The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 30Believe in Simplicity

I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest man thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1894)

In each and every day, you will be presented with the necessary and real, but you'll also get a face full of the useless and ambiguous, all of it seemingly urgent.

So how do you go about sorting out what deserves your focus from what fills up your day?

The trick here is to first make the firm decision about that which is a priority above all else. In order to simplify, then you can choose to do less, have less, consume less—but above all else, you must stay focused on your stated priority objectives.

Setting priorities and establishing a habit of tackling them before, let's see, checking Facebook, relining the drawers in your desk, or cleaning out your inbox, is the key to simplicity in body, mind, and spirit. All this other stuff amounts to little more than you hiding from the truth of what deserves to get done.

Priorities unattended weigh you down. You know what produces value and payoff, and by swirling around and giving attention to “trivial affairs,” you increase the mental and physical strain of ...