The danger of a distracted life
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creator uses the metaphor of a cluttered kitchen drawer to discuss the importance of simplifying life by identifying and prioritizing what's truly important. The script outlines a three-step process: listing important and unimportant things, eliminating or minimizing the latter, and focusing on commitments. It encourages viewers to create space for meaningful activities by decluttering both physical and mental spaces, aiming for a more content and efficient lifestyle.
Takeaways
- ποΈ The metaphor of a cluttered kitchen drawer represents a life stuffed with too many things, leading to difficulty in finding what's important.
- π§ The first step to simplifying life is identifying what's truly important, which can be challenging due to the complexity of personal values and passions.
- π It's crucial to create a list of important things, which might include passions, relationships, and personal well-being, to guide life decisions.
- β Recognize and list unimportant things that can be eliminated from daily life to reduce unnecessary complexity and distractions.
- π€ Evaluate commitments and responsibilities to determine which are essential and which might be reduced or delegated.
- π‘ Cleaning and organizing physical spaces, like living areas and digital devices, can reflect and support the simplification of life.
- π Minimize activities that are not important but difficult to eliminate completely, such as limiting time spent on social media or watching TV.
- π« Learn to say no to new commitments that do not align with the important things in life, to protect and prioritize personal time and energy.
- β° Establish routines that incorporate the important activities identified, ensuring they become a regular part of life.
- π The process of simplifying life is gradual and requires consistent effort to eliminate, minimize, and replace unimportant activities with meaningful ones.
Q & A
What is the main metaphor used in the video script to describe a cluttered life?
-The main metaphor used is a kitchen drawer that is stuffed with various items, representing the over-stuffed and cluttered nature of the speaker's life.
What are the two rules for simplifying life mentioned in the script?
-The two rules are: 1) Figure out what's important, and 2) Eliminate everything else.
How many categories does the speaker suggest organizing one's activities into for the purpose of life simplification?
-The speaker suggests organizing activities into three categories: important things, unimportant things, and commitments.
What is the first step the speaker recommends when trying to identify important things in life?
-The first step is to list out four to five important things, which is described as the hardest task because it requires introspection on what truly matters in one's life.
What example does the speaker provide for unimportant things that they have eliminated from their life?
-The speaker mentions having a fancy car, being super involved with Twitter and Instagram, and staying up late drinking with friends on weekends as examples of unimportant things they have eliminated.
What advice does the speaker give for dealing with commitments that are hard to eliminate?
-The speaker suggests critically thinking about each commitment, evaluating its importance, and considering how it aligns with life goals, and if necessary, reducing or renegotiating those commitments.
According to the script, what famous quote does the speaker use to emphasize the importance of simplification?
-The speaker uses the quote by Henry David Thoreau, 'Our lives are frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.'
What strategy does the speaker propose for adding important things back into one's life after decluttering?
-The speaker proposes carefully selecting one important thing from the list and finding a time slot, at least once a week or preferably daily, to incorporate this activity into the routine.
What is the speaker's approach to minimizing unimportant things that cannot be eliminated?
-The speaker suggests setting limits on the time or resources spent on these activities, such as limiting TV and video games to an hour a day or reducing social media use to one hour on Sundays.
How does the speaker recommend protecting the newly found free time after eliminating and minimizing unimportant activities?
-The speaker recommends being a strong defender of one's time, learning to say no to additional commitments, and being mindful of not adding back in unimportant things.
Outlines
ποΈ Organizing Life's 'Drawer': Prioritizing What's Important
The speaker begins by likening their messy kitchen drawer to their life, filled with various items that make it hard to find what's essential. They reflect on how this clutter mirrors their life's overcommitment, leading to a loss of functionality and happiness. The speaker suggests that simplifying life involves two key rules: identifying what's important and eliminating everything else. They propose categorizing activities into 'important,' 'unimportant,' and 'commitments' to better understand and declutter one's life.
