简化生活只需10件事
来自：http:///about/有时候，简单的生活似乎是遥不可及的。有太多的杂物塞满了自己的生活，有太多的事情需要去完成，它们就像山一样压在自己的肩上。 达到简化生活，不需要也不可能一下子就改善。只有循序渐进，每次做一件事，才能达到目标。事实上，你只要抛弃一些鸡毛蒜皮的小事，做一些重要的事情，就能开始过简单轻松的生活。 你只要做十件最重要的事情，这些事情并不困难。只要你今天开始完成其中一件，明天再完成一件。很快，你就会简化生活了。
拿一张小纸片，把它折成一个3×5的小方形，或者用一张索引卡。在纸片上写下现在你一生中最重要的四或五件事情。什么对你最重要？你觉得什么最有价值？你的一生中最想做哪几件事？优先去完成这些事情，因为你正在为你的生活创造空间，这样你就有更多的时间做这些重要的事。
想想你的一生中有多少事情要做，然后找出一个你不想做的。这件事耗费了你很多时间但收获甚少。也许你在一个团队，也 许在接受什么训练，也许在一个对外委员会，或者其他无论什么。这件事你每天，每星期，每月都在不停地做，但是你真的不想做了。那现在就把这个负担给丢掉， 给这个任务的负责人打个电话，或者发一封Email，告诉他你没时间做这个了。我建议你放弃那些在任务清单中无足轻重，不必亲为的任务，给自己减轻一些负 担。但是今天，你只要舍弃一个就好了。
清空一个抽屉，或一个书架、一个柜子顶端、一个房间角落。不是整个房间或者甚至整个壁橱。只要一个小小的空间。你可以把这个空间作为你简化你的生活的据点，并且向外扩张。如何清理：
基本上，你要给经常做的事情设一个限度：收发Email、阅读RSS文章、任务清单、生活的杂事等等。然后让自己坚守这些限制。今天，你只需要设定一下这个限度，明天，开始习惯坚守他们。
看看你的待做事项清单。如果超过了10个条目，你就能小小地简化它一下。至少找出一些可以放弃、委任他人完成的、或者可以忽略的条目。每星期简化一次清单，这可是一个很好的习惯。拓展阅读：《同强动力的任务改善你的工作效率》。
简化生活的一个方法就是让你的时间更自由，这样你就有更多的时间做自己想做的事。不幸的是，你可能或甚至找不到时间 来想想如何简化你的生活。如果这样，那你该腾出30分钟来想想这个问题了。你怎么样才能每天腾出30分钟呢？很简单：早起一点、少看会儿电视、在你的办公 桌上便餐、午饭后散步、断开互联网、每天只查一次EMAIL、关掉电话、每天比前一天少做一件事。
一个干净整洁的桌子会给你带来惊人的愉悦感。这是一件非常简单的事情，但是它带给你的好处无法估量。这里是一些清理桌面的基本步骤：
这和清空你的桌面有着同样的效果。你的Email邮箱中是不是堆满了已读和未读的邮件？那定是你不断地拖延自己处理 邮件的决定。如果你的收件箱里的邮件少于50封，今天你就可以花上几个小时把他们全部都处理了。如果已超过了100封，你就把它们放到一个临时文件夹里， 每次处理一部分（比如每天20封）。以下是如何过滤你的收件箱并清空，包括已经存在在你的收件箱里的信件和即将到来的：
我们一整天都在奔走，从一个任务到另一个，从一个职位到另一个，直到暮色四合，我们才能躺下。那现在就来改变它，停止忙碌，开始做慢些。慢慢地吃饭、慢慢地驾驶、慢慢地行走、慢慢地淋浴。要有计划，活在当下。这不是你需要计划到明天去做的事情，你应该现在就开始练习。
与多任务不同的是，每次只做一件事情。当你做这件事情的时候你要避免所有的干扰，摆脱其他不相干的习惯（比如查看Email，或者其它习以为常的事情）。坚持那一个任务，直到你完成它。这样就不会给你很大压力，也不会影响到你的精力。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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