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Decide what enough looks like, then take the rest away

What simple living actually is, why it is not frugality, and where to start when your life is already full.

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01 The problem

We are overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time

Every convenience arrived as promised. The internet, the transport, the delivery, the endless catalogue. None of it gave us back the time it was supposed to free up, and most of us end the day tired without being able to say what we did.

Part of the reason is choice itself. In 2000, Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper set up a tasting table at a food market. On one day it held twenty four kinds of jam, on another it held six. Shoppers facing six choices bought more than shoppers facing twenty four. Too much to compare, and the brain quietly abandons the task.

The book calls the result clutter, and it is not only physical. Crowded homes, crowded calendars and crowded feeds all do the same thing: they take the attention you needed for the decisions that actually matter.

Most of us go through life feeling overwhelmed as well as underwhelmed at the same time.The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 2

02 What simple means  ·  chapter 1

Affluence has two definitions, and only one of them ends

In 1966 the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins presented research on hunter-gatherer societies in northern Australia and Botswana and concluded that they lived affluent lives. He was using a different definition of the word.

In the conventional western sense, you have many needs and not enough means, so the only way to be satisfied is to produce more. More hours, more work, more income. In the other sense, affluence means having few enough needs that what you already have covers them. Sahlins noted that the groups he studied spent no more than three to five hours a day gathering food, and were content with less.

The book is honest that the theory has been criticised, including for ignoring the disease and the social pressures those societies faced, and for leaving cooking and preparation out of the hours counted. The useful part survives the criticism: there are two ways to close the gap between what you need and what you have, and only one of them has a finish line.

“Excess” does not equal “affluence.”The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 1

03 What simple is not  ·  chapter 2

Simple living is not frugality, and it has no rulebook

Both a frugal person and a simple liver may spend less this month. The difference is what the spending is being pointed at. Frugality treats saved money as the goal, and often keeps the anxiety attached to it. Simple living treats money as a means, and spends the freed-up resources on something else.

The book's example is John Woolman, a colonial-era cloth merchant whose business grew larger than he wanted. He gave up retailing, took up tailoring and looked after an apple orchard instead, and when a slave owner gave him hospitality he paid the enslaved people directly. He gave up material pleasure so that he had the time, energy and mindset to work for others.

The other myths go the same way. A simple life is not a life of no responsibility, it is one with a purpose behind the labour. It does not require homesteading. It is not a wardrobe count, and it is not a design aesthetic. It is not selfish, and it is not boring. The only rules are the ones you write.

Frugality can seem like a restrictive way of looking at life. Simple living, on the other hand, is all about expansion.The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 2

04 The starting point  ·  chapter 3

Start with why, then name your version of enough

The book borrows Simon Sinek's instruction and applies it here: start with why. Intentional living has three steps. Visualise the future you want. Be clear about why you want that future. Decide how to get there, and take purposeful actions to make it happen.

Between the second step and the third sits the question the whole book turns on: what is your version of having enough? The book asks you to work out what you need for necessities, for emergencies and for discretionary spending, and to be honest about how much you will be content with. Without that number, every later decision is a guess, and you will feel deprived at some stage and quit.

The chapter's other questions are worth sitting with too. What is holding you back. How comfortable are you with change. How much do other people's opinions matter. And who can you count on, because a partner or children need to be part of this before it starts, not after.

05 At home  ·  chapter 4

Decluttering fails unless you close the inflow

Most people clear the house once a quarter, enjoy three good weeks, and watch the clutter come back stronger. The clearing was never the problem. The problem is that nothing changed about what keeps arriving.

The chapter's practical order is: work out which areas attract the most clutter and why, start small enough to keep going (one item a day is a real target), stop adding to a space until it is clear, and keep a decluttering box that you actually empty. Marie Kondo's method applies, with the sentimental items left until last because they are the hardest to release.

Then the two habits that make it permanent. One in, one out. And ask before you buy: do I need it, how often will I use it, is there space for it. Make each item earn its place.

Decluttering your home is a crucial first step in your “simple living” journey. However, it does not take care of your other habits, such as your shopping behavior.The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 4

06 At work  ·  chapter 6

Nobody multitasks, so stop performing busyness

In most workplaces, appearing productive matters more than the results. You show up regardless of how you feel, stay visible, answer at odd hours. Working from home made it worse, because being at home was read as being available. The book is blunt about where that led: a whole generation of workers burnt out, at different intensities.

The technique underneath the performance does not survive inspection either. What we call multitasking is task-switching: leaving one job briefly for another, then coming back. Every switch costs something, the work gets worse across the board, and you finish the day exhausted. Two thinking tasks genuinely cannot run at once.

The replacement is time blocking. Give one task a fixed stretch of the day and do nothing else in it. If starting is the hard part, the Pomodoro technique gets you moving: twenty five minutes of work, then a five minute break, and stop even if you are flowing. Ten minutes counts if twenty five feels like too much.

Research has shown that we are not wired to concentrate on more than one thing at a time.The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 6

07 With money  ·  chapter 7

Put the friction back into spending

The behavioural economist Dan Ariely's idea is that we spend less when we feel the pain of payment. Marketers spend a great deal of effort removing that feeling, which is what card rewards, bundled offers and same-day delivery are for. Cash hurts most, debit less, credit least, and spending rises as the pinch disappears.

The chapter starts earlier than tactics, with your money personality. Investor, saver, big spender, debtor, shopper. The aim is not guilt, it is knowing your own triggers. Then goals split into short, medium and long term, made specific and measurable rather than vague, and a budget built from a few months of tracked expenses. The 50-30-20 split is offered as a starting frame: half for needs, three tenths for wants, a fifth into savings.

The book also names the traps that work on everyone: the decoy price on the medium popcorn that exists only to sell you the large one, the checkout aisle, and the shopping mall visited as a leisure activity.

08 Time and health  ·  chapters 8 and 9

For your schedule and your health, subtract instead of adding

The last two chapters make the same move. When the days are too full, the instinct is to add a system, a diet, a gym membership, another routine. The book's answer is the opposite: the secret to improving your well-being lies in doing less, not more.

For the schedule that means boundaries and empty space. Working hours your family and your clients both know about. A stand-in for the commute, a walk or a podcast at the hour you used to travel, so there is still a signal that the day has changed shape. And white space, which is not reading or screens or recreation, but time deliberately left blank. It rests the senses and it is where creativity comes from.

For health it means removals too. Walking instead of a subscription. Cooking rather than ordering, with the prep done at the weekend so the easy option is the good one. Taking the processed food out of the fridge, because it starts with the fridge. A digital detox: fewer notifications, fewer apps, the phone further away. Five to ten minutes of attention on the present, with no requirement to empty your mind.

The value of time lies not only in how we fill it but also in how we leave it alone.The Practical Power of Simple, Chapter 8

09 The whole book

One move, run through every part of a life

Nine chapters, and the same three steps in each of them. Work out what enough looks like, be clear about why you want it, and then take one area at a time: the home, the friendships and the family, the work, the money, the calendar, the body.

Nothing in the book asks you to own less for its own sake. It asks you to know what you were keeping all of it for. One step at a time, one breath at a time.

Adapted from The Practical Power of Simple: How Keeping Things Simple Paves the Way for Success
Vince Perryellis  ·  © 2022 DVFZ Training Consultancy Services  ·  19 cited sources in the source edition