, not wanting to be slaves to possessions
Intro to Cece Reinhardt + Brenda Daugherty from the blog “On the Green Road”
Downsized their lives Totally eco-refurb’d an Airstream remodel and lived full-time in their RV Now they’re transitioning to a 500 sf house and planning a complete eco-refurb of that, too! They blog about health, travel, self-sufficiency and as they say, “anything else that blows our skirts up.”
Guest Post on On The Green Road from Katie White from the blog DIY Mother: “DIY Tricks to Make the Most of a Small Living Space” (Note: We added some tips, too! Our additions to this are Italicized)
The main theme was:
 Reducing your footprint doesn’t have to be uncomfortable
She also pointed out some of the advantages of living in a Small home. They are :
Use less land and raw materials Cost less to heat and cool You’ll be less tempted to fill them with things you don’t need. Ties right into the spin off of Parkinson’s Law we talked about back in Episode 004...“Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity"
Kitchen Keypoints:
Small kitchens can be noisy, crowded little pressure-cookers, breeding hot tempers and short fuses. Paint your kitchen in light, cool shades to help everyone relax, and if possible, coordinate the entire kitchen in two or three colors to avoid a busy, disorganized vibe. Another simple trick to increase the visual space in your kitchen is to try open shelving instead of cupboards. We have raised Euro-style cabinets off the floor so you can see under them...it adds visual depth. Also, a mix of solid frosted glass cabinet doors help, too. Tall upper cabinets really max out your vertical storage space. Pull-out lower drawers, versus standard cabinets are a lifesaver. Forego “uni-tasker” appliances and opt for multitasking appliances.
Living Room Lessons: The easiest way to open up your living room is to get things off the floor.
Instead of a clunky bookshelf, try wall-mounted shelves. Small house plants and lighting can also be placed on the walls or ceiling (Hanging plants are especially good for small living rooms).
The One Secret To Accomplishing Anything & the Laws of Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!
Feedback:
We got some terrific voicemail feedback from John Bukenas from LetsReverseObesity.com. John's podcast Let's Reverse Obesity is fantastic! John is doing great things chronicling his weight loss and is helping so many others along the way.
Thanks, John, for listening, subscribing, and taking the time to send us some feedback.
We also got a very, very nice comment here on Episode 004 from Marshall Ponzi. Thank you Marshall for your kind words and you’re so right...it IS amazing what we can do without. And, I think we’d agree that doing without all the extra allows us to truly appreciate what we do have all the more.
Marshall also has a terrific podcast over at InboundInFocus.com that gives great inbound marketing tips for business owners. If you’re a business owner you’d be well served to check out Marshalls podcast, Inbound In Focus, as well.
Main Topics: Vanessa's Topic: The One Secret To Accomplishing Anything "I'm often asked what my secret is to being organized and how I get my clients to become more organized." The single most important component to becoming organized is commitment.
So why is commitment to change so difficult? 1. It’s not a priority....at least not yet. 2. Change is hard...even when you know it’s good for you. 3. It takes a lot of work...and that can be daunting and discouraging. 4. Unfortunately, often times people have to reach some sort of “breaking point.”
Vanessa highlights some of her efforts to change: Finances
$24K in debt
Electricity and phone cut off Creditors hounding her for payments.
Fitness
40 lbs heavier than her current weight
Combined, the struggles led to:
Low self esteem Depression Low energy
Keys to her commitment to change:
Stopped playing the victim Committed to a lifestyle change vs “quick fix”
Results?
Paid off debt in 2 years Rebuilt credit score Kept the weight off Better level of fitness than in high school (20 years ago! Wow! She’s OLD!)
Vanessa’s Truths:
Truly believes “If I can do it, so can you!” One key is to be realistic about the change you want to make...and understand that it’s a process...not a quick fix. Be patient, systematic and strategic...otherwise you might do something you’ll regret or resent. One positive example is a blog she subscribes to, “Becoming Minimalist” by Joshua Becker. I like the word...Becoming...because it implies that it’s a process.
