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Lives are so busy there is little time to just sit back and enjoy it. Unless one goes looking for a way to find peace and quite, it definitely isn’t going to jump out and offer itself to you. Not only are our lives busy with activity, but so is the mind and we constantly let it have a landslide of thoughts that stir up emotions, stress and active thinking that keeps you distant from the here and now with out being able to truly experience any one moment in the mind.

I wanted to share some ways that anyone can simplify life and live more in the now.

Simplify Your Life

1. Ignore distractions and take advantage of how they often go away on their own.
2. Don’t answer your phone every time it rings, stay in the moment of whatever you are doing and wait for a message
3. Turn off your computer, your internet access on your computer or at least your popup notifiers (like email / IM) whenever you can
4. Turn off your cell phone, don’t carry it constantly or even better, don’t have one! (This is my favorite way to simplify, I don’t have one myself)
5. Move or buy a house close to work, to avoid driving
6. Ride your bike or walk to commute and get around
7. Give away things you no longer use or need
8. Just buy less stuff
9. Buy a smaller house than what you think you need (less space is more)
10. Spend time reading, its a wonderful way to escape the complexities of each day
11. De-clutter your living space
12. Get out into nature
13. Don’t rely on technology gadgets for everything, pen and paper work fine for more than people dare admit nowadays!
14. Take up a creative hobby. Music, art, writing and building things helps you focus on just one thing.
15. Finish what you start before switching tasks. One thing at a time
16. Smile at and say hello to strangers
17. Do some simple generous deed

Simplify Your Mind

People have an amazing ability to make things as simple or complex as we want and no matter what the task is, you can always make it simpler or more complicated. This is evident in many ways, many included in the list above. As a product development manager, I see this everyday in my workplace as we approach problems and plan software products. There is both a simple and complicated approach to everything. I’ve experience both and have learned that the complicated approach used to give me a sense of satisfaction that at the time, I thought was valuable and better than a simple solution. Over the years however, I’ve learned to drastically simplify things from a development perspective and now see evidence everyday of how it is better. All the complexities we build into things (as well as in our lives) causes more complexities as new things occur and makes change much more difficult. Think of it this way, changing your mind for some simple decision is easy. Changing your mind over something complicate that affects many other things however is far more difficult. This is true in everything we do and the complexities of life and in your mind prevent you from making change and even from learning.  Look for a simple solution, a simple action, anything that’s easy to just do, right now.

1. 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life and Mind
2. 10 Ways to Simplify and Eliminate Waste in Your Life | Guest Post on Dumb Little Man
3. A Guide to Mastering Your State of Mind
4. Boredom is a Sign of An Unchallenged Mind
5. The Imaginative Mind: Social Creativity