π‘ Streamlining Life: Eliminating and Minimizing Non-Essentials
The speaker delves into the process of decluttering by first identifying and eliminating unimportant aspects of life. They emphasize the importance of making consistent small changes for lasting impact. The speaker suggests evaluating work commitments and personal habits, aiming to reduce or restructure them to create more free time. They also discuss strategies for minimizing unavoidable activities and the importance of learning to say 'no' to protect newfound time and mental space.
π³ Embracing Simplicity: Filling Life with Meaningful Activities
In the final paragraph, the speaker focuses on how to utilize the time and space created by eliminating and minimizing non-essentials. They encourage viewers to reintroduce meaningful activities into their lives, using the newly available time. The speaker shares a personal example of replacing late-night outings with early morning nature hikes, which has significantly improved their well-being. They conclude by emphasizing the profound impact of this lifestyle change, urging viewers to continually simplify and prioritize what truly matters.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Simplify
π‘Eliminate
π‘Commitments
π‘Important Things
π‘Unimportant Things
π‘Metaphor
π‘Minimize
π‘Productivity
π‘Freedom
π‘Time Management
Highlights
The metaphor of a cluttered kitchen drawer represents an overstuffed life.
Two rules for simplifying life: identify what's important and eliminate everything else.
Categorize activities into important, unimportant, and commitments.
Listing four to five important things in life is a challenging but crucial task.
Passion, family, health, and personal growth are examples of important life aspects.
Unimportant things can be specific; examples include material possessions and superficial engagements.
Commitments are necessary tasks that can't be avoided, such as family responsibilities or work.
Critically evaluate each commitment and unimportant activity for its alignment with life goals.
Eliminate unimportant activities by setting clear actions, like reducing possessions or social media use.
Minimize unavoidable activities by setting limits, such as restricting screen time.
Learn to say no to new unimportant commitments to maintain simplified life.
Cleaning physical spaces and digital devices can also contribute to a simplified life.
Establishing routines can help in maintaining order and focus in daily life.
Use the new free time to incorporate one of the important activities identified earlier.
The process of simplifying life is gradual and requires consistent effort.
Adding important activities, like nature hikes, can significantly improve life satisfaction.
The video emphasizes the profound impact of simplifying and focusing on what truly matters.
The speaker shares personal experiences and the positive changes brought by life simplification.
Transcripts
Have you ever had a drawer
where just like everything goes into?
For me, that's my kitchen drawer.
But the annoying thing is before I go out,
usually I need to take things out of that drawer
but the drawer is like in absolute mess.
My keys, wallet, random post-it notes, exploded pens,
passports, IDs, things that I've never seen before
in my entire life are just in that drawer.
And because the drawer is so stuffed,
I can never find the important things
I need to get out of there.
I should really clean up my drawer,
I should really simplify it.
Now, if you can't tell what I'm tryna do here,
I'm tryna get a little bit fancy and create a metaphor.
The drawer is like my life, stuffed with tons
of different things.
Now, initially, I was okay with my kitchen drawer,
you know, being too packed, too full,
I could root around there for a while
and eventually get the stuff out I needed to.
However, eventually the drawer was unusable,
it was so stuffed, I couldn't even close it anymore
and I couldn't find anything I needed.
And the same thing happened to my life.
My life was over stuffed, I put in too many things,
I took on too many commitments,
and eventually I just couldn't live normally.
Sometimes we need to take action,
we need to clean the drawer, we need to simplify our lives.
Why do we keep stuffing things in there anyway?
In this video, I'll tell you how to clean up that drawer
because we all have one and how to simplify your life.
(gentle music)
So, in reality, there are really only two rules
for simplifying your life.
The first rule is, figure out what's important,
and the second rule is, eliminate everything else.
That's it, game set, the game's over,
federalism won again, and thanks for watching this video,
you know, I'll see you in the next one,
go figure out your life.
(suspenseful music)
But no, no.
In reality, these things are much harder to figure out.
