This is the buckshot approach. Buckshot spreads into many little pellets when it leaves the shotgun — most will miss the target, but that’s OK, because only some of the pellets need to hit. That’s fine for hunting, but for living, I’d recommend the rifle approach.

The rifle shoots a much more targeted bullet, with much more powerful impact. You aim at a specific target, and you don’t waste as much energy.

A friend who was going camping took a truckload of equipment and supplies, because he had no idea which equipment he’d need. A more experienced friend only needed a 9-lb. backpack, because experience told him what was necessary and what was extraneous. He was able to make a little count for much more than a whole truckload, because he knew how to target the important things.

Another friend who was launching his first online product spent hours and hours (months actually) putting a lot of effort into creating tons of bonuses, a really long sales page, a really massive product, all kinds of promotions and giveaways, and much more. He wasn’t sure what would be important, so he did everything possible, because he was afraid he wouldn’t do well if he missed something important. When I launch a product, I keep it simple, but try to make what little I do provide very valuable. I do very little to launch the product, because I’ve learned that doesn’t matter as much as creating a great product and having readers who trust me. I do less, but I know what matters, and focus on that.

Fear of missing something important causes us to use the buckshot approach, and do too much. Most of what we do will miss, but we console ourselves that something will hit the important target. The problem is, we don’t know what the target is, and using the buckshot approach means we’ll never get good at finding the target, nor good at aiming.

The rifle approach means you’ll be forced to figure out what’s important. You’ll be forced to get good at aiming, with practice.

This is minimalism.

The types of reading seem to grow all the time: from traditional paper books, newspapers and magazines to blog posts, online news articles, forums, Tweets, Facebook updates, emails, email newsletters, and much more. Each of these types of reading presents an ever-growing and often overwhelming reading list that we must keep up with: an email inbox, an RSS reader with the latest blog posts, various news websites, a long list of status updates and forum posts, and so on.

Keeping up with these lists becomes near impossible, a full-time job. My solution is to give up on keeping up — it’s a self-invented need, not a real one — and to pare down as much as possible. So I pare my list of blogs to the essential, I barely do email, I have only a few friends on Twitter and Facebook. So I’m not the most up-to-date guy, and so I don’t make everyone happy by being their online friend … life seems to go on.

Even with a pared-down reading list, reading can still be a challenge: how do you read without distractions? It’s incredibly difficult, as each reading form pulls us away from the others, and alerts and updates are coming in all the time, not to mention other forms of communication like phones, IM, and (gasp) real people trying to get our attention.

Here’s how I find undistracted reading:

1. Books. My favorite type of reading is the novel. I rarely read non-fiction books, even though I’m a non-fiction author myself. And while the iPad and Kindle each present lovely ways of reading books, they also each contain various distractions. And so I still love the paper book, for its simplicity and lack of other things to do while you’re reading it. Close the computer, turn off the phones, find a quiet spot, and just read. Try to do it in large chunks, like 30 minutes or an hour or more, and you can get lost in another world. Simply beautiful.

2. Blog posts. I love to read blogs, though I keep up with fewer these days than I did a few years ago. I’ve pared my reading list down and use Google Reader to quickly get through the list each day. When I find a post I want to read in full, without distractions, I open it in a new browser window — not a browser tab, but a window, so no other tabs show — and use the Readability bookmarklet or similar to focus only on the text. Then I read without switching to anything else until I’m done.

Here on mnmlist, and there on Zen Habits, I’ve already pared my posts down to just the text. I’ve done the work for you, for undistracted reading. On other blogs, you have to do some work — install the Readability bookmarklet, hit a button when you want to read an article without distractions. It’s OK. A little hard work never killed anyone, except my Uncle Murray but I think it was more his complaining about hard work that did it.

3. Focused browsing. If you open a bunch of tabs, keep things focused by using a little service I discovered called Instapaper (I don’t think anyone else knows about this, so feel free to leave 5 cents on your way out for the tip). Instapaper all your open tabs for reading later, then read one at a time when you have some undistracted reading time.

4. Email, Twitter, Facebook. Basically, open these as little as possible. They lead to distractions for other reading, for work, etc. Open them for 5 minutes, do a quick scan, post an update or reply if necessary, then get out. Only open one at a time, do them with focus, and close the tab. Give yourself some time to do this on a regular basis — 5 minutes at the top of each hour, or at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., or whatever works for you.

