簡化生活只需10件事
來自：http:///about/有時候，簡單的生活似乎是遙不可及的。有太多的雜物塞滿了自己的生活，有太多的事情需要去完成，它們就像山一樣壓在自己的肩上。 達到簡化生活，不需要也不可能一下子就改善。只有循序漸進，每次做一件事，才能達到目標(biāo)。事實上，你只要拋棄一些雞毛蒜皮的小事，做一些重要的事情，就能開始過簡單輕松的生活。 你只要做十件最重要的事情，這些事情并不困難。只要你今天開始完成其中一件，明天再完成一件。很快，你就會簡化生活了。
拿一張小紙片，把它折成一個3×5的小方形，或者用一張索引卡。在紙片上寫下現(xiàn)在你一生中最重要的四或五件事情。什么對你最重要？你覺得什么最有價值？你的一生中最想做哪幾件事？優(yōu)先去完成這些事情，因為你正在為你的生活創(chuàng)造空間，這樣你就有更多的時間做這些重要的事。
想想你的一生中有多少事情要做，然后找出一個你不想做的。這件事耗費了你很多時間但收獲甚少。也許你在一個團隊，也 許在接受什么訓(xùn)練，也許在一個對外委員會，或者其他無論什么。這件事你每天，每星期，每月都在不停地做，但是你真的不想做了。那現(xiàn)在就把這個負擔(dān)給丟掉， 給這個任務(wù)的負責(zé)人打個電話，或者發(fā)一封Email，告訴他你沒時間做這個了。我建議你放棄那些在任務(wù)清單中無足輕重，不必親為的任務(wù)，給自己減輕一些負 擔(dān)。但是今天，你只要舍棄一個就好了。
清空一個抽屜，或一個書架、一個柜子頂端、一個房間角落。不是整個房間或者甚至整個壁櫥。只要一個小小的空間。你可以把這個空間作為你簡化你的生活的據(jù)點，并且向外擴張。如何清理：
基本上，你要給經(jīng)常做的事情設(shè)一個限度：收發(fā)Email、閱讀RSS文章、任務(wù)清單、生活的雜事等等。然后讓自己堅守這些限制。今天，你只需要設(shè)定一下這個限度，明天，開始習(xí)慣堅守他們。
看看你的待做事項清單。如果超過了10個條目，你就能小小地簡化它一下。至少找出一些可以放棄、委任他人完成的、或者可以忽略的條目。每星期簡化一次清單，這可是一個很好的習(xí)慣。拓展閱讀：《同強動力的任務(wù)改善你的工作效率》。
簡化生活的一個方法就是讓你的時間更自由，這樣你就有更多的時間做自己想做的事。不幸的是，你可能或甚至找不到時間 來想想如何簡化你的生活。如果這樣，那你該騰出30分鐘來想想這個問題了。你怎么樣才能每天騰出30分鐘呢？很簡單：早起一點、少看會兒電視、在你的辦公 桌上便餐、午飯后散步、斷開互聯(lián)網(wǎng)、每天只查一次EMAIL、關(guān)掉電話、每天比前一天少做一件事。
一個干凈整潔的桌子會給你帶來驚人的愉悅感。這是一件非常簡單的事情，但是它帶給你的好處無法估量。這里是一些清理桌面的基本步驟：
這和清空你的桌面有著同樣的效果。你的Email郵箱中是不是堆滿了已讀和未讀的郵件？那定是你不斷地拖延自己處理 郵件的決定。如果你的收件箱里的郵件少于50封，今天你就可以花上幾個小時把他們?nèi)慷继幚砹?。如果已超過了100封，你就把它們放到一個臨時文件夾里， 每次處理一部分（比如每天20封）。以下是如何過濾你的收件箱并清空，包括已經(jīng)存在在你的收件箱里的信件和即將到來的：
我們一整天都在奔走，從一個任務(wù)到另一個，從一個職位到另一個，直到暮色四合，我們才能躺下。那現(xiàn)在就來改變它，停止忙碌，開始做慢些。慢慢地吃飯、慢慢地駕駛、慢慢地行走、慢慢地淋浴。要有計劃，活在當(dāng)下。這不是你需要計劃到明天去做的事情，你應(yīng)該現(xiàn)在就開始練習(xí)。
與多任務(wù)不同的是，每次只做一件事情。當(dāng)你做這件事情的時候你要避免所有的干擾，擺脫其他不相干的習(xí)慣（比如查看Email，或者其它習(xí)以為常的事情）。堅持那一個任務(wù)，直到你完成它。這樣就不會給你很大壓力，也不會影響到你的精力。Simple Living Simplified: 10 Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life Every Wednesday is Simplicity Day on Zen Habits. Simplifying can sometimes be overwhelming. The amount of stuff you have in your life and the amount of things you have to do can be too big a mountain to tackle. But you don’t have to simplify it all at once. Do one thing at a time, and take small steps. You’ll get there, and have fun doing it. In fact, you can do little but important things today to start living the simple life. And these are not 10 difficult things, but 10 simple things that you can do today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. Today. Choose one and do it today. Tomorrow, choose another. If you do these 10 things, you’ll have made great strides with little effort. 1. Make a short list. Take out a sheet of paper and fold it into a small square, perhaps 3×5 inches. Or take out an index card. Now make a short list of the 4-5 most important things in your life. What’s most important to you? What do you value most? What 4-5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things. 2. Drop 1 commitment. Think about all the things in your life that you’re committed to doing, and try to find one that you dread doing. Something that takes up time but doesn’t give you much value. Perhaps you’re on a team, or coaching something, or on a board or committee, or whatever. Something that you do each day or week or month that you don’t really want to do. Now take action today to drop that commitment. Call someone, send an email, telling the appropriate person or people that you just don’t have the time. You will feel relief. I’d recommend dropping all commitments that don’t contribute to your short list (from Item #1), but for today, just drop 1 commitment. 3. Purge a drawer. Or a shelf, or a countertop, or a corner of a room. Not an entire room or even an entire closet. Just one small area. You can use that small area as your base of simplicity, and then expand from there. Here’s how to purge: 1) empty everything from the drawer or shelf or corner into a pile. 2) From this pile, pick out only the most important things, the stuff you use and love. 3) Get rid of the rest. Right now. Trash it, or put it in your car to give away or donate. 4) Put the stuff you love and use back, in a neat and orderly manner. 