So, here are some points to ponder if you are thinking about making a change in your life: 1. Change your mindset...it’s a lifestyle change not a quick fix. Just like my progress with weight loss and fitness. 2. Change doesn’t happen overnight. 3. Realize that you may get discouraged at the task ahead. But don’t sell yourself short. You can do it! Again, think of it as a process and break it down into bite-sized chunks. (organize one space at a time...pay off one bill at a time...try one eating lifestyle or fitness plan at a time) 4. Realize that you may “fall of the wagon” and that maintaining your lifestyle may be difficult. Pick yourself back up, and hop back on the wagon! 5. Once you get in the groove, you’re probably going to get addicted! Ask Dan...I can be a real grouch if I've missed a few workouts and if my house gets too cluttered. That's because I've gotten addicted to the results and love how they make me feel. Feeling comfortable in my clothing and in my home are incredibly elating. You'll feel the same once you get in the groove. These are healthy addictions in my opinion. 6. You'll start to build confidence! And reduce stress. You won’t have those negative thoughts lingering around in your mind. Instead you’ll be thinking about taking the next step...decreasing your debt further....
Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! In Episode 4, we discuss Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out. Main Topics: Vanessa's Topic: Benefits to Organizing and Having Less You'll save money, have less debt and be better able to handle tough financial times.
It's pretty simple: less stuff = less money you'll have to spend...especially on off-site storage rentals! You’ll cut down on buying duplicates when you’re organized and know what you have. You’ll save on late fees and interest rates if you have a good system of tracking and managing your bills.
You'll have more usable space.
You'll be able to properly utilize desktops, countertops and your dinner table. And maybe your garage too! Less stuff means you can use the spaces in your homes for their intended purposes and not just for storage.
You'll help avoid "analysis paralysis."
We talked about this in Episode 3. When you have too much stuff it's difficult to make decisions. With less choices, there’s less time wasted.
There's less to clean and maintain!
Average home 3 bedroom home has over 350,ooo items in it! Knick knacks and all those other things require lots of dusting, laundering, storage, cleaning and maintenance...and lots of money!
You can invite guests over without hesitation.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have them over without feeling embarrassed or in a rush to clean it up? Having simple routines and "a place for everything and everything in its place" makes for easy clean up.
You'll be more productive.
Start getting organized by having scheduled routines(mentioned in Episode 2): laundry, housecleaning, meal planning, etc. Helps ensure the “must-dos” get done...plus allows more time to focus on other priorities or those...“want-to-dos.”
You'll have better concentration.
Piles of papers, heaps of laundry and sinks full of dishes are haunting reminders of stuff you still have to do. It’s hard to concentrate when your home and office are a mess.
You'll save time.
The average person wastes about 55 minutes per day searching for things...keys, files, tools, clothes, etc. That's a lot of time over the course of a year! Again, having "a place for everything and everything in its place" helps speed up the time it takes to clean up or find things.
You'll have a sense of control. Control = Confidence = Nicer You!
Knowing where things are and when important tasks will get done creates confidence. Most folks are ashamed of their clutter and therefore ashamed of themselves.
You’ll have less guilt
Don’t you feel guilty when you buy something when you know you really didn’t need it. It's way more empowering when you can say “no” to those buying impulses and not bring in more stuff.
You’ll have more Joy and be more content.
Striving for more and waiting for the day that you’ll strike it rich will deplete the joy you could be experiencing every day. You’ll never be content if you’re always comparing, striving for more stuff, collecting, etc.
You’ll have more time and better relationships.
You'll have a feeling of calm and peace of mind. Dan's Topic: Backing Up Your Digital Information: Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out Occam's Razor: “Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.”
Benedictine monk...William lived in Ockham, England from 1285-1349. William wasn’t the person who came up with the idea behind the razor, but he was widely known for professing it’s benefits, so it soon came to be known for him. The first time the term Occam’s razor was used, was in 1852, over 500 years after Occam’s death.
Why We Can't Let Go of Our Clutter, Backing Up Your Digital Information, & A Little About Dropbox Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! In Episode 3 we discuss reasons why some people can't seem to let go of clutter and some tips that may help you decide what to keep and what to let go. We also talk about some lessons learned from a catastrophic hard drive crash which sparked the "Your Backup Strategy' strategy segment, and we wanted to sing a few praises for Dropbox. Dropbox is one way to save documents to the cloud and sync them across all your devices simply. Main Topics: Vanessa's Topic: Why We Can't Let Go of Our Clutter
We feel the need for abundance. We are a consumer-driven society and conditioned to think more is better...it's all about quantity over quality.
