7 Rules That Keep My Life Simple

By Leo Babauta I enjoy creating a few simple rules to live by that take away some of the overwhelming decision making we need to make every day. Pre-think these decisions, formulate them into rules, and then just follow them, freeing your brain for more important decisions. Why should we need to give so much thought to what we’ll wear and eat, how we’ll exercise and handle email, when these are things we do every single day? So I’ve been crafting a few rules that keep my life simple, so I don’t need to think about the little things so much. These rules change, depending on my life circumstances — what I’m working on, where I am, what else is going on, etc. And I don’t get mad at myself if I need to bend a rule now and then … but try to stick with them as a general principle. So here are the rules that have been working for me lately: Clear my email inbox every Friday. I generally keep my email inbox to 5-10 emails (except when I’m traveling) or often fewer, but a handful of them stick around because I don’t want to answer them or there are too many little things I need to do in order to answer the email. So they hang around in my inbox all week, dragging on me mentally. My habit has been to clear out the inbox on Friday — answer the emails I’ve been putting off, take care of the little actions, archive ones I just know I won’t answer. It’s beautiful — a clear inbox is so nice. Then more...
Source: Zen Habits - Category: Life Coaches Authors: Tags: Productivity & Organization Simplicity Source Type: blogs