Category: Minimalism

Categories
Minimalism

What is minimalism for me

Let’s talk about minimalism a little bit. Huge amount of people think, minimalism is some kind of lifestyle where people live in a small flat, have a few staff, no career, no money and can’t have any children at all. Naturally it’s a misconception. So, all of those points of view have nothing in common with minimalism. Minimalism is lifestyle when people focus on essential things which can bring value in their life. Minimalists try to tidy up not only flat, but also their life. I understood that personally I’m not 100% minimalist at all, but I try my best and for me it’s much better taking baby steps than give yourself without a trace.

Categories
Minimalism

Work life balance

I’m really interested in work life balance topic. Nowadays I try to make ideal day balanced between difference sides of my life. Maybe in future I’ll write a book and you’ll read my conclusions about that will you? 😀

Once I watched TED talk conference where Nigel Marsh said a brilliant phrase: “We work long, hard hours to enable our self to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like”. Read this conversation again more properly. I’m totally agree with Marsh and I think it’s a huge problem of our society.

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus from theminimalists.com said: “Collect moments, not things”. It’s my the most favorite quote. Collect moments guys, not things because the opposite never works!

Have a good day!

Categories
Minimalism

Limitation

Just one more think… How often do you use this phrase? Have you ever realized that one more thing became much more then you expected? Nowadays there are hardly real limitations and we are like passengers of high-speed rail move around like greased lightning skip almost everything that can be essential.

In 20 century the limitations were everywhere. For instance in the past before employees started and finished their daily work they could hear factory bell like in school nowadays. They had to plan their day time and stopped doing everything after bell system was rang. When the TV show was finished we had to wait one week to watch next episode. After you finished newspaper, next one was going to be released tomorrow or later.

Today we have social media with non-limit news feed which is very convenient and destructive at the same time. News feed can waste our time if we don’t use it in a right way. Our mind can be stuck on video which auto-playing by default. When video was finished suddenly the next one was played. Simultaneously with news feed actions we received push notifications from another apps, messages from friends, calls from relatives etc. While we check all of that stuff, new likes and comments were received. It seems like rush our isn’t it? Like high-speed rail right?

But maybe sometimes we should get off the train? Maybe we might go for a walk barefoot in the warm sand on the evening seaside. Should we push emergency stop button instead of stare through the window of train while it going?

Categories
Minimalism

Declutter

Declutter
Declutter

Have you ever felt a difficulty to get rid of physical things? Maybe you come up many different reasons to keep unnecessary things which you should let them go. About one year ago I realized that problem and I want to share my story with you

– Wardrobe. When I opened my closet I realized that 30% of my clothes didn’t fit me anymore. I didn’t like 60% of my old dress and only 10 percent of my wardrobe was okay for me. I packed almost whole my closet, some part of them I donated and all stuff that remains was sold by me

– Digital stuff. When I pulled a drawer I saw old game consoles from 2000, film camera, feature phones, cables, etc. My father always says “Almost everything can be sold”. Feature phone without battery, film camera, consoles and other digital stuff was sold by me in a short period of time

– Cardboard. Cardboard from things which I bought in the past have been kept under my wardrobe for a long time. I went to local gift wrap company and offered cardboard to them for free. During some times I have been donating boxes and professional gift wrappers create wonderful gift boxes

– Books. Some part of my books were sold and donated to people who really need it

– Toys. All my childhood toys were donated to local volunteering community

When you let unnecessary stuff goes, you feel open for new possibilities and you feel freedom

Categories
Minimalism

Digital Detox with flip phone

Nokia 8110 KaiOS
Digital Detox with Nokia 8110 KaiOS

I think everyone have already heard about phrase “Digital Detox”. One year ago I noticed that I wasted so much time for smartphone and social media. First thing which I did when I waked up was check my social media accounts using smartphone. Every time push notifications in my phone broke my attention and I couldn’t focus on tasks.

I realized that the majority of my communication with people took place through the internet and it was a problem! Everyone who knows me are clearly understand that I like self improvement. When I “catch” a problem in myself I try to solve it.

Half year ago I was involved into my own life challenge. I bought a feature phone (flip phone) with KaiOS (Kaios Technologies) on board and start to use it as my main phone. After half a year of experiment I can tell you about what I learned and how my life was changed:

– More productive work. Push notifications feature is brilliant but destructive. Right now I check social media in general one time per day
– Using app only when I need it. When I have to use some apps like smartbank, maps, yandex taxi etc. I take my smartphone and use it for its intended purpose
– Real dialogs and speech. When I start to use feature phone I reduce sending messages. Instead of that I start to voice call and talk with people in that way. Right now real dialogs for me are not a problem
– Social media addiction. Every “like” increase dopamine, which can affected to person and he or she wants more “likes”. Right now I check social media not so often than it was
– Real life. When I stop using smartphone and social media so often I start to live in real life, not virtual one

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus from theminimalists.com announced experiment “Screenless Saturdays” The main idea of this experiment is avoid all social media, computer screens and glowing screens all day Saturday. It is perfect possibility to start digital detox.

Have a good day