Minimalism and The Most Important

Dear Real Academics,




You may or may not have heard of The Minimalists (but it's more likely you have at least heard about them since they currently have an audience of 20 million viewers!).

Joshua and Ryan's story has, for several years, intrigued me. Despite having high paying jobs and lots and lots of material things, they both craved meaning and a sense of freedom from the weight of work stress and material things to manage. So, they made radical life changes leading to becoming The Minimalists. You can read more about them in the link above (but first, finish reading below- ha!).

What I most like about Joshua and Ryan's version of the minimalistic philosophy is that it focuses, not just on having less stuff, but on making room for more of what is important. 

The question then becomes, what is most important? I don't claim to be a philosopher, but this is a critical life question. Once you answer this question, you then need to ask yourself, "What do I need to do to make room (physical, emotional, time-wise) to prioritize what is most important?"

If you read Joshua and Ryan's website they list wanting to make more room for time, peace, creativity, experiences, contribution, contentment, and freedom. All worthy things.

Your "most important" may include a list of concepts like the ones above or more concrete things such as a person or a goal or a combination of all of the above.

And your "most important" may be seasonal. Perhaps, in this season, there is one thing that matters the most and you need to find ways to focus your attention on that "most important" for a season. For example, this may mean decluttering time on social media or literally decluttering your desk or clearing out your calendar of appointments to allow space to think and write. 

Take a moment to jot your "most important" list down.

Now, think about what steps -- small steps -- you need to take to make room for the "most important" you defined. It may be that the small steps are leading up to a big goal or life change. That is OK. The important thing is that you realize what you need to prioritize, plan what you need to do, and take a step forward.

And...if you really, really, want to get motivated to clear out literal clutter around your home, then I recommend this book: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson. Kudos to my writing group for bringing it up as I talked about writing this blog post. 

Let us know what you plan to declutter in order to prioritize what is most important. We love to hear from you, and we are also here to help talk through any difficult writing or research projects. 

Write us anytime at inforealacademics@gmail.com.
Learn more about us here: www.therealacademics.com
If you missed it, check our our first video (less than 5 min.) by clicking here.
Share our website with others who may benefit from the resource. Thank you!

Until next time, happy writing!

Maggie

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Need a Boost of Encouragement? The Accomplishment List

Image
Dear Real Academics, As faculty (at the time of this writing), I am on a 9 month-contract.  But, every summer for the past 7 years in my tenure-track position seems to be a non-stop list of things to do including attending dissertation defenses, reviewing manuscripts, reviewing conference proposals, going to research meetings, analyzing data, writing and submitting conference proposals, writing and submitting manuscripts and grants, setting up classes for the next semester, setting up meetings for the next semester,  answering student advising emails,  managing upcoming faculty searches, and more. So, you can imagine how annoyed I get when I hear people assume that I am so lucky to be an "educator" because I get summers off. I wish!  Around the end of July this year, I was near burn-out.  Around the first week of August , I was looking ahead to the gazillion of emails streaming into my in-box to get things set up for the start of the semester (not to mention the...
Read more

The Power of Logging

Image
Dear Real Academics, There's a pattern among productivity strategists: If you want results, track your progress. Whether I'm watching a video or reading about financial planning, nutritional well-being, exercise programs, writing productivity, or self management in general, all programs that WORK have some element of what I default to calling "logging". I default to this term because of my experience with logging with writing (more on that below). Logging is tracking your progress.  I know, I know...it sounds dull and mundane and boring and hard to remember to do. It may even sound rigid, but here's the news: It is powerful. Why? This is a good question. For this post, I will not get into any facts or figures or empirical data to prove to you that tracking your progress is powerful when it comes to making progress.  But, reflect on your own experience. When have you made real progress on any goal you had that required change/effort/difficulty? What did it look lik...
Read more

Writing Models

Image
Dear Real Academics, Did you know there's such a thing as a writing model? And, here, I don't mean a person holding up the palm of their hand under a piece of paper to display it. Here I mean an example of writing similar to the one you need to or want to (or both!) compose. When I was in graduate school, I knew I needed to write a dissertation in order to graduate. Early in my program, I had never written a dissertation, much less read one. So, I looked for dissertation models in my program and studied them -- not for the content but for the structure. I asked myself: How long are dissertations? (they vary tremendously depending on methodology, I discovered!). How are dissertations organized? (there are traditional chapters, but there are formats that include a collection of related journal articles). How does each dissertation section begin and end? (I learned they are fairly repetitive in the beginning and end of each section because they are so long and want to remind the ...
Read more