Seeking Simplicity? Find Order

If you want to have the simple, deliberate life for which you’re destined, you’ll benefit from putting your life in order. That can mean many different things that you’ll mostly have to define for yourself, but we’ll talk a bit about order today anyway.

I may not post as often as I did, but I’ve started this nine or 10 part series of really interesting posts, and I’d like to eventually finish it. (I’ve already talked about solitude and silence.) But I also don’t want to push myself, ruin my simple life and write a bunch of nonsense that no one needs to read. I firmly oppose nonsense, as regular readers already know.

Order is one of the things that’s missing from the lives of most of the people you know, isn’t it?

Have you notice that just about everyone around seems to act as if they’re missing something? Their lives are filled with people and things, perhaps, but they don’t seem like whole people. They seem hollow, shallow or at least incomplete. For many of them, a little order would help them realize that the things they need are already available to them.

Putting your life in order, you see, helps you take inventory of what you really have. For most people, it’s plenty. For many of us, it’s way too much.

When you live a life that’s on auto-pilot, you’re not living an ordered life. When you live a life that’s based around a full-time job that determines your plans for you, you’re not living an ordered life. When you live a life in which family demands keep you from doing the things you really enjoy, you’re not living an ordered life.

Like I said, most people aren’t. But you can.

Take control of your life by:

Decluttering. I spent a year eliminating the physical and emotional junk from my life. Some of it has come back, of course, but much of it has stayed away. Decluttering removes the unnecessary things and their related tasks from your life so they never steal your time or energy again.

Setting Priorities. Is it more important to be financially secure or emotionally happy? Do you want to live as you are now for the rest of your life or do you want to find a different path? Do you let silliness like schedules and other people’s crises control your life when they should fall in line behind what you really want to do with your time?

Establishing Routines. Don’t get caught in other people’s plans or unintentional ruts, but establish ways of doing things in your life that bring mindfulness and a simple sense of order to every task. Create your own ways of washing dishes, checking your email and cooking your dinner that use your time efficiently.

Creating order in your life at every level — from the broad life-goals arena to the narrow daily-task cubicle — allows your brain to work better. When there’s less chaos in your ways of thinking, your brain can do what it does best even better.

Why do people only “put their affairs in order” when they see death approaching? There’s very little time left then to benefit from the comfort and peace of mind it brings. Put your affairs in order today and benefit now from the freedom that comes with simplicity.

Sure, there are reasons to bring in bouts of chaos, too, but we’ll talk about those next time.

Until we talk again, do you think you can find ways to live a simpler, more deliberate life by putting things in order? What does order mean for you? And are you already living an exceptionally ordered life? I look forward to your comments.

Gip Plaster

Gip Plaster is a web content writer. Previously a journalist, online bookseller and even a corporate advertising guy, Gip now specialize in writing high-quality content for websites — his and other people’s. Learn more here.