Harassed? Maybe it’s time to simplify your life

You could make today, the second day of January, the first day of the rest of your life.

I plan to make today a new beginning. Today, I plan to start simplifying my life.

A lot of us waste time on non-essentials – like the 10 minutes I sometimes spend in meditation before my closet, waiting to see the light (Ah! It’s magenta again today!).

A lot of us waste time worrying about the small stuff, leaving us with less energy to tackle the bigger stuff. What is small stuff? For Richard Carlson, Ph.d, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… and it’s all small stuff, what won’t matter to you in a year is "small stuff."

Some people work more than eight hours each day, six or seven days a week because of ambition, attitude or necessity. But the good news is, we don’t have to stop working, but we can simplify our work life without sacrificing results.

There are ways to change the way you work so you have more time to live. Without sacrificing the quality of your work, you can improve the quality of the time you spend with your loved ones. Who was it that said that it is important not only to have a livelihood, but also a life?

I picked up this book Simplify Your Work Life, written by Elaine St. James, author of the bestseller Simplify Your Life, at National Bookstore. St. James used to work 60 hours a week, she barely had time for family and friends, and rarely took a vacation. A lot of us who love our jobs don’t realize this is happening to us until we wake up one day and find out that our little girl no longer likes Barbie but Bobby, and that the little boy who wouldn’t let go of your hand now wants to hold someone else’s.

St. James started to simplify her life by getting rid of the clutter in her house (a tip I learned from Oprah: To minimize clutter in a room, make sure only three major activities take place there on a daily basis). She streamlined her cooking and other household chores. She minimized her wardrobe (a lesson harder than Calculus, methinks!). Finally, she cut back on her work schedule. She dropped her real estate business. Seeing the changes in her life, people started asking her how she did it so she wrote a book, Simplify Your Life. When the book became a bestseller and she was engulfed in a flurry of speaking engagements and promotions, her life threatened to become complicated again. She resisted that.

St. James also clarifies that simplifying one’s life doesn’t mean, "retreating to a cabin in the woods and leading a dull, inactive existence." "Rather, cutting back your hectic work pace gives you the opportunity to make sure you’re doing work you love."

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Among her tips, which are discussed in detail in the 298-page book (the tips are very specific, and with real-life examples), are the following:

*Leave your briefcase at the office. "If you’re unable to complete the work you feel you must do during your regular business day, something’s out of whack," says St. James.

Some companies (of course, those not related to news or medical services and utilities) are not impressed when you do overtime work regularly. To them, it simply means that you are not able to accomplish your task in the given period.

*Eliminate your commute or look for a place of work near your home. Easier said than done, though. She suggests "telecommuting," a 21st century phenomenon wherein one works at home on certain days and just e-mails or faxes one’s work. Some advertising agencies and publications allow this, and with positive results.

*Learn to seize time. Time is seldom handed out. You have to seize it for yourself. You have to make time. St. James says one way to seize time is to get into the habit of taking five minutes at the end of the day to clean up your desk and get it ready for the next day’s work. That way, you already have a head start the next day, and it could make you win your career’s big race.

Another reason you should do this, says the author, is that, "It sends a signal to your psyche that you’re wrapping up work for the day" and preparing yourself for other activities – like being a full-time mom.

*Use phone technology to your advantage. Don’t be a slave to your phone and your callers. "When people can reach you 24/7, they will," says St. James. Although we don’t give our cell phone number away to just anyone, you’d be surprised how it gets around. I think that when this happens, and phone calls and text messages stress you out more than help you, just be honest with the caller. When I am certain the caller is following up a press release, or requesting an interview or a photo shoot and it’s a Sunday or past 10 p.m. on a weekday, I don’t take the call.

As St. James points out, "All self-respecting businesses have business hours. Let callers know what your work hours are, then be firm." (Of course, this does not hold true when you work for news media. The midnight call is to be expected.)

*Minimize the paper glut. St. James says close to 90 percent of the paper you keep in files is never used or looked at again. So try to handle incoming papers just once, and decide which action to take.

*Get organized. The author reminds us of the cardinal rule of organization: Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place except when you’re using it.

Before New Year’s Eve, I revamped my cabinet(s)! I started with my kitchen cabinets (literally), and put in a lot of thought to the revamp. I ranked my stuff in the order of usefulness and frequency of use and put them within reach. Those I hardly used I stored in the dark corners of the cabinet. Maybe the President could learn a thing or two here about revamping the Cabinet

*Take vacations! Perhaps this isn’t the right advice to give after the long vacation you’ve just had. Just remember what Time magazine once reported, and which was quoted in Simplify Your Work Life: "A study of 12,338 men ages 35 to 57 found that, with other factors controlled, men who took annual vacations were 21 percent less likely to die during the 16-year study period than non-vacationers – and 32 percent less likely to die of coronary heart disease."

So work hard when you must, but take well-deserved breaks.

A simpler, happier new year to all!