So what I wanted to try and do with this video
is give you some tips, give you some starting points
on how you can identify the important things
and start to eliminate the other things.
Let's get into it.
(gentle music)
So the whole basis of my video,
the whole basis of this strategy will revolve around
putting everything you do into one of three categories.
The first category is important things,
the second category is unimportant things,
and the third category is commitments,
those are things that we have to do.
So let's start about talking about the first thing
and this is the hardest thing to talk about,
the important things.
So the first thing I would do
is list out four to five important things,
and this is really, really extremely hard to do
because I'm asking the big question,
what is important in your life?
What are the main focuses of your life?
So some things you could fail
with those four to five things are your passion.
And this is again, a really hard question,
what do you like to do?
Do you like art?
Do you like being in the hospital?
Do you like teaching?
Do you like flying airplanes?
Figure out what your passion is.
Now, I still don't really know what my passion is,
part of me says I want to be a doctor,
part of me says I wanna be a super duper YouTuber,
but part of me also says I wanna leave all of it
and go try living in Italy for a year
or something like that.
So I don't really know what my passion is,
so I just listed medicine, YouTube, exploration,
family, and health, those are my four to five
important things.
Other things that might be important to me
are time to myself, friendships, nature, reading,
those are important things.
But again, don't take from my list,
create your own list of important things
and these shouldn't be the little things like, you know,
I like to sleep in on a Sunday or something like that,
these should be the big important things
and that's why this is the hardest task of the whole video.
Okay, number two, we're getting easier here,
list out 10 unimportant things.
This should be pretty easy
and this you can get a little bit specific if you want to.
So for example, my list is having a fancy car,
being super involved with Twitter and Instagram,
drinking and staying up super late
with my friends on the weekends, having lots of clothes,
watching TV or movies, being the best workout designer,
being the best video researcher,
being the best chef in the world,
but I realize those things aren't super important to me
so eventually I can just offload those tasks to other people
so I have more time to do the important things.
So number three, we're filling that third category
is the commitments, evaluate the things
that you absolutely have to do.
There are certain things that we really all need to do,
this can be family, kids, religion,
health things we need to do, school things we need to do,
and we just usually can't get out of them.
So now you should have a massive list of things to do,
you have a list under the important things,
you've a list under the unimportant things,
and you have a list under the essential things
or the things you have to do.
So what I would start to do now is start to critically think
about every single thing in the unimportant list
and every single thing in the commitment list.
Seriously, look at each line and say,
how important is this thing?
How does this line up with where I want to be in life?
What would happen if I stopped doing it?
How would me stopping doing that look like?
Are these things adding complexity to my life unnecessarily?
Sometimes I find myself resorting back
to these unimportant things,
the things that I don't wanna fill my life with
like playing video games or watching TV
or buying fancy clothes on the internet.
But I would probably be happier if, you know,
I went for a long hike in nature
or got dinner with one of my good friends.
Okay, so now we have a great general sense
of what's in our life, now we're gonna get to the good part,
eliminating stuff.
(gentle music)
Henry David Thoreau said,
"our lives are frittered away by detail.
Simplify, simplify."
I want you to remember that small changes made consistently
are much more likely to stick and much more likely
to have a big impact than large changes made carelessly.
So, remember, we have those three categories of things
that we just listed out, let's start by cutting things
or figuring out how we would cut things
from our commitments, from our work,
from the things we have to do.
So let's use work as an example,
what are your commitments at work?
What are things that you absolutely have to do?
Can you reduce those?
What would that reduction in work or commitments look like?
How would you make this reduction
look desirable to your employer?
Maybe you work from home a couple days a week,
but importantly, you show your employer
that you're actually more productive at home
than you are at work.
Figure out what benefit you provide to the company
and see how you can maximize that benefit to the company
while still maximizing your own personal time.
Tim Ferriss from "The 4-Hour Workweek" says,
"don't underestimate how much your company needs you.
Perform well and ask for what you want.
If you don't get it over time, leave.
