I’m obsessed with simplicity.
And it has spilled into every part of my life.
The words I choose.
The clothes I wear.
The food I eat.
The plans I make.
Everything is simple. And it happens without any effort.
And this obsession began while I was researching how to make my writing better. I read tons of books. The popular ones and the not so popular ones.
Most of them were repeated blabber.
When books couldn’t quench my thirst, I took to the internet. And started my binge reading spell.
And believe me, if something catches my attention, I can go beyond unknown lands.
And only in these unknown lands do you find something useful.
This time, the unknown land was Google search page #23,
And in the middle of an article, I came across this quote,
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
That one sentence shifted something inside me. It was instant. No reflection, no contemplation was needed. And the search was over.
That’s the power of simplicity.
It doesn’t need a 500-page book.
It doesn’t need scholarly articles.
It doesn’t need experiments.
Simplicity is to put the essence of the whole into a few words.
Just like Mr. Saint-Exupéry did.
If a painting has extra lines, would it make it more beautiful?
Same goes with life. You don’t need more.
More creates complexity.
More creates confusion.
More creates doubt.
More creates mental fog.
More words, less clarity.
More things, less space.
More thoughts, less peace.
Simplicity is doing one thing well. It gives you the power to focus all your attention and energy onto one thing.
Here’s some examples from my own life where I’ve used simplicity:
- Clean desk with only one thing which I’m working with. (Laptop or notebook)
- Buying things (Clothes, electronics, household things) that I am going to actually use.
- Eating two simple meals a day. (11 am, 7pm). No eating before or after. No snacking in between. Just two meals.
- Daily long walks, calisthenics. No workout or gym that creates resistance whether I want to do it or not.
- No apps on my phone that I don’t use. (I have only 8)
- While writing – using the simplest words, short sentences, common everyday vocabulary.
Below are my readability scores:
Yes I write for 6th graders.
Why?
Simply because everyone understands 6th grade English.
When you try to simplify even just one part of your life, you’ll notice it flows into all parts of your life.
You would ‘want’ to simplify everything. Because simplicity gives you a sense of calm. Less thoughts and more peacefulness.
It gives you more inner space and mental clarity.
You will not have to think about what to buy, what to eat, or how to write well, or how to keep yourself fit and healthy.
Your mind, on its own, will find the simplest and the most effortless to do it. And do it well.
And when you keep doing it over and over again,
simplicity will not just be a tool to cut out clutter,
it will become your second nature.