4 Ways to Cut the Complexity Out of Your Life

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How many times have you answered a question with “it’s complicated?” How many times have you wanted to explain something found that the only words you could articulate were inadequate? Everyone has had at least a few moments where the complexity of life threatens to overwhelm them. It may be that you do not know where you stand with your in-laws. It could be that you are not sure how to explain your tangled love life, or you might find yourself unable to articulate your five year plan to a concerned friend. In those moments of difficulty, you realize how complex your life has become, and the tangled web of commitments, relationships and ambitions seems more like a death trap than a productive life. In those moments, you realize that you need to simplify your life.

You do not need to become an ascetic monk to simplify your life. You can continue to live a comfortable life and still simplify your everyday existence. Removing complexity from your life will take a little work up front, but you will quickly find that it is easier to live a simplified life than to continue juggling all the elements of a complex one. Here are four ways to cut the complexity out of your life.

Purge and Organize

You may have heard the phrase “you wear 20 percent of your clothing 80 percent of the time.” While this may or may not be an exaggeration, the odds are good that you have clothing or belongings laying around that you have not touched in ages. To cut some of the complexity out of your life, simplify your surroundings. Take a good look at the items in your home that you never use, and think about the odds of needing those items again. Is the off chance that you will need a camping backpack-tent-raft all-in-one really worth the space it takes to store the bulky pack? For some rarely used items, like holiday decorations or expensive clothing, it makes sense to store them in the back of a closet until they are needed. In that case, pare down what you are storing. If you have five wreaths but only ever hang one, keep your favorite and get rid of the other four.

Once you have emptied your closets, dressers, attic and upper cabinets of all the “just in case I need it” items that you really do not need, organize what you have left. It will take some time, and the house may look like the aftermath of a tornado while you are deciding where to store things, but knowing where everything is and using your storage space intelligently is worth a few days of stepping over boxes.

Be Honest

Most people like to believe they are honest, and most people are generally honest. That said, think about how many little white lies you tell in a week. They could be as simple as telling your friend that you are late to dinner because “traffic was bad” when you actually just took too long to get ready. You might have told your aunt that of course you loved the wool scarf she gave you for your birthday, but you have never worn the ugly, itchy thing. While lying is never ideal, most people tell these little fibs with surprising regularity and limited feelings of guilt. If you want to cut complexity out of your life, you need to stop telling those little white lies. Rather than trying to keep track of whether you told your aunt that the scarf got caught in a car door and ripped or that you accidentally left it behind on a business trip, be honest. Tell her that, while you appreciate the thought, you never wear wool clothing. Instead of complaining about imaginary traffic to your friend, just apologize for your tardiness. You might be surprised how much simpler your life feels when you stop having to keep track of what fib you told.

Eliminate Time Commitments

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Eliminating time commitments does not mean you should do nothing but stay home and watch Netflix. It does mean, however, to really consider what you are directing your time and energy toward. Many people have more time commitments than they can realistically handle but feel guilty when they cannot give each commitment the time they feel they should. In fact, some people have developed an addiction to saying “yes.” They accept every responsibility and commitment they are offered and feel irrationally guilty, ashamed and sometimes physically ill if they refuse. You may not have as extreme a reaction to refusing to help with the church bake sale, but you probably still have more time commitments than you need. To cut complexity from your life, evaluate which time commitments matter to you. Which causes are you passionate about? What activities do you enjoy? Where do you feel that you are making the biggest difference? Think about your answers and then step back from the other time commitments. If you hate cooking, do not volunteer to help with the church bake sale. If childhood literacy is deeply important to you, continue to help organize the elementary school book fair instead. Simplify your life by only making commitments to what is important to you and refusing to take on more than you can realistically handle.

Single-Task

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Most people do a lot of multitasking during the day. You might respond to your manager’s email while you are on the phone with your spouse. You might work on writing advertising copy at the same time you are crunching numbers for your annual budget. You might watch TV or surf the web while you eat. Trying to do two things at once, however, actually makes you less successful at doing either of them. To prove this to yourself, try and write an email to a friend while singing your favorite song, or do a long division problem while you try and remember a string of random words. The odds are good that your email has song lyrics in it or your math turned out incorrect. To simplify your life, give your complete focus to a single task. When you eat, savor the taste of your food. When you talk to your spouse, give them your entire focus. Make it a point to enjoy what you are doing. In addition, strive to get the job done correctly the first time rather than trying to focus on two things at once.