We've lived a life "without" and find security with having more. Living through the Depression, growing up in a modest or poor household, or surviving a rough financial patch can play a huge role in why folk don’t ever want to “live without” again.
Forget Justin Bieber...we're more influenced by Justin Case. You know, "I might need this someday...just in case." Some folks want to be ultra-prepared for any scenario. It's ok to be prepared, but try to be realistic...especially if all that stuff is getting in the way.
We feel a sense of obligation. Many feel a sense of obligation to keep every gift. It's ok to hold on to things but you do have the ability to say no.
We fear losing the memory if we get rid of something. Many of us have had wonderful and meaningful experiences throughout our lifetime but we fear that if we get rid of a gift, we’ll forget that person, experience or important time in our life.
We want to pay tribute to our past experiences. Like from our childhood, past careers or travels. It’s easy to go overboard on collections but try to be mindful of collecting too much.
We've spent too much money and feel like it's a waste if we give it away. Let's face it. We've all probably spend a good fortune on things that we never used or never really liked. Boy does that sting! Chalk it up as a lesson learn, be more frugal and research before purchasing another product and find comfort in donating your goods to folks who are less fortunate.
We're holding on to the past. We tend to keep things that remind us of times when we were happy, the most confident, or the most successful.
And sometimes we hold on for a deeper reason...like allowing our things to define our self-worth...or define our happiness. Many folks believe that shopping and having more makes them happier but often times it’s just a temporary fix to “fill the void” of something else that’s missing in their lives.
Simple Steps to Help You Let Go:
Start with the space that's causing you the most grief or anxiety. This could be the home office, the kitchen, the laundry room, the bedroom etc.
Then start small. Pick a small area to work on like a drawer, a shelf, a cabinet, one spot on the kitchen counter, one filing drawer. You wouldn't eat an elephant in one sitting right? You'd take small bites and eat a little at a time. (Not sure I like that analogy...the thought of eating an elephant is stomach wrenching but you get the point right!)
Then ask yourself these questions when deciding what to keep or not to keep:
Do I love it? Do I need it? Do I use it? When was the last time I used it? When do I plan on using it? Can I borrow it? Can I rent it? What's the worst that will happen if I got rid of it?
If you answered "yes" to the first three questions then you should probably keep the item. If you answered "no" then considered letting it go. If you're still struggling then ask the other questions and you'll more than likely find your answer.
Dan's Topic: Backing Up Your Digital Information and an Intro to D...
Well, we got past our first episode and in Episode 2 we discuss how using routines can help simplify your life, and some simple ways to get the most out of search and research.
Routines help make things predictable, let you better plan you time, and make things more efficient. So, we'll be sharing some tips on how to tap into that power so routines can simplify your life, too! When something is new to you or you need more information, most people turn to Google to find answers. But are you using Google as effectively as you could? We'll share some of our tricks to help you become a wizard at search and research! Read more...
Main Topics: Vanessa's Topic: How Routines Can Simplify Your Life Two Common Reasons People are Disorganized:
Lack of Defined Priorities or Life Goals: Without purpose you'll continue to run around aimlessly allowing others to dictate to you what's important. Lack of Routines: Overwhelming reason for disorganization but having set routines is one of the greatest tools to helping you get and stay organized.
Key Components of Creating Routines w/Family, Co-Workers or Employees:
Establish EXPECTATIONS: Example: You want your kids to clean room, make the bed, get ready for bed, clean up time, play time, etc. SHOW exactly how to get the task done and WHY. PRACTICE with them! Repetition and recency (do task often and not too far apart...daily) are keys to learning a routine faster. Establish a system of REWARDS and CONSEQUENCES
Morning /Nightly Routines:
Morning and Nightly Routines: Your day really starts the night before! Pack lunches. Set out clothes and iron if necessary (I use a hanging shoe organizer to set out 2 weeks worth of clothes). Set yours and your kids' alarms clocks. Have kids shower at night...it's calming and one less thing to worry about! Prep your coffee and set out your vitamins and medications. Set the breakfast table. Check school backpacks and folders. Review your calendar and school schedules. Create a checklist and post it on the door or common area for all to see. Prep dinner: review your menu, take out freezer items to defrost.
