The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide (29 page)

This technique is particularly effective in (and usually associated with) the office. If you’re overworked, and lucky enough to have a staff, consider delegating more of your responsibilities to them. It not only lifts a burden from your shoulders; it helps your employees develop the necessary skills to move to the next level. Of course, delegation comes with a certain responsibility on your part; rather than simply dumping your work in their laps, be prepared to mentor them as they tackle it. Explain how such projects can enhance their resumes and advance their careers, and make yourself available for advice and assistance. Most importantly, instill them with confidence, and empower them to make necessary decisions on their own; if you insist on micromanaging their progress, you may just as well do the job yourself.

Delegation can be especially beneficial if you’re running your own business. As an entrepreneur, you’re likely “doing it all.” In addition to your day-to-day responsibilities, you may be completing your own tax returns, writing your own press releases, creating your own website, designing your own advertising, handling client inquiries, and trimming the hedges outside your office or store. Consider shifting some of these responsibilities to employees or outside contractors; it can free up significant time for you to develop and expand your business. If you’re concerned about cost, realize that your time may be far more valuable than what you pay an accountant to do your taxes, or give your nephew to build your website. If you need temporary help, consider hiring a “virtual assistant”—a Web-based worker who can handle administrative, marketing, or other duties as the need arises.

Don’t stop delegating at the office door; employ this technique at home as well. For example, involve children in household chores from an early age. Initially, you may spend some extra time supervising; but before you know it, they’ll be handling the vacuum, and loading the dishwasher, like pros. As they get older, consider teaching them how to pay bills and reconcile your bank statement. Not only will you see your to-do list shrink; you’ll instill in your kids a sense of responsibility, and help them develop valuable skills. Sending your teenage son out into the world, armed with the knowledge of how to cook, balance a checkbook, and iron his own shirts, is a major accomplishment in itself!

Of course, the main stumbling block to delegating tasks is perfectionism. When we feel that nobody else can do as good a job as we can, we insist on doing everything ourselves. In the next section, we’ll discuss the solution: recognizing that not everything has to be done perfectly.

Have you ever spent too much time writing the perfect email, cooking the perfect dinner, preparing the perfect presentation, or finding the perfect gift? (I know I have!) The quest for perfection can throw our to-do lists in a tailspin; what we should have been able to complete in short order takes us two, three, or four times as long!

I was born a perfectionist. I got straight A’s in school, kept my room neat as a pin, and gave 110 percent to every activity I undertook. I dotted every “i,” crossed every “t,” and never ended a sentence with a preposition. I cleaned, cooked, dressed, decorated, spoke, and wrote as flawlessly as possible. Then one day, my husband and I were redecorating our apartment (we were young, poor, and DIY newbies), and I watched in horror as he installed a piece of carpet
ever so crookedly
. He was proud of his efforts, and couldn’t understand the distressed look on my face. “What’s wrong?” he said. “It’s good enough.”

“Good enough.” Those two words changed my life, and put me back in control of my time. They lowered my stress, brightened my outlook, and made me more enthusiastic to take on life’s challenges. No longer did I have to labor over every detail of every project, every word of every paragraph, every ingredient of every meal. Perfect wasn’t necessary; “good enough” was good enough.

And it’s true. In 99 percent of the stuff we do, perfection is superfluous. It’s not necessary, not expected, and likely won’t be noticed or appreciated. So here we are, devoting extra time and effort to making everything just so—and nobody cares. It’s actually a wonderful realization; because when we stop striving for perfection, we get our stuff done faster, and with greater ease. We fly through our to-do lists in half the time, and the world keeps on turning.

I’m certainly not suggesting that you shouldn’t have pride in your work, or put forth your best effort. In fact, doing a poor or sloppy job will likely increase the amount of work you do in the end—when you have to start over, make corrections, or apologize for your incompetence. Rather, I’m saying there’s a point of diminishing returns. Once you’ve reached “good enough”—where the work you’ve done is respectable—there’s often little point in pushing further toward perfection. The extra time and effort isn’t worth what little reward might result—and instead, may keep you from attempting and accomplishing other (perhaps greater) things.

Likewise, accept “good enough” for the work you delegate. Don’t redo an employee’s report because you think you can make it incrementally better; don’t chide your daughter if the dishes have a few spots; and don’t review minor projects with a fine-tooth comb. Give the work a once-over to make sure it’s acceptable; just don’t get bogged down in making it perfect. Delegation means trusting others to do the job, and letting them take responsibility for its quality.

Once you accept “good enough” from yourself and others, you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish. By recognizing that perfection isn’t always necessary, you’ll increase your productivity—and free up your schedule, and mind, for things that really matter.

Expectations—we all have them. We expect to get the deal of a lifetime on our new car, we expect our children to get perfect grades, we expect to get that big promotion at work, we expect to make a 10 percent return on our investments, we expect to move into that ideal house in that ideal neighborhood with that ideal school system—and have ideal chats with our ideal neighbors in our ideal yards. Furthermore, we expect that life won’t be complete until all of that happens.

Conversely, people have plenty of expectations of us. They expect us to cook delicious meals, bring home a bigger paycheck, keep the house sparkling, volunteer to coach Little League, help with the school’s bake sale, climb the corporate ladder, maintain a beautiful lawn, provide wise advice and immediate assistance, and generally be the perfect husband, wife, mother, father, brother, sister, parent, child, or friend.

No wonder we’re so exhausted! We’re all running ourselves ragged trying to live up to each other’s expectations, as well as those we set for ourselves. What we really need to do is give ourselves a break. We need to step back, examine all these expectations, and question whether they’re really worth the time and energy we’re expending to fulfill them.

