Life is busy and hectic.  Our modern lives include not only a potentially overwhelming amount of responsibilities but copious amounts of “stuff.”  Thus, sometimes the burden of daily life causes stress and extra work.  An excellent answer to this struggle is to simplify things wherever possible.  When you have less to worry about there will be more free time and focus becomes almost automatic.

Digital Simplification

The flurry of apps, devices, and content subscriptions available to us make it easy to suffer from an overwhelming amount of little bills to manage.  These tend to go hand-in-hand with landing us on mailing lists for electronic and snail mail.  It is also easy to have overlapping subscriptions.  These things may only take a few minutes a week to maintain.  However, those minutes and related worry do add up.  Yes, the options are often challenging to differentiate.  Nevertheless, you will find choosing a single solution rather than multiples is worth the reduced stress.

For example, Goole, Apple, and Amazon offer a lot of similar services may entice you to utilize all three.  Keep it simple.  Bet on one platform and go with it.  The time saved in finding which platform you used for which service can quickly add up to hours a week.

The Physical World

Any items we own that exist in the real world are almost always going to suffer from age and decay.  They also take up space.  This situation can become a never-ending challenge.  We need ways to maintain, store, and carry our “stuff.”  That means a larger living space, more items to hold items and tools to manage them.  When we nip it in the bud and keep our possessions to a minimum, it makes the rest of our lives more comfortable to live.  An excellent example of this is the idea of cost-of-living.  Our experience can be full of stuff and expensive or minimalist and cheap.  Think about it.  Are you more likely to be happy working 80 hours a week to support a life of things or 40 hours a week with fewer possessions?

Rob Broadhead

Rob is a founder of, and frequent contributor to, Develpreneur. This includes the Building Better Developers podcast. He is also a lifetime learner as a developer, designer, and manager of software solutions. Rob is the founder of RB Consulting and has managed to author a book about his family experiences and a few about becoming a better developer. In his free time, he stays busy raising five children (although they have grown into adults). When he has a chance to breathe, he is on the ice playing hockey to relax or working on his ballroom dance skills.

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