029 • A few powerful minimalism principles for 2024

Dec 15, 2023

Welcome back all,

Minimalism has been a large part of my life since reading the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

Optimising my screen time was something I was sure would improve things for me. However, I didn't know how much I would benefit from allowing minimalism to bleed into other areas of my life.

In this issue, I wanted to share three minimalist principles that have had a massive impact on my progress this year, in making me happier, healthier and wealthier.

You can only focus on one thing at a time.

I'll start with the most important principle. Humans are designed to block out huge volumes of information. We're at our best focusing on a single important thing for a long time, rather than reactively trying to switch from one surface-level problem to another.

This is true both in the micro- and in the macro-. The more attention you smear over different tasks daily, the less you have to focus on what you need to do here and now. The more you switch between long-term goals and aims, the less likely it's going to be that you achieve any of them.

From my understanding, concerning these long-term aims, it's smart to start as broad as you dare and then narrow down. This is true especially when you're not exactly sure which direction to take. This was the situation I was in at the start of the year - it was time to build something, but I wasn't sure what.

At the start of the year, I made many different goals for me to aim at. As my direction became clearer, I dropped most of them and focused on what had emerged - writing. Note that all the goals I'd set at the start of the year were aspirational - achieving a single one would change my life.

It wouldn't matter if I dropped the others to pursue a single aim if it emerged.

And that's what happened. My life has changed from writing on the internet.

The minimum effective dose is probably less than you think it is.

I'm not going to sugarcoat things. Building something up is meant to be difficult.

Whatever your goal, you have to focus on it wholeheartedly if you want to make satisfactory progress. Remember the principle above, and don't divide your attention between too many different aims at once.

Once you've built something though, you'll likely overestimate the work required to maintain it. Working hard on making progress has become normal up to this point, and taking a step back to reassess might feel counter-productive, even when you don't have to put in much effort to maintain your current position.

This is our saving grace though, because it means that we can have many sides to our life. If maintaining something meant investing as much effort as it did to grow it then we'd have to choose a pursuit at the expense of everything else.

As it stands, we can switch our primary focus and put other aspects of our life on maintenance load whilst we focus on one thing only.

I'll give an example. I like to train hard by eating and lifting heavy weights. I also love working on this business, but it's tough to simultaneously make significant progress on both.

Fortunately, maintaining physical condition is quite low maintenance. You can neglect progress here whilst doing things that will improve your business (think hours at a desk, fasting, late nights working obsessively). It works the other way around too. I've been training hard recently, but have still managed to maintain an online presence even though the volume is down.

Style is consistent constraint.

I love considering this idea from the CEO of Obsidian, Steph Ango (@kepano). Before I'd read Steph's piece I'd never considered the idea, but I'd been self-constraining as a byproduct of my newfound minimalist principles.

Steph consolidated the idea using words that I hadn't managed to put my finger on quite yet.

Constraining yourself is not boring. You build a unique style and free up your agency for decisions that matter rather than for superficial things you should have figured out anyway.

Everyone constrains themselves to some extent, or we'd be overrun by the opportunities, potential benefits and setbacks of engaging in all the activities we have available to us.

If we were slightly more intentional with the constraints on our lives, I believe it would free up a lot more time for staying present and doing our best work. It wouldn't make life any less fulfilling.

That was a long post, but an important one to share. I hope that if you carry these three ideas into the New Year, they serve you well, as they have done for me over the last year.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week for the penultimate post of the year!

What I've written this week...

Top Apps for PKM, Online Business and Writing in 2023 - The apps, tools and services that have changed my life over the course of just a year...

Quote of the week...

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. To myself, I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lay undiscovered before me.” — Sir Isaac Newton