A Few Reasons to Simplify Aspects of Your Everyday Life
Modern life has a way of being really complicated – not to mention getting more and more complicated everyday as time goes on, as well.
These days, we all have a huge number of different information streams coming at us from all directions, at all times of the day and night – and we also have more decisions to make than ever before in human history. Both consumer decisions and also general lifestyle ones.
There are many different approaches that can be used in order to help streamline and simplify aspects of your everyday life, including things like consulting with .’0 experts such as a firearm defense attorney when necessary, rather than trying to figure out everything on your own. The popularity of the minimalist movement is also largely about helping to simplify people’s everyday lives.
So, here are a few reasons why you should take steps to simplify aspects of your everyday life.
Because too much complexity makes life overwhelming and generates excess stress
Complexity has a way of making us feel overwhelmed and out of sorts – and even when very complex systems don’t seem overwhelming, that will usually only be because they work so well that we can treat them as “simple,” and not get caught up in the fine details.
The stress that comes with complexity even extends to things we usually consider positive, such as the number of choices we have.
In his book, “The Paradox of Choice,” the psychologist Barry Schwartz shows that there is actually a lot of research evidence that when people have too many choices to select from, they become unhappy, stressed out, and are more likely to just make no decisions whatsoever.
Chronic stress is definitely an undesirable thing for all sorts of different reasons. Simplicity can help to counteract it.
Because complexity takes a lot of time and energy to resolve and navigate
The thing about complexity is that even if you are able to successfully manage and navigate it, it takes a lot of time and energy to resolve and navigate, relative to simpler systems and routines in your everyday life.
Computers could be a good analogy. A big benefit of both Windows and Mac operating systems is that things more or less “just work” when you press the right buttons. But there are also Linux operating systems developed for tech fanatics, where even opening up a web browser would need you to type in lines of code in a terminal. Obviously, that’s a much more time and energy-intensive way of doing things.
Simplifying things can help to buy you time and energy that can then be better spent on more meaningful things.
Because simplicity helps you to notice what’s truly important, and to focus on it
When you’re currently surrounded by a lot of complexity, your attention will naturally be distracted and will shift from one problem or topic to another, more or less constantly.
Simplicity helps you to step back from all that, and gives you the chance to notice what’s truly important– and to then focus on it.