I’m all about trying to keep things simple – that’s even the tag line for this site.
So I have to wonder when I see a popular link circulating on the internet:
Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
- Did they really get that list down to the core?
- Are there really 72 steps for simplicity?
- Should I take advice from anyone who can’t think any more critically than this?
Some of these are funny by themselves:
- Create a simplicity statement
- Eat slowly
- Streamline your life
- Find inner simplicity (does this involve untangling my intestines?)
Some are funny in tandem:
- Do what you love
- Spend time with people you love (not to be confused with the above)
- Spend time alone
- Create a simple system for housework
- Make your house minimalist (which cuts down on the need for housework)
- Limit your communications
- Keep your e-mail inbox empty (which works nicely with the previous one how?)
- Consider a smaller car
- Try living without a car
- Reduce your consumption of advertising
- Read Walden, by Thoreau (AH! Advertising!)
- Read Simplify Your Life, by Elaine St. James (AH! Advertising again!)
- Simplify your online life (Now, this is good. Use RSS feeds to me more efficient…)
- Simplify your RSS feeds (ACK! Damn!)
- Carry less stuff
- Learn to pack light (Which is different, how, exactly?)
- Establish routines
- Use a minimalist productivity system (Which is different than a routine, how, exactly?)
- Create morning and evening routines (Wha?)
- Create a morning writing ritual (Wha Wha?)
You know, I could buy this if the writer actually sat down and tried to put some actual structure into this. Many of these points could easily fit as sub-points in bigger buckets. Unfortunately, this is the sort of blog post title that attracts links and interest. Insert your own favorite simile. Ultimately, If I want 72 steps, I’ll watch 1.846 Hitchcock movies or join six addiction support groups.[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, productivity, simplicity[/tags]
That is a wonderfully hiliarious post! I love it when people add common sense to conversations, etc. It’s similar to British humor.
Gosh, why not 50? 75? 5? 101?
Ah, but then here in the U.S. we have a magazine, Real Simple, which among other things gives us tips about how to declutter our lives…and part of that clutter are those stacks of Real Simple.
We humans do love the lists, don’t we? But, really, if you need these types of tips, you shouldn’t be allowed to feed yourself, much less out of the house.
I can’t count that high. Why would you do this to me?