It's too big a world to spend most of our lives
in a cubicle."
Try and find something in these have to-do lists
where you can pull back a little bit from,
where you can reduce your commitments.
Remember, we're trying to create more free time
because eventually we're gonna be filling that free time
with the important things.
So next, let's look at the unimportant things
and see what we can eliminate.
Now, these are usually easier to eliminate
but less impactful to eliminate;
staying up late and drinking on the weekends,
I simply just don't do that anymore
I eliminated it.
Having lots of clothes and tons of things in my closet,
well, I found out a year ago
as you can probably tell from my videos,
I wear the same clothes kind of around 90% of the times,
so I threw out about 80% of my stuff.
All in all, go through that unimportant list
and next to it write an arrow that says eliminate
and then write another arrow that says exactly
how you're going to eliminate it.
So for example, with all my clothes that I had,
I said, okay, I can eliminate this, how am I gonna do it?
Well, just get rid of, throw away,
or donate 80% of the stuff I don't wear,
that was it.
Okay, so we've eliminated as much as we can
but sometimes we just can't eliminate things
it feels really tough almost impossible to eliminate things.
For example, TV and video games seem kinda just sticking
into my life and I just can't eliminate them.
You know, I like to watch an episode of TV
before I go to bed, I like to watch an episode of TV
when I'm eating lunch, and on the weekend,
I like to play one or two games of Apex.
I also like to go on Twitter and Instagram,
I feel like I also kinda need to, because, you know,
I'm a social media kind of person.
So, what I do instead is I minimize those things
as much as possible, and that's the next step,
minimize what you can't eliminate.
So, remember, you still have that list
of unimportant things and commitments
and we've hopefully eliminated a couple of those things.
Now, you still probably have a bunch of things
on those lists, we wanna see what we can minimize.
For example, for me, TV and video games
have been tough to eliminate
so now I just limit myself to an hour a day
and that means if on one day I watch three hours of TV,
that means for the next six days
I can only watch four hours of TV or play four hours
of video games total.
For Instagram and Twitter,
I only log on to scroll for one hour on the weekend
on Sundays, for the rest of the week,
I use a tip that I stole from Thomas Frank,
and really that's just to log out
of every one of those things
because the activation energy to log into those things
makes it more likely that you won't actually start
using those things again.
Okay, number three is make sure you don't add in
unimportant things, right?
We've worked so hard to eliminate and minimize things,
don't add in unimportant things, learn to say no.
So, as you enter this new found mental and time nirvana,
you will notice people and things
try to break you out of it.
Again, you'll notice people are trying to pull you away
from these things, not because this is a new thing,
because this is happening all the time
but because you are more keenly aware
of your time and your commitments,
you're aware when people are trying to take you out
of this newfound freedom, this newfound mental space,
you are hopefully becoming more aware
of your most valuable asset, your time.
So it would help, and it's helped me a lot to say no more,
you're not tired, you're not sick,
you don't have something you have to do,
don't lie to these people, just tell them the truth.
You must be a strong defender of your time
because no one else will.
Okay, now we've cut out tons of things,
let's cut even a little bit more.
Clean out your living space,
that includes clothes, clutter, everything.
Usually you can throw away 80% of everything.
Remove all junk food from the house,
remove all junk drinks from the house,
clean up your computer, clean up your phone,
pay attention to morning and night routines,
if you don't have a morning and nighttime routine, get one.
Have a place for everything in the house.
Also, when buying things, use the rule
of removing negatives as opposed to adding positives.
So when you wanna go buy something new,
try to only buy something new if it removes a negative
as opposed to adding a positive.
Okay, we've done tons of work here,
we've identified the unimportant things,
the important things, and our commitments.
We've eliminated our unimportant things or commitments
and we've minimized our unimportant things or commitments
and we've maximized our new found free time.
Well, what do we do with this new found free time?
Well, guess what?
We add in the important things,
we add in the important things to you.