4. Set limits. Read Haiku Productivity for more. Basically, you set limits for things you do regularly: email, RSS posts, tasks, feeds, items in your life, etc. And try to stick with the limits. Today, all you have to do is set limits for a few things in your life. Tomorrow, try to stick with them. 5. Simplify your to-do list. Take a look at your to-do list. If it’s more than 10 items long, you can probably simplify it a bit. Try to find at least a few items that can be eliminated, delegated, automated, outsourced, or ignored. Shorten the list. This is a good habit to do once a week. 6. Free up time. Simplifying your life in general is a way to free up time to do the stuff you want to do. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find time to even think about how to simplify your life. If that’s the case, free up at least 30 minutes a day for thinking about simplifying. Or alternatively, free up a weekend and think about it then. How can you free up 30 minutes a day? Just a few ideas: wake earlier, watch less TV, eat lunch at your desk, take a walk for lunch, disconnect from the Internet, do email only once today, shut off your phones, do 1 less thing each day. 7. Clear your desk. I can personally attest to the amazing feeling that a clean desk can give you. It’s such a simple thing to do, and yet it does so much for you. If your desk is covered with papers and notes and gadgets and office supplies, you might not be able to get this done today. But here are the basic steps: 1) Clear everything off your desk and put it in a pile (either in your inbox or on the floor). 2) Process the pile from top to bottom, one item at a time. Do not defer decisions on any item — deal with them immediately and quickly. 3) For each item, either file it immediately, route it to someone else, trash it, or note it on your to-do list (and put it in an “action” folder). If it’s a gadget or office supply, find a place for it in your desk drawers (or get rid of it). 4) Repeat until your pile is empty and your desk is clear. Be sure to get rid of any knick knacks. Your desk should have your computer, your inbox, perhaps a notepad, and maybe a family photo (but not many). Ahh, a clear desk! 5) From now on, put everything in your inbox, and at least once a day, process it in the same way as above. 8. Clear out your email inbox. This has the same psychological effect as a clear desk. Is your email inbox always full of read and unread messages? That’s because you’re delaying decisions on your emails. If you have 50, let’s say, or fewer emails in your inbox, you can process them all today. If you have hundreds, you should put them in a temporary folder and get to them one chunk at a time (do 20 per day or something). Here’s how you process your inbox to empty — including emails already in your inbox, and all future incoming emails: 1) process them top to bottom, one at a time, deciding and disposing of each one immediately. 2) Your choices are to delete, archive, respond immediately (and archive or delete), forward (and archive or delete), or mark it with a star (or something like that) and note it on your to-do list to respond to later (and archive). 3) Process each email like that until the inbox is empty. 4) Each time you check your email, process to empty. Ahh, an empty inbox! 9. Move slower. We rush through the day, from one task to another, from one appointment to another, until we collapse on the couch, exhausted, at the end of the day. Instead, simplify your life by doing less (see Items 1, 4 and 5) and doing them more slowly. Eat slower, drive slower, walk slower, shower slower, work slower. Be more deliberate. Be present. This isn’t something you’re going to master today, but you can start practicing today. 10. Single-task. Instead of multi-tasking, do one thing at a time. Remove all distractions, resist any urge to check email or do some other habitual task like that while you’re doing the task at hand. Stick to that one task, until you’re done. It’ll make a huge difference in both your stress level and your productivity.
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