5. News articles. I don’t read a lot of news sites. They tend to lead to lots of distractions. But when I do, I open a few of the articles that look interesting, scan them, and Instapaper the ones that I want to read later. Then I’ll plow through Instapaper with some undistracted reading, when I have time.

In this society of more is better, there is a non-stop barrage of words, images, noise. There is a frenetic blur of movement, as everyone tries to be busy, busy, busy. There is more waste than ever: wasted energy use, gas-guzzling cars, trash generated by the truckload.

We need economy.

Economy of movement

If we try to make each action count, we’ll do less, but focus on more important actions. We’ll choose carefully, be picky. Favor stillness over a buzz of activity.

Economy of words

Instead of saying whatever comes to our minds, whenever it comes to mind, instead of engaging in a flurry of digital messages and updates all day long, we should make each word count. Value silence and the space between speech. Go a day or two between emails or tweets.

Economy of materials

If excess packaging is waste, and buying more than we need produces even more waste, how can we eliminate both? Can we aim to own as little as we need, and to slowly reduce those needs? Can we buy less packaged goods, and aim for fresh, for homemade, for local?

—

This is the important economy. It was highly valued by our grandparents, but somewhere along the way we’ve lost this value. Let’s revive it.

As a minimalist, what do you do for fun? That’s the only trouble I foresee should I decide to embrace the minimalist ideal.

This brings up a common myth about minimalism — that we have empty lives, and can’t do anything fun because we try to eschew consumerism and all the spending that entails.

The purpose of entertainment

A brief discussion first: what is entertainment, and why do we need it?

Entertainment is usually meant to distract, to make us feel that our lives are exciting — distractions such as TV, movies, carnivals, going shopping, playing video games, drinking and partying. And while these each have other merits (a good film is a work of art), often they serve to distract us from work or other difficulties.

Unfortunately, this fun is only temporary, and often empty. And as soon as we’re off that temporary high, we must find a new high from entertainment, ad nauseum.

I believe if you find contentment, you don’t need entertainment. That’s not to say you’d never watch TV or good films or go to parties or theme parks … but you wouldn’t need them for entertainment. You wouldn’t go shopping to fill an empty space in your life, to fill the need of finding happiness, because you’re already content and don’t have that empty space or need.

Finding contentment is learning to appreciate what you already have, learning the concept of having enough, learning to enjoy the simple things. It isn’t an overnight thing, but as you become more conscious of it, you’ll find more contentment and need to be entertained less.

Minimalist fun

So the question remains: what do I do for fun?

I’ve made space for what’s most important to me, by eliminating the unnecessary. That’s what minimalism is really about, at its core, not emptying your life.

What’s important to me: family, writing, reading, running. And so my fun is finding time for those four things.

Some examples of things I’ve done in the last week for fun:

• Had a small family get-together for my daughter’s birthday
• Went on a walking date with my wife, eating near the beach and walking to get coffee & watch a movie
• Ran three days a week with my sister
• Worked out with my nephew, doing full-body weight exercises
• Read with my kids
• Took short walks with my daughter
• Read a novel, magazine, online articles
• Had lunch with my mom & sister
• Helped my mom in her garden
• Wrote blog posts and some of my new book
• Rode my bike to meet a friend for coffee

Those are just a few examples, but you get the idea. They’re not everyone’s idea of fun, but I enjoy them.

Yes: constraints force us to be creative.

Often, constraints, limitations, are seen as a negative, but to me they’re a feature. They might restrict freedom and force sacrifices, sure, but they also force us to choose. And to work within and around the constraints.

When we must work within limits, we have to figure out how to make those work. This forces us to think outside our normal mode of thinking, to think of new ways to make things work.

Consider:

• When we have a small home, we must find new ways of living within that small space, instead of being lazy and doing whatever we want with lots of space.
• When we must use fewer words, we must choose them wisely, instead of spilling them out carelessly.
• When we eat fewer calories, we must choose more nutritious and yet tasteful foods, to make them count.
• When we have less storage space, we must choose only the most important things, and make do with less.
• When we limit ourselves to four sentences per email, we must say the essential, creatively.

I could go on all day, but that would be contrary to my point. What constraints can you place on yourself, and how can you work creatively with them?

I want to gently say to them — and to my past self — “Stop making things so complicated!”

I’m not going to criticize how other people do things in this post, but rather talk about things I did wrong in the past.