Let’s take an example. Suppose you’ve recently gotten engaged, and are planning your wedding—your expectations for this day have been building since you were young. They may involve a country club venue, elegant ice sculptures, and a guest list in the hundreds. Perhaps you envision dozens of bridesmaids and ushers, color-coordinated favors, and a small orchestra playing your favorite songs. The tradeoff for these expectations: countless hours of planning and coordinating, plenty of stress over making decisions and arrangements, and tens of thousands of dollars spent (meaning more hours of work to pay the bill, or pay down the debt). Consider instead if all you expect is a simple ceremony with friends and family. Wow—you instantly save oodles of stress, thousands of hours, and some serious money. And in the end, you accomplish the same objective: marrying your sweetheart.

In another scenario, perhaps you have high expectations regarding where you live. If you envision yourself in a big house in the best school district, or a swanky condo in a fashionable neighborhood, anything less may disappoint you—leading you, perhaps, to work long hours or take a second job to make the mortgage or rent payments. However, if you want nothing more than a roof over your head, you’d be equally delighted with a modest apartment or bungalow. In the latter case, you’d not only have a warm place to sleep; you’d sleep much easier, without the stress, anxiety, and extra work.

That’s the beauty of minimalist living—being satisfied with what’s enough to meet our needs, rather than wasting our time, money, and energy to fulfill lofty or unrealistic expectations. This philosophy applies not only to big things (like weddings and houses), but to small ones as well. We have myriad opportunities to reduce our expectations in our everyday lives: for example, by being content with simple, healthy meals instead of insisting on gourmet; by buying solid, quality clothes rather than splurging on trendy or designer ones; by letting our kids be kids, instead of overscheduling them with activities and lessons; and by telling our spouse we’d prefer him home for dinner each night, rather than working overtime toward a promotion.

Reducing what we expect from ourselves and others takes a tremendous amount of pressure off our minds, our schedules, and our bank accounts. When we’re content with “enough,” life becomes infinitely easier, more pleasant, and less harried. It’s very liberating!

While decluttering our homes, we discovered that setting limits helps us reclaim, and preserve, our space. By restricting our place settings to four, our trousers to ten, or our DVDs to twenty, we purged the excess from our homes and put the brakes on further accumulation.

Setting limits also helps us reclaim, and preserve, our time. By restricting the number of activities we engage in, or the amount of time we devote to them, we purge the excess from our to-do lists and avoid overscheduling ourselves.

We only have twenty-four hours in each day. Sure, we’d love to take a cooking class, learn a new language, practice yoga, volunteer at the library, coach our daughter’s soccer team, lead a Boy Scout troop, join a book club, study Tai Chi, and participate in our community theater. But when we spread ourselves too thin, we wind up feeling too harried to enjoy the activities we’re pursuing. Everything starts to feel like an obligation, and suddenly we resent the two hours we “have” to spend in the pottery studio. Furthermore, we never have the time and energy to explore, or master, any particular pastime in depth—leaving us with little sense of satisfaction or accomplishment.

One solution: set limits on the
number
of activities in which you’re involved. Consider pursuing a single “extracurricular” interest at a time—then you can devote your full attention to learning how to play the piano or ballroom dance. Or choose one personal and one community endeavor, balancing your “me time” with some volunteer time. At work, limit the number of meetings you attend each day, or the number of assignments you tackle at once—assuming, of course, that it’s under your discretion. If you’re running your own business, limit the number of clients you accept, or the number of projects you take on, in order to provide better service and allow yourself some work-life balance.

Alternatively, set limits on the
time
you spend on certain activities. For instance, restrict your hobbies to two nights per week, or your volunteer work to two weekends per month, to keep some breathing room in your schedule. Limit the hours you spend on meal preparation (like one per day), and household cleaning and maintenance (like three per week). Pay particular attention to “time sink” activities like watching television and surfing the Internet. How many times have you intended to do a “quick” Google search, and found yourself still in front of your computer three hours later? Limit such pursuits to a reasonable period (like one hour per day) to prevent them from completely draining your leisure time.

Use time limits in the office as well. Allot a certain number of days to complete a project, or a certain number of hours to finish a report. Such limits will prevent you from laboring too long on a particular task (perhaps in an effort to “perfect” it), and ensure you have adequate time to complete your other work. Limit the minutes you devote to making phone calls and answering emails each day. Also, do what you can to limit the amount of overtime you work each week. Staying late at the office won’t necessarily be seen as a sign of your ambition or devotion; in contrast, it may be regarded as an inability to do your job, or manage your time effectively.

When we set limits on our stuff, we had to give up something old before adding something new—like tossing a book we already read in favor of the new bestseller. When we set limits on our schedules, we must do the same. If we decide to take on a new commitment, we must give up an old one. It keeps our to-do lists from spiraling out of control, and ensures we have adequate time for the activities most important to us.

A few years ago, I was involved in a group conversation about work and careers. One of the men, in his late twenties, was asked what he did. He simply smiled and said, “Not much,” offering no further explanation. An awkward silence fell over our crowd of young professionals. Many of us were putting in sixty-hour weeks, and madly juggling work, family, and social commitments. His casual response was akin to heresy.

Unfortunately, busyness seems to be a prized trait in our culture—as if the more activities, events, hobbies, committees, appointments, meetings, and responsibilities we can jam into our schedules, the better people we are. Ask a friend what she’s doing today, and you’ll likely get an exhaustive rundown of various tasks. We’re always in a rush to do something, go somewhere, or meet someone; it’s almost as if we’re trying to out-do each other in how many things we can “get done.” In fact, an entire industry has evolved around personal productivity and time management—with books to teach us strategies, software to “optimize” our schedules, and gurus to dispense advice. The techniques may differ, but the objective is the same: to show us how to
get more done
.