(gentle music)
Now, carefully go to that list of important things
and pick one thing that you want to add in
with this new found time.
And make sure this is a worthwhile thing.
Find a time at least once a week,
preferably once a day where you could add in
this new important thing because hopefully,
you should have freed up enough time
to at least have an extra bout of time during the week.
And then just try that out for maybe a week, two weeks,
and see how it feels to have less things to do
and have more of the important things to do in your life.
So what does this look like?
Well, remember, this is a really slow process.
One of my unimportant things was going out,
staying up really late on the weekends
and drinking with my friends out late,
so what I found myself having
when I wasn't doing those things is I would be awake
early on Saturday and Sunday, and I would also feel good
early in the morning on Saturday and Sunday.
So then I looked to my important list,
what was important to me, and I saw, okay,
getting in nature is something that's pretty important
to me, so now with this new found free time
on Saturday and Sunday mornings,
I slotted in maybe on Saturday or Sunday
a like two or three-hour nature hike with a friend.
It has become one of my favorite things to do
and I make sure to do it like
at least once a month when the weather's kinda normal.
It really is awesome, one of my friends will meet me
at my apartment early in the morning,
I'll turn my phone off, put it in my backpack,
we'll go drive to location, hike for two hours
or three hours, see the sunrise, come back,
go home, and just, you know, live the rest of our weekend.
But it's had such a great impact on me,
I can't figure out why I wasn't doing this sooner.
And that's the general theme of what I'm doing now,
I'm eliminating things or minimizing things
that are unimportant to me
or work or life commitments that are unimportant to me
and slowly slotting in more and more things
that are important to me.
And I think that's the most important sentence
of my entire video.
I think that's one of the most important sentences
that I've ever said to you guys because
it's had such a profound impact on me.
And again, I'll say it again,
remove as many unimportant things from your life as you can
and then add in as many as the important things as you can.
It sounds really simple, but when you start to do this,
you'll be amazed at just how much happy you are
and how much better of a life you have.
Keep simplifying, minimizing, and eliminating
until the only things left in your life
are the things that are important to you
or the things that you absolutely have to do.
Simplify your life until that drawer is tidy
so you can come home, put things in it, close the door,
and then later, open it up and find out exactly
what you need from that drawer and get it out easily.
I honestly think this is probably one of the most
important videos I'll ever make
but it will probably be honestly like a less popular video
just because I'm not talking about, you know, X, Y, Z,
tips to have a more productive life
or something like that, but I just wanted to make this video
because it's had such a profound impact on me.
If I help maybe just one or two of you guys
live a happier kind of better life,
that's good enough for me.
Well, I hope this video is helpful
and if you've enjoyed this kinda more unusual post from me,
unusual video for me, you might enjoy my newsletter.
And in this weekly newsletter, which I send out
every Sunday, I include something interesting
that I learned during that week
and I dive a little deeper into touchy feely topics
as well as talking about actionable tips
that I've started implementing to improve my life.
Like for example, in my most recent newsletter,
I talked about my favorite morning and evening routine
that I'm doing right now every single day
because it's just so awesome.
The newsletter also has my favorite thing
that I read of the week, the favorite thing
I watched of the week, and my favorite thing
that I listened to of the week,
which is usually a podcast.
So if you're interested in getting that newsletter
every Sunday with something I learned that week
and three awesome links, head to zhighley.com/newsletter
or click on the link on the screen and subscribe today.
But that is it, thank you so much for watching
and I will see you on the next one.
Browse More Related Video
50 Things I Quit To Simplify My Life | Minimalism
Essentialism // 15 Lessons That Transformed My Life
9 Crucial Tips To Consider Before Starting Your Minimalist Journey | Minimalism In Hindi π
COMO SER MAIS PRODUTIVO | A TRΓADE DO TEMPO | Christian Barbosa | Resumo Animado do Livro
How to Note-Take and Remember MORE + Study LESS
Do This Every Morning And Night !! Q&A #10 With Sandeep Maheshwari
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)