The biggest problem came when starting a new endeavor — starting running, trying to get organized or productive, starting blogging, getting out of debt, even the act of simplifying.

I’d always make things so complicated — looking back on it, I either want to cringe or laugh. And yet, I know that life is a learning process, and those early mistakes helped me to get to where I am. Even now, I make tons of mistakes, learning as I go.

Example 1: I wanted to be more productive, so I learned GTD (Getting Things Done, an excellent book by David Allen). I bought tools that other GTDers recommended, set up a series of lists, tried out a couple dozen different software (and paper) approaches to lists. Every GTDer knows this problem. GTD, and many other productivity systems, can end up being complicated.

Today, my advice to my former self is: stop making it complicated. Productivity, such as I care about it today, is simple. You pick the most important thing you want to do today, clear distractions, and start on it. You don’t even need a list, though having a list for remembering what else needs to be done later is fine. Have one list, but don’t fiddle with it. Just pick one thing, and start working.

Example 2: When I wanted to get out of debt, I tried various financial software, I made spreadsheets, I made schedules for payments, I tracked everything, and so on. It was complicated, believe me.

Now I know it’s simple. First, stop the unnecessary spending (I know, easier said than done, but once you learn to recognize it and stop your impulse urges, it’s not complicated). Second, put everything you can to one debt at a time (first creating an emergency fund of at least $500), pay off that one debt, then pay off the next.

Example 3: When I started blogging in January 2007, I looked at dozens of different blogging platforms/software, themes, ad platforms, ebooks, articles on every possible blogging topic. This is natural, as I was just learning the field.

But today, I know it’s simple: you pick a topic, and write. Then hit publish. Share your stuff via Twitter or Facebook if you like, but don’t worry so much about that. Just write interesting and/or useful stuff, and people will find you eventually. Just write, and publish.

When you start something new, sure, there’s a learning process. But also realize that while the learning is good, the doing doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Find the simplest way to do things, and just start doing it. You’ll learn by doing.

We must first identify what’s most important to us, what we’re passionate about, what we want to spend our time on. And then we must focus on those things first.

But the distractions. They get in the way of this focusing, no?

And so we must kill the distractions with the zeal of a maniacal dictator. Without all the actual bloodiness, you know.

Without distractions, you’ll be able to focus. You’ll find peace. You’ll find time for doing what you love.

• Cut back your social networking to network (or two at the most) – including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, forums, etc. These are hugely distracting.
• Cut back on your social networking “friends”. Stick to your actual friends and colleagues. Networking with thousands of people you don’t know is superficial and distracting.
• Limit time on social networking, email to specified periods. Set the times you allow yourself to do these activities – from 1-2 p.m., for example.
• Do less email. Start by sending less. Check email less often. Use the phone or face-to-face conversations when possible.
• Shut down the internet to work. Disconnect, and work without distractions.
• Separate consuming from creating. Reading and networking and emailing are different from actually creating. Do them at separate times.
• Set a limited reading time. If you read a lot on the web, or RSS feeds, set limits and do it at specified times.
• Shut off notifications. Email, Blackberry, IM, whatever. Shut em down.
• Clear away icons on your desktop. File them all in one folder, and use an app launcher such as LaunchBar or Launchy.
• Clear your actual desk.
• Use music to block out your surroundings.
• Get away from the computer, spend time with actual people.
• Shut off the smartphone. Seriously.
• Single-task and focus.
• Focus on the most important tasks first, before you get distracted.
• Set limits on your work hours. If your time is limited, you’ll find ways to make the most of that limited time.

There’s no one way, of course, but one thing to consider is whether eating huge amounts of food, super-sized fast food meals and mountains of fried cheesy food that you find at chain restaurants … whether this American style of eating is consistent with the minimalist philosophy.

I say no. A minimalist would more likely eat less, prepare food simply with few ingredients, eat mindfully, and eat sustainably.

Here’s how.

