Minimalism – Can it transform your workday?

SLEEK, uncluttered workplaces are the buzz around town right now, with mobile workstations and standing desks becoming the norm. Can this trend help transform your workday?

SLEEK, uncluttered workplaces are the buzz around town right now, with mobile workstations and standing desks becoming the norm. Can this apparent trend towards minimalism help transform your workday from ordinary to extraordinary?

Minimalism can start as simply as clearing your desk every night.

The movement has become a water cooler conversation starter, so much so that two American former high-flyers known as The Minimalists - Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus - are touring the world spruiking the benefits of living a more simple life.

Joshua and Ryan de-cluttered their corporate lives in 2010 and started spreading the minimalist word on the basis that it adds meaning and value to life and allows us to do more with less. They had six-figure salaries and possessions galore but weren’t satisfied.

By embracing minimalism, The Minimalists say among other things, they’ve:

• Eliminated their discontent

• Reclaimed their time

• Learned to live in the moment

• Pursued their passions

• Discovered their missions

• Experienced real freedom

• Created more, consumed less

• Focused on their health

• Discovered their purpose in life

The Minimalists will be touring Australia in November as part of a 100-city tour across the United States, Canada, the UK and Ireland, to share their story.

Small changes can help clear the mind and inspire productivity. Joshua says focus is the key to productivity but it’s hard to be focused when the area we use for important work, which for many of us is our desk, is teeming with clutter.

“Sure, those trinkets may help us look busy, but busy is not the same thing as productive,” Josh tells news.com.au.

“When we remove that which is superfluous, only the important tasks remain and our attention can be allocated to those tasks. Clear the clutter, increase your productivity.”

For people who find it difficult to shift their stuff, what are three things they could try to embrace minimalism at the start of the day?

Clean. Organise. Purge. And do it the night before your workday so you have a clean slate when you wake.

“Do what you can to protect your mornings,” says Josh. “For many of us, morning is the most productive time of the day. With the clutter out of the way, you can make room for the day’s most important priority.”

Small changes can help clear the mind and inspire productivity say the guys.

Top tips from The Minimalists for a less complicated start to the workday:

1. To better understand why you want to simplify, ask yourself a question: How might my life be better if I owned less stuff? More time with your family? Better control of your finances? Increased ability to travel? Minimalism’s benefits are different for everyone. Answering this question helps you understanding how minimalism will benefit you personally.

2. De-cluttering is boring, so make it fun with some friendly competition. We call it the 30-Day Minimalism Game. It is what tens of thousands of our readers have done to start simplifying their lives. Details at theminimalists.com/game.

3. Clear your digital clutter:

Start with an email strategy.

“The problem with email is that it’s never enough. Even when we whittle our incoming messages down to zero, we’re constantly waiting for the next ephemeral bit of good information. I call these bits ‘food pellets from the universe’, says Josh.

“Similar to a lab rat, we have trained ourselves to click that ‘get mail’ button to receive these food pellets. Hit the lever, get the food. Hit the lever, get the food. Hit the lever, get the food.

“Sometimes the food is tasty…but most of the time these food pellets are filled with empty calories and they taste like cardboard.

“So instead of checking my email throughout each day, I check it once a day at most.”