Paper and Mail Routines:
Check mail daily and sort it right away...don't let it pile. File...don't pile. Use and Action File to organize your daily papers. Use a scanner to keep digital files instead of paper files. Save documents in Evernote or Dropbox. Sort through your kids folders daily and be scrupulous. Don't keep what's not important. Use a keepsakes bin to store your child's favorite papers.
For a more detailed list of routines and links to helpful tips, check out the notes Vanessa created for a special presentation she gave to a group of moms: http://getsimplifized.com/routines-briefing Dan's Topic: Simple Ways to Get the most out of Search and Research We all use the web to Search and do research, but many many of us were never really taught good search skills.
When you’re doing research, know that many search engine results are skewed positive simply because of advertising and affiliate efforts. First few results on a page, the ones typically bolded or with a highlighted background at the top (and sometimes the bottom) of the page are paid advertisements. These may provide you lots of information, they're also there to lead you to buy the product.
Many other top links are what’s called Affiliate Links.
Affiliates get a small percentage of the sale of a product. So while not all affiliate links are bad, they too are there to lead you to a sale. Many websites that end in “review” or “reviews” are affiliate sites that compare different models or brands of whatever you’re searching for. The key is determining if the review is from someone you trust. If this search is the first time you've been to that site then you're trust level may not be as high. We use affiliate links for products we use and woul...
An Introduction to the Simple Life Together Podcast Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Welcome! We've waited a long time to get started on this and we're so excited to finally "get it out there." So, in the show we give you an introduction to us, a little bit about our background, what “simple” means to us, and then we talk about our format for the show. We shared the major "pillars" of our life plan, highlighting that our focus is on the following:
- Faith
- Family
- Friends
- Finances
- Future
Ok, so here’s how we envision the Format of the show: Every episode, we’ll each pick topics for discussion. Vanessa’s will likely focus on organizing, the household or her business and Dan's will likely be centered around technology, business or DIY projects. Together, we’ll also focus on family issues/kids, our relationships, future plans, designing our lifestyle, etc. These are just some areas, but we haven’t set any boundaries because life has endless topics. We’ll also have a segment where we each pick one thing per episode that we want to highlight...something that’s had a positive impact on us since the last show. It could be an app, an experience we had, a conversation, a product, whatever. We tried to come up with a name for this thing, whatever it is, and in the end we just decided to call it ”The Thing.” Our commitment for the show: - Nearly complete candor...but some things you know you can’t just put “out there" - Little sugar coating because life isn’t always sweet and besides, we’re low carb eaters - Imperfection...because nobody's perfect. Perfect is the enemy of really good. Our goal is to produce a really good (but simple) show. - Open to feedback and new topics! We want you to be part of the show because that’s how we all learn - Not too much structure...because we’ve both had jobs that pegged-out the "structure meter" and now we like our lives to be a little more “freeform.”
A little bit about us... - We both have our own businesses, which really helps with designing our simply life together - Dan is retired from his first career and now does Business Development Consulting helping niche business with their branding, media presence, and strategic planning. - Vanessa is a Professional Organizer and helps clients simplify and organize their lives, at home and at work so they have more time to focus on what’s truly important to them, too. So that’s what we do for a living and I’m sure we’ll share more about ourselves as we go along.
What Simple Means to Us - Actually having time to enjoy life with those we love - Living within our means - Not being slaves to our possessions - Embracing the concept of “less is more” - Living more deliberately - Focusing on our endstate and how we want our lives to be in the long run - Less distress (negative stress), more eustress (positive stress)
The Thing Segment: Vanessa: Not compare herself to others Dan: Quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Closing Thoughts: We hope you join us on the journey If you like the show, please subscribe and consider giving us a good review in iTunes If you know someone else who might enjoy the journey too, send them a link to SimpleLifeTogether.com There are links to our Twitter and Google Plus profiles and other contact info on the left side of the website. We'd love to hear from you ! Be sure to leave comments below or send us a voicemail. Comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, suggestions...they're all welcome!
Links we mentioned in the show: Tim Ferriss 4HWW Deferred Retirement Plan Michael Hyatt's Life Plan Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you!