• Eat less. If you’re overweight, eating less is absolutely the best thing you can do. If you’re underweight, eating less isn’t a good idea. But the Okinawans, reknowned for their incredible health and longetivity, do so well in part because they eat fewer calories than most people. They stop when they’re 80% full. I’ve been doing this with great results. Trick is to cut back on your portions a little at a time, and your stomach slowly grows smaller. It’s not hard if you do it slowly, gradually. Don’t starve yourself, but learn to eat until you’re almost full — after 5 minutes, you’ll realize you really are full.
• Fewer ingredients. Try three-ingredient recipes (other than spices, oil & water) — there are lots of them on the web. I like oatmeal, nuts & fruit (with cinnamon); black bean chili with tomatoes (and cilantro, cayenne, chiles, salt); black beans & quinoa; soy yogurt, berries & nuts; coconut flakes, fruit & soymilk; apples & almonds. You get the idea.
• Simple preparation. The above dishes require very little preparation. If you really love cooking, this tip won’t be for you, but for those who normally eat out or eat packaged foods, it’s important to find foods that don’t require a lot of prep time. You want to do little work with few ingredients — just fresh, real food that is flavorful and healthy.
• Eating mindfully. Instead of eating while you watch TV, try paying attention to each bite, savoring your food and getting the most out of it while eating less.
• Eating sustainably. A plug for veganism, which is more sustainable than meat and dairy because plants require fewer resources (yes, even fewer than free-range animals). If everyone became vegan, we’d have more than enough food to feed the world, and we’d use fewer resources with less carbon emissions.

As Americans, we eat way too much (and waste too much food as well). As someone who was at least 60 lbs. overweight only a few years ago, I packed away the food as much as anyone else. I know what it’s like to eat entire pizzas by myself, eat super-sized fast-food meals plus extra nuggets and desserts and more, finish the gigantic heaping plates of food that the restaurants serve these days.

It’s too much, and it’s led to an obesity epidemic of alarming proportions. A large part of our healthcare crisis is because of our overeating.

A good part of the solution is to simply eat less.

A separate discussion should be about what we eat — organic, real foods, preferably grown locally, cooked at home with a minimum of processing and packaging. But today, I’d just like to talk about eating less.

It’s something I’ve focused on in my own life, especially recently, as I look at not only quality of food but quantity. I think we’ve been conditioned to eat without thinking, and in doing so to eat way too much. To stuff ourselves until we’re gorged. Which of course isn’t healthy at all.

My focus has been on eating until I’m not quite full. I eat until I feel like I want a little more, and then pause. Breathe. In about 10 minutes, I realize I’m satisfied and don’t need to eat any more.

Some tips if you’d like to accomplish this:

• Only take a small portion to start with. Don’t heap the plate.
• Eat slowly and mindfully.
• Pause between bites. Savor the food.
• Stop before you’re full, and wait.
• Drink water with your food.
• Eat every 2-3 hours, or embrace the hunger and wait a little longer.
• If you get hungry again soon after, eat a small snack — a fruit, some veggies, a handful of nuts.
• Cut back slowly. Don’t try to eat like a bird at first. Just eat a little less for now, adjust, and then cut back a little more.

Over time, you’ll change, and be able to eat less. You’ll be healthier (assuming you were eating too much before) and lighter and living more sustainably.

Hi Kris … thanks for your thoughtful response! It actually gives me a chance to clear up some misconceptions.

Namely, you misunderstood a couple of points:

1. I didn’t mention reading comprehension in my post and if that was implied, I apologize. Slowing down was to make the process of reading — and of working in general — more enjoyable. That’s the main point of slowing down, not to comprehend more.

When we slow down, we move at a more leisurely pace, we don’t feel so rushed, we’re not trying to cram too many things into our day. And most importantly, we have time to think about what’s important, rather than just doing things as fast as we can.

2. I didn’t say everything had to be read at the same rate. I just said to read slower. This can be a different rate of slowness for different types of materials, but the basic point — to slow down to enjoy life more — remains the same.

3. Productivity as you’ve defined it is definitely the traditional sense. I’m rejecting that traditional definition, and have for awhile now. Read some of my posts on Zen Habits for more on this. I basically believe the traditional definition of productivity — to increase our rate of output — is outdated and based on an industrial model, where workers were machines and management tried to increase their productivity and thereby increase profits. I reject this — workers are not machines, but creative, imaginative humans with hopes and goals and the desire for freedom and happiness.

And so, I believe productivity shouldn’t be to output at a faster rate, but to lead to achieving things, to freedom, to happiness, to doing what you love. That’s why effectiveness is more important than rate — if you focus on what’s important, then you can get great things done, and do them in less time because you’re not trying to do too much.

Thanks for the opportunity to clarify my thoughts!

Leo