If you have been wandering in the aisles of productivity and lifestyle management, you likely heard of Minimalism or Minimalists.

A few years back, there was a lot of buzz around the idea.

The concept picked up steam in popular culture after a few YouTubers started talking about it, followed by a prominent documentary film about minimalism released on Netflix.

This article will look at the minimalism idea in-depth, what it takes to be a minimalist, and why it is worth pursuing if you are serious about productivity and lifestyle management.

Minimalism is all about identifying what is essential in your life, letting go of things that are not, and most importantly, doing it in a sustainable way for you and your lifestyle.

That is it. Most definitions of minimalism will have a decent level of overlap with this one.

Minimalism is not about letting go of things you hold dear or denying yourself experiences that bring you joy.

Minimalism instead focuses on the most important parts of your life and parting with things that don't have value.

Essentially, minimalism is different for each of us, but the underlying principle of essentialism is core to the practice.

Before jumping into what it takes to become a minimalist (someone who follows minimalism), let us quickly look at some of the benefits of minimalism.

Now that we have looked at the benefits of being a minimalist, let's move on to a step-by-step guide on becoming one.

That said, there are some steps that you can add and, based on your preference, remove.

There are no rules about implementing the practice, so get started, and you'll figure it out as you go.

Take a notebook or a note-taking app and start writing down why you want to be a minimalist. Purpose can be different for each of us, and that's okay.

Some people want to become more productive and focused, some want to reduce their debt, some want to get rid of anxiety, and some want a combination of multiple factors; whatever your reason may be, you must clarify that for yourself.

It would be a mistake to tackle big goals early in your minimalism journey, so pick the smallest part of your life where you can implement your minimalist lifestyle.

Something like your travel bag might be a good start where you keep only the things you need and leave others back home.

You could also start with your smartphone, where you clean up all your apps and keep only the absolute must-haves.

When you clean out your closest, you probably wonder about some clothes you completely forgot you owned; now apply that to everything you own.

List out all your belongings, take stock of all the ones you need, and make a plan for those you don't.

Consider making this a regular practice where twice or thrice a year, you see what's your inventory and reflect on it.

An excellent way to implement minimalism is to start by applying it to specific physical locations.

Maybe you want your dressing table to be clean and ordered all the time, or maybe it is your fridge; whatever the location, it is good to have certain spots in your house or office where minimalism is the default mode of operation.

When something is free, it is hard to turn it down, especially if it has decent monetary value.

However, as a practitioner of minimalism, you should make an acceptance decision based not just on the monetary value but its overall appeal.

So make sure that you have certain standards regarding what you'll accept as gifts or free items.

It could be accepting only perishables, memorabilia, or just accepting from a wishlist.

You'll be more motivated to prioritize regular financial planning and execution when you have a savings goal.

When you have an ambitious savings goal, that will push you to question your purchases and expenses, and this additional scrutiny will ensure that you don't engage in meaningless consumption.

To make things fun, determine your minimum viable income (MVI) and gamify the savings exercise where you reward yourself for keeping your expenses low and limiting the number of new possessions you acquire during a particular period.

Debt is the worst form of baggage, so if you have any, try your best to close it as soon as possible.

While it is easier to assume that you are improving, it is better to have absolute clarity on where you stand and assess the benefits that minimalism has given you.

Here are some questions you can start asking to assess parts of your journey:

Goal: Assess the benefits of minimalism:

When you have many items, it is natural to feel overwhelmed with taking ownership decisions.

Hence, we have compiled a list of decisions you can take depending on the item and its relationship to you.

Here is the list of possible solutions:

These are the most common solutions to ownership problems.

Once you have addressed overconsumption and clutter in your physical space, the logical next step would be to look at your digital space.

An excellent place to start would be your phone, where you could assess all the apps on it and remove the ones that do not add value.

You can go further and disable notifications from all apps where the utility is not urgent.

You can also back up all your important photos and files and remove them from your phone.

Once done with your laptop, you can extend a similar treatment to your desktop and other electronic devices.

Finally, make a list of all your media sources and determine the ones adding value and discard the rest.

If a streaming service is making it harder to hit your productivity goals, it is helpful to pull the plug on it.

We have consistently found that slow, consistent improvements are more sustainable than a radical shift, so start slow and build.

Our minimalism journeys, in large part, are an iterative process, so don't be hard on yourself for not getting things right from the get-go.

Finally, focus on what matters to you and discard the rest. Don't look for "what to remove" but rather "what to keep." Nice to have is not good enough so keep a high standard.

And with that, we come to the end of this post. Did you find this helpful? If yes, tell your colleagues about us and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks for reading.

by 🇫🇷 Routine