When it comes to speaking, writing, emails, tweets, instant messages, whatever – we often say more than we need to. Services like Twitter help with that, with the 140 character limit. But no such limits exist when talking to another human in real life, or composing an email. Since limits aren’t built in, you need to create limits.
Get to the point
Instead of blabbering on, get to the point. The meat and potatoes. Say it and get on with it. Don’t write for 8 paragraphs, building up to what you want to tell me. Just tell me. If the message is good, I’ll be interested, and glad that you didn’t waste my time. If you make me wait, and the message is weak, I’m going to be a little ticked off.
Simplify, simplify
If you don’t have to come up with so much “fluff”, you’ll be free to do more. Or less. The point is, simplifying your words gives you more time, more freedom. Do what you want with the extra time, even if what you want is nothing. Doing nothing is doing something, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.
Once you’ve made the decision to live a simpler life, the hard work begins. You can’t live by the popular “One in One Out” rule. That rule stipulates that for every single thing you bring into your home, you need to get rid of one. Since you’ve just made the decision to live more simply, that’s not good enough. You have to adopt the “One in, Two out” rule.
One in, Two out Rule
This rule will encompass everything in your life, until you’ve acheived your goal. If you buy something, get rid of two things. If you buy a shirt, get rid of two old ones. If you make a commitment with your time, get rid of two commitments that you currently have. Make a new friend? Get rid of two people in your life that aren’t really that important to you.
Be extreme.
Be ruthless.
Simplify.
Live this rule, in everything that you do, until you’ve reached the point where you’re happy with how simple your life is. Everyone reaches this point at a different time, and it looks different for each person.
You will never reach your goal if you’re not tough about it. One in, two out. That